No DUI in crash that killed Biden's 1st wife, but he's implied otherwise

[Desertdog]

1972 crash still haunts driver's family
No DUI in crash that killed Biden's 1st wife, but he's implied otherwise
By RACHEL KIPP " The News Journal " September 4, 2008

Since his vice presidential nomination, Joe Biden's 2007 statement that a "guy who allegedly ... drank his lunch" and drove the truck that struck and killed his first wife and daughter has gained national media traction.


Alcohol didn't play a role in the 1972 crash, investigators found. But as recently as last week, the syndicated TV show Inside Edition aired a clip from 2001 of Biden describing the accident to an audience at the University of Delaware and saying the truck driver "stopped to drink instead of drive."

The senator's statements don't jibe with news and law enforcement reports from the time, which cleared driver Curtis C. Dunn, who died in 1999, of wrongdoing.

"To see it coming from [Biden's] mouth, I just burst into tears," Dunn's daughter, Glasgow resident Pamela Hamill, 44, said Wednesday. "My dad was always there for us. Now we feel like we should be there for him because he's not here to defend himself."

Biden spokesman David Wade said Wednesday that the senator "fully accepts the Dunn family's word that these rumors were false."

It's unclear who first suggested alcohol was a factor in the crash, but since Barack Obama tapped Biden to be his running mate on Aug. 23, The New York Times, National Public Radio and The Economist have run stories that characterized Dunn as a drunken driver.

"The rumor about alcohol being involved by either party, especially the truck driver, is incorrect," said Jerome O. Herlihy, a Delaware Superior Court judge who was chief deputy attorney general and worked with crash investigators in 1972.

"If it were some part of a cause of the accident, there would have been a charge, simply because if you're driving under the influence and kill someone in the process -- whether it's the wife of a U.S. senator or anybody else -- there's going to be a charge," he said.

Herlihy said investigators discussed several possible causes for the crash, including that Biden's first wife, Neilia, turned her head and didn't see the oncoming truck as she exited the intersection of Limestone and Valley roads on Dec. 18, 1972.

Neither Biden's book nor his campaign Web site directly addresses the alcohol issue, but the senator has done so publicly on at least two occasions.

The New York Times reported the 2007 crowd at the University of Iowa grew silent as Biden gave his version of what happened that day.

Continued At;
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080904/NEWS02/809040379/1006/NEWS02

[Standing Wolf]

If he were a Republicrat, the snivelers and whiners at the New York Times would be having the time of their lives over his life.

[Hawkmoon]

A politician saying something that's not true?

I'm shocked ... absolutely shocked. Whatever is the world coming to when politicians don't speak the truth?

[Monkeyleg]

Not the first politician to use a dead relative as a prop.

I wonder why the Dunn family hasn't sued.

[De Selby]

Not the first politician to use a dead relative as a prop.

I wonder why the Dunn family hasn't sued.

They didn't meet a lawyer who was desperate enough for cash to misrepresent some odd chance of winning a lawsuit.

Honestly, I do not see the controversy here-he thinks the guy was drinking, and unless this is connected to some weird MADD event or something similar, I'm not sure how it has anything to do with his political antics.

The article is oddly vague about the case too-it seems to only evidence offered is a Judge who says "there would have been a charge" had there been alcohol.

[Monkeyleg]

"...he thinks the guy was drinking..."

After 25 years, you'd think he'd know whether the other driver had been drinking or not. If it were my wife, I'd sure as hell find out.

When he drags out the story of his late wife on the campaign trail, it's political. If he wanted it to be private, he'd have shut his pie hole about it for the last 26 years.

[De Selby]

"...he thinks the guy was drinking..."

After 25 years, you'd think he'd know whether the other driver had been drinking or not. If it were my wife, I'd sure as hell find out.

When he drags out the story of his late wife on the campaign trail, it's political. If he wanted it to be private, he'd have shut his pie hole about it for the last 26 years.

He may have believed it all along and thought the cops were mistaken, or that they just didn't care-not really enough info to say from the article, but this can hardly be called a centerpiece of his campaign...it's the first I've ever seen of it, and I wouldn't be surprised to find that most people who come across this piece didn't even know this accident occurred.

If it were more central to his campaign, like Edwards's story about his son's death and his wife's illness, I'd be much more critical, but this snippet just doesn't seem to be a real campaign-making story of Biden's. 

[Monkeyleg]

Shootinstudent, I've heard Biden mention this many times in every presidential campaign he's run in (what is it now, 16 campaigns?). He's embellished on stories about his life so often that it's probably difficult for him to remember who he really is.

[De Selby]

Shootinstudent, I've heard Biden mention this many times in every presidential campaign he's run in (what is it now, 16 campaigns?). He's embellished on stories about his life so often that it's probably difficult for him to remember who he really is.

Can't argue with that-he's a stereotypical politician, for sure. 

[MicroBalrog]

Guys, explain this to me, please, I'm a bit confused.

What benefit does Biden gain from doing this? I don't doubt this story, I'm just dumbfounded as to why someone would come up  with such a strange lie.

How does the claim his wife was killed by a drunk  driver rather than a non-drunk driver help Biden politically? Sympathy?

[Stand_watie]

Guys, explain this to me, please, I'm a bit confused.

What benefit does Biden gain from doing this? I don't doubt this story, I'm just dumbfounded as to why someone would come up  with such a strange lie.

How does the claim his wife was killed by a drunk  driver rather than a non-drunk driver help Biden politically? Sympathy?

     I'm guessing here, that the context of his discussing this is him patting himself on the back for some sort of anti-drinking/driving legislation.

[Jamisjockey]

Not the first politician to use a dead relative as a prop.

I wonder why the Dunn family hasn't sued.

They didn't meet a lawyer who was desperate enough for cash to misrepresent some odd chance of winning a lawsuit.

Honestly, I do not see the controversy here-he thinks the guy was drinking, and unless this is connected to some weird MADD event or something similar, I'm not sure how it has anything to do with his political antics.

The article is oddly vague about the case too-it seems to only evidence offered is a Judge who says "there would have been a charge" had there been alcohol.

Um, because it generates more sympathy. 

[Stand_watie]

..The article is oddly vague about the case too-it seems to only evidence offered is a Judge who says "there would have been a charge" had there been alcohol.

     You have to presume from the article that Justice O'Hearliy is truthful. Other than that, it's a reasonable presumption that the guy ".. who was chief deputy attorney general and worked with crash investigators in 1972"  would know the details of the investigation. Especially when you have Biden's own spokesperson dodging slander suits by agreeing with the truck drivers family

..Biden spokesman David Wade said Wednesday that the senator "fully accepts the Dunn family's word that these rumors were false."

[Silver Bullet]

Biden was sent packing the last time he ran for president due to plagiarism of papers he did in college:


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE3DB143FF93BA2575AC0A961948260

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., fighting to salvage his Presidential campaign, today acknowledged ''a mistake'' in his youth, when he plagiarized a law review article for a paper he wrote in his first year at law school.

Mr. Biden insisted, however, that he had done nothing ''malevolent,'' that he had simply misunderstood the need to cite sources carefully. And he asserted that another controversy, concerning recent reports of his using material from others' speeches without attribution, was ''much ado about nothing.''

Mr. Biden, the 44-year-old Delaware Democrat who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, addressed these issues at the Capitol in a morning news conference he had called expressly for that purpose. The news conference was held just before he presided over the third day of hearings on the nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court.

To buttress his assertions of sincerity and openness, Mr. Biden released a 65-page file, obtained by the Senator from the Syracuse University College of Law, that he said contained all the records of his years there. It disclosed relatively poor grades in college and law school, mixed evaluations from teachers and details of the plagiarism.

I still havent seen any references to this recently in the liberalMedia.

[De Selby]

Guys, explain this to me, please, I'm a bit confused.

What benefit does Biden gain from doing this? I don't doubt this story, I'm just dumbfounded as to why someone would come up  with such a strange lie.

How does the claim his wife was killed by a drunk  driver rather than a non-drunk driver help Biden politically? Sympathy?

I don't see it either-coupled with the fact that this has not been a centerpiece (or even a widely known piece) of his campaign, I'm left scratching my head at the controversy.

[Jamisjockey]

Guys, explain this to me, please, I'm a bit confused.

What benefit does Biden gain from doing this? I don't doubt this story, I'm just dumbfounded as to why someone would come up  with such a strange lie.

How does the claim his wife was killed by a drunk  driver rather than a non-drunk driver help Biden politically? Sympathy?

I don't see it either-coupled with the fact that this has not been a centerpiece (or even a widely known piece) of his campaign, I'm left scratching my head at the controversy.

I disagree.  I've seen the story of his life several times from several sources right after he was announced as the Veep.  I think the DUI aspect makes it sound even more tragic and makes the listener more sympathetic.  Not a major piece, but he has no right to slander the late Mr. Dunn.  Proof of his (lack of) character I suppose.  But okay, keep defending him SS, it shows your character, too.

[RocketMan]

Biden's latest embellishment is telling everyone how his helicopter was "forced down" during a trip in Afghanistan.  What this is intended to imply without elaboration, of course, is that he came under enemy fire.
A little digging into the incident reveals that the helicopter he, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., were on made a precautionary landing due to weather.
He's a real piece of work, alright.

[qdemn7]

Biden is a typical blowhard politician who loves to hear himself talk, just like Bill Clinton. They're the biggest egotists in the world, even bigger than actors. It's always about "me, me, me me, and what I did, and why, and where and when and how and....". People who never can turn off their mouths frequently talk themselves into trouble. Unfortunately we seem be to be headed toward 8 years, or more, of Biden running his head.