Biden: Capital's problems flow uphill

by Mark Silva

In Washington, Joe Biden says, problems flow uphill.

And in this Washington, they've got plenty of them.

" I don't think any (House) speaker has had as much laid on her plate at the front end of a Congress -- maybe there's been a time in history, but I don't -- I can't think of -- for real, for real,'' the vice president said today, at a fundraiser for the Democrats' Senate and House campaigns at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington.

"It's not hyperbole, literally,'' Biden said. "This president has had more laid on his plate than any president in modern history from the day he stepped into office. But that just flows not downhill -- it flows up the hill. ''

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Harry Reid joined Biden at a luncheon for 187 Democratic donors, who also will be dining with President Barack Obama tonight. Tonight's dinner is priced in tiers, $30,000 the maximum donation. About one in ten in today's events paid $5,000 for the lunch with the veep.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaking from a teleprompter, praised Reid (D-Nev.) as "a true gentleman'' who had "learned the rules of the ring as a boxer" and "has brought those values to the Congress." The main value being "fairness.''

"The 111th Congress, we think, is the vehicle through which we're all going to be able to celebrate the things we all have fought for,'' Biden told the crowd, "the reason why we wanted Obama to be president of the United States of America, Pelosi to be the speaker, and Harry to be the leader.

"You believed in the change that we said we could bring to America,'' he told the donors. "I think some of you probably wondered whether or not we really meant it. And I mean it sincerely. Because what we're doing is not on the margins. We're not playing in the margins here. This is serious change...

" I think it's fair to say that -- as I repeat it again, no administration, no Congress in a long, long, long time has moved as fast to deal with so many monumental challenges facing our country as this Congress has moved on,'' he said. "We've only been in the job about six months now, and as the President said, even our critics agree, we've been pretty busy. We've been pretty busy.''