I was walking through the Capitol for a different reason, when I saw a little scrum around Sen. Biden holding forth about John Bolton a while ago. So I stuck my head in and asked him whether he believes Melody Townsel. He began a song and dance, and referred to a contemporaneous witness. I asked him what witness he was referring to. He wouldn’t say, but urged me to come to the hearing tomorrow. Then he said, “Whether or not he threw a paper across the room, I don’t know.” He kept on saying in various forms, “I don’t know” and that “it’s not the only thing out there” (although no other witnesses have alleged that Bolton chased and threw things at them). But he added that Bolton knocking on her door and slipping papers under her door was plausible: “If you ask me if that’s believable, I think it’s believable.” I piped up and asked whether shoving papers under someone’s door is disqualifying for the position of UN ambassador. He stopped, put his hand on my shoulder and gave me his best dose of senatorial disdain: “I’m not going to play your little game.” And let me tell you, when it comes to senatorial disdain, Biden is a real pro, who has had years of practice. (I have to work on my reportorial disdain to hold in reserve for such situations.) But the reason he wouldn’t answer goes to a serious point: the idea that the Democrats would actually vote against Bolton based on the Townsel allegations is so absurd, they can’t bring themselves to say it out loud. But neither can they afford to discount her allegations, because they need every possible thing to create a cloud around Bolton.