Drinks with The Bidens
That Night Out with Joe and Jill
(Photo from my campaign spaghetti feed, circa mid-80s)
Late one night in 1990, Joe and Jill Biden invited us to their table at the Robin’s Nest at the Willard Hotel. After attending a Les Miz performance at the National Theater, the Senate and US House couples had repaired to the bar and surprised ourselves to discover we had separately chosen identical venues that evening. Two years had passed since Joe’s first presidential campaign and, with it, my service with Congressman Peter Rodino and others as members of Candidate Joe’s informal congressional “kitchen cabinet.”
Alone without handlers or watchers, it was a rare moment of repose for four denizens of Washington, DC.
Joe loved the Les Mis song “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and its stirring cadence and lyrics (“We will not be slaves again!”). He confided that if he were to make another run for the White House, he would have found his “anthem.”
I wish President Joe would lead America with such an anthem today. He—and we—need it quite desperately.
I like idea of an anthem for Joe’s campaign and Do You Hear the People Sing is good, much better than I Dreamed a Dream.
I've seen pics of you at his 87 announcement , and in the CSPAN video his sister Val introduced you and the other six or so US Reps, int the front row at Wilmington Train depot. Sen Inouye spoke ("I left Fawn Hall to be here with Joe Biden" was the sound bite) I'm curious how you picked Biden when candidates included a then current US REP (Gephardt ho had lots of colleague support) and two former US Reps who were then n Senate (Gore and Simon ). Granted Gep. and Gore were a bit centrist for an OR Dem, but Simon was liberal, and a native Oregonian.