Joe Biden likes to work hard/play hard. When he's not spiking the White House eggnog or washing his Trans Am in the White House driveway, he's out there appearing in photo ops at scenic locales like the Brooklyn Bridge, where he surfaced yesterday to publicize the Recovery Act funds that are being used to rehab the bridge. But just because it was a boring "official" appearance doesn't mean Amtrak Joe couldn't have little fun.
When Tom Shepherd, a chief inspector on the Brooklyn Bridge rehab project, left for work yesterday, he jokingly told his wife he'd tell Biden she said hello. And when Shepherd got the opportunity to stand around with the V.P. and shoot the breeze, he mentioned the earlier aside to his wife. That's when Biden got that mischievous twinkle in his eye and suggested he call her on his cellphone. (The Post photographer got a great shot of Biden calling her.)
"I'm Vice President Joe Biden. I'm here to make sure your husband isn't messing up the bridge," Shepherd's wife recalled Biden saying. "I was shocked," she tells the Post. "If he didn't have such a distinctive voice, I would have thought Tom was messing with me." No, Mrs. Shepherd, that was just our Vice President messing with you. If we ever get the opportunity to meet this guy, we are so making him record our outgoing voicemail message: "Hiya pal, I can't pick up right now 'cuz I'm too busy chasin' tail and crashin' dirt bikes, but you know the drill, leave a message for me and the NSA at the beep. And if this is Barry, I'll have that fifty bucks you loaned me as soon as I get back from the track."
