You might remember reading about that long-running, violent feud in the late 1800’s between the Hatfields and the McCoys.
Well, without the violence (at least so far) but with a great deal of the bitterness, we now have the Pelosis and the Bidens: two families that have gone public with their immense dislike and distrust – some would call it outright hate – of each other.
What started this feud? No one knows for sure. But it is very clear what blew things up to their current toxic state: Nancy Pelosi’s involvement in pushing Joe Biden out the presidential-race door, after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
Joe Biden and, seemingly even moreso, Jill Biden (who clearly revels in her status as First Lady),are bitter about Pelosi’s involvement in his don’t- let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass-on-the-way-out dismissal from the nomination he had just won in the primaries. (Primaries that were set up to insure he won, I acknowledge, but he still did win, didn’t he?)
And the bitterness his dismissal generated has spread beyond the main players themselves. Read the beginning of Jonathan Martin’s article at msn.com and see for yourself:
Since breaking her hip in Europe last month, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi has been deluged with messages, flowers and calls of concern from heads of state, colleagues in both parties and even royalty, most notably Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Henri, who was hosting her when she fell and has been solicitous through her recovery.
Yet it’s who she has not heard from that’s most remarkable, and that has infuriated Pelosi’s friends and family: Joe and Jill Biden.
Fueling that anger is Jill Biden’s continued, and now public, nursing of a grudge toward Pelosi for pushing the president to withdraw from last year’s campaign.
“If I was Lady McBiden, I’d put on my big girl pants, play the long game and think about my husband’s legacy,” Alexandra Pelosi, the former speaker’s daughter, told me Saturday. “There aren’t that many people left in America who have something nice to say about Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi is one of them.” The younger Pelosi made clear she was speaking only for herself.
The deafening silence from the White House in response to a request for comment marks the culmination of the bitter feud between the president and onetime speaker, two of the age’s most prominent Democrats and the bookends of the party’s Obama-era high and Trump restoration low.
Lady McBiden? A reference to Lady Mac (not Mc, Alexandra) Beth, the self-aggrandizing, manipulating wife of MacBeth? That’s not what you’d call a sterling endorsement of Jill, is it?
Well, as I write this, Joe Biden has 27 more hours as President, Jill Biden has 27 more hours as first lady and Nancy Pelosi, age 84, is recovering from hip surgery. The Bidens are finished politically and Pelosi might as well be. So I guess that, in the great scheme of things, none of this matters to anyone other than the Bidens and Pelosis.
But given the, er, quality of the players I have to admit that, in a schadenfreudeian way, it’s sort of fun to watch.
