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COLUMBIA - Recalling the nearly 30 years they served together in Congress, Vice President Joe Biden praised U.S. Rep. John Spratt as “a graceful man who has more decency, and a more powerful intellect, than almost anybody I’ve worked with.”
Biden spoke Friday at a lunchtime fundraiser at the South Carolina State Museum, where 150 invited guests donated to Spratt for his contest against Republican challenger Mick Mulvaney.
The vice president noted Spratt’s role in the Balanced Budget Agreement of 1997. Sadly, Biden said, much of the work came unraveled during the Bush Administration.
Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he talks about his good friend former U.S. Sen. Ernest Fritz Hollings during the dedication ceremony of the new Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library, Friday, July 23, 2010, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
STORY: VP Biden dedicates USC's Hollings Library
“This man engineered a balanced budget,” Biden said, pointing toward Spratt. “These guys, our opponents, talking about balanced budgets and deficits is like an arsonist lecturing us on fire safety.”
Mulvaney fired back at Democrats on Friday, noting that Spratt’s Budget Committee failed to pass a traditional budget resolution this year for the first time since a modern budget law was enacted in 1974.
In an interview on Charlotte radio station WBT-1110, Mulvaney suggested Biden and Spratt skipped campaigning in York County because they have little support there.
National Republican campaign operatives circulated press memos Friday labeling Spratt as "embattled" and asking whether Biden would also stump for U.S. Senate nominee Alvin Greene during his visit.
To overcome a tough political climate, Biden said Democrats need to spend the next three months explaining their policies in everyday terms.
“Here’s the problem-- we’ve been working so hard to get these major new building blocks laid down,” Biden said. “They are so big, so heavy, that the American people don’t understand what’s in it for them yet. Now that the hard lifting is done, we’re going to spend the next 90 days going out explaining to people exactly what it means to them.’
Biden stopped by the fundraiser after delivering keynote remarks at a dedication ceremony for the new Ernest F. Hollings library at the University of South Carolina.
Analysts predict a tough race for Spratt, first elected in 1982 to represent the Fifth District, which includes all or parts of 14 counties. Noting that his motorcade passed a Tea Party protest on the way to the venue, Biden portrayed the rally as an example of how the Republican Party has changed.
“Today’s Republican Party is not your father’s Republican Party,” he said. “It’s the party of the Tea Party, some of whom I passed outside. I’m not questioning their integrity. I’m questioning their judgment.”
Several notable S.C. Democrats were in the crowd, including gubernatorial nominee Vince Sheheen, Education Superintendent Jim Rex and U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.
After the 30-minute speech, Spratt and the vice president shook hands along a rope line as the speakers played “Only in America” by country duo Brooks & Dunn.
Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/07/23/2332162/biden-praises-spratt-as-graceful.html#ixzz0uYOETM8V
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