Senate chamber, November 2014
“Whereas the term ‘redskin’ is widely understood to refer to or imply a negative reference to Native American persons or peoples, or both …” the clerk had read just several minutes before. It’s a simple resolution that borrows some language from a House bill, a non-binding document expressing the deprecatory sense of the Senate that the Washington Redskins’ offensive nickname ought to be made history.
It’s 50-50, and the deciding vote is at hand. The one half of the Senate that signed a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell urging the Washington Football Team to get a new mascot has voted yea. The other half, which comprises some mix of individuals who don’t believe it’s the federal government’s place to exert influence on such matters or say “What controversy?” or enjoy the mire in which their state’s chief football rival finds itself (Cruz, Cornyn), has voted nay.
It is the prerogative of the vice-president in this instance to cast a deciding vote, and Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. sits at the presiding officer’s desk, gavel in hand, grin on his face, pointing at random lawmakers and making a face at them even if they don’t make one back. It’s a party. A Democratic one. He’s sacrificed court-side seats at the Washington Wizards basketball game for this.
Biden prepares to speak into his microphone and count himself among the moral majoritarian 51. But he pauses to recall his lines in the transcript of America’s racial dialogue.
“You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.”
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
“Romney said in the first 100 days he’s gonna let the big banks once again write their own rules — unchain Wall Street. They’re gonna pull y’all back in chains.”
“People would come to him and talk about what was happening to them at home in terms of foreclosures, in terms of bad loans that were being — I mean, these shylocks who took advantage of these women and men while overseas …”
“On the way back from Mumbai to go meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew, who most foreign policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.”
Biden shrugs off his thought bubble. Don’t worry. You got this, man.
“On this vote, the yeas are 50. The nays are 50,” he says into the hot mic. “The Senate being equally divided, the vice-president votes in the affirmative, and the motion on the resolution is agreed to.
“Now. Who wants to go catch the second half of this Bullets game with me?”
