Biden, Meet Bubala

Joe Biden is becoming MaryBubala writ large.

Bubala lost her job last month when she empty-headedly asked what she imagined was an innocent question and faced criticism for the racial baggage that it carried.

And now Biden’s political support’sgone shaky over remarks he made about some racist senators he worked with yearsago — a time he somehow remembers for its “civility.”

In Bubala’s case, in a foggy momentshe instantly regretted, she asked a question on WJZ’s Eyewitness News aboutBaltimore having three straight female African-American mayors, and how ithasn’t worked out too well for the city — and, therefore, should Baltimorevoters consider going in a “different direction.”

As if anybody would ask whether Marylandersshould have stopped voting for white males after the political scandals, yearsago, involving Dale Anderson, Joseph Alton, Marvin Mandel and, oh yeah, SpiroAgnew.

White males, every one.

Convicted of being crooks, every one.

But nobody would ask such aquestion of those white men. Because, in every one of those cases, race andgender had nothing to do with the individual human beings who screwed up – justas race and gender had nothing at all to do with the failings of Baltimore’slast three mayors.

In Biden’scase, he stirred up racial sensitivities the other night with some sentimentalreferences about former senators James O. Eastland, of Mississippi, and HermanTalmadge, of Georgia.

He invoked their names as measuresof a more “civilized” time in Washington politics.

Civilized, can you believe that?These are the civilized men who tried to consign African-Americans to lives ofsecond-class citizenship for the crime of skin color.

My memory’s not perfect, but Ican’t recall anybody with a three-digit IQ previously connecting Eastland and Talmadgewith “civility.” And that’s why Biden’s remark immediately drew flak from someof his Democratic presidential primary opponents.

That, and Biden adding, as hereportedly slipped into a comic Southern accent, in words to make everyoneflinch in embarrassment, that the racist Eastland “never called me ‘boy.’ Healways called me ‘son.’”

Oy.

Was Biden trying to call these mengreat Americans? Of course not. Was it a terrible “boy” story he told? Ofcourse. But Biden’s long history, in Congress and as vice president, says heknows better.

Just as Bubala’s previous history wasbenign.

But, like Bubala, Biden framed hisreference in a way that left him looking not just foolish but raciallyinsensitive.

Eastland and Talmadge were two ofthe worst relics of America’s shameful history of race-based cruelty.

But isn’t that exactly why Bidenused them as examples?

Wasn’t he saying: I had to dealwith the devils themselves — because the country’s needs came first?

If he’d said he worked with, say, BarakObama…so what? You’d expect that.

In Washington today, as Biden pointed out, “You look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”

In the old days, he said, “We gotthings done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. And we got things done. Wegot it finished.”

In our time of opencontentiousness, that’s where he brought up his “civility” comparison.

What he was saying should have beenmade clearer. If he could make the country better by talking with these twocreeps, as miserable as any two people on Capitol Hill, then why can’t we finda way to talk to each other today?

But his language was unclear andfoolish, and it’s costing him.

Joe Biden, meet Mary Bubala.

A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books, including “Tonight at 6: A Daily Show Masquerading as Local TV News” (Apprentice House). His most recent, “Front Stoops in the Fifties: Baltimore Legends Come of Age,” was reissued in paperback by the Johns Hopkins University Press.