Today, David Harsanyi continues his time-honored tradition of taking note of the absurd stories (i.e., lies) that Joe Biden tells about his personal and professional life. He points out that it strains credulity for the Democratic nominee to claim that his working-class Catholic father told his son, “Joey, it’s simple. They love each other” in reference to two men kissing on the streets of 1950s Scranton. Harsanyi notes that despite being taught by his almost unbelievably open-minded father that love is love, Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996. But that’s far from the only evidence we have that Biden didn’t take his father’s words to heart. After all, Biden mused in 1973 that his “gut reaction” to the idea of homosexuals working for the federal government was that they would be “security risks.” As recently as 2006, Biden defended his vote for DOMA. Asked if he would support gay marriage during the 2008 vice presidential debate, Biden unreservedly answered in the negative: “No. Barack Obama nor I[sic] support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage.”
That means that if we are to take Biden’s story at face value, we also have to conclude that little Joey grew up to reject his father’s view for 50 years out of either his own moral convictions (doubtful) or because it was politically convenient to do so (likely).