JOE BIDEN, CPA – AT 5:53 P.M. ET:  Would you trust this man to do your taxes?  Joe Biden, self-declared expert on all things governmental, now asserts that New York City exaggerated the anticipated costs of holding terror trials.  From CBS:

NEW YORK (CBS) — It's a sign of just how angry the White House is at having its plans to hold terror trials in New York City thwarted.

Vice President Joe Biden took a swing at Mayor Michael Bloomberg, accusing him of inflating estimates of the trial's security costs.

Imaging telling Mayor Bloomberg he doesn't know how to count? Well, that's just what Vice President Biden did, charging that the mayor and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly exaggerated the cost of trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his terror pals in Manhattan.

Both Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly put the estimate at $200 million a year for five years, saying it would be an expensive proposition for the City.

Biden, however, disputes the numbers.

"The mayor came along and said the cost for providing security to hold this trial is x-hundreds of millions of dollars which I think is much more than would be needed," Biden said...

...City officials are irked at Biden's assertion.

"I will leave the security of New York City up to the mayor and police commissioner. I think Joe Biden should have talked to City officials. No city should have to put up with the burden and risk of the trial so the administration can have a terroristic pony show," said City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. (D-Queens).

COMMENT:  This is world-class dense on Biden's part.  First, who knows more about budgeting in new York, Mayor Bloomberg and superlative Police Commissioner Kelly, or Joe Biden?  Second, New York is angry enough at the administration for trying to put the show trials in the city.  Why do more damage?

Mr. one-heartbeat-away can't keep his mouth shut.  And the "sophisticates" of journalism said Sarah Palin would have been an embarrassment as vice president.  She would have been Margaret Thatcher compared to Joe.

February 15, 2010