Joe Biden smartassDuring a photo op at a Milwaukee frozen-custard store on Friday, Vice President Joe Biden caused a bit of a stir when he called the store's manager a "smartass" for cracking wise about taxes.

Sampling the store's treats, Biden asked Kopp's Frozen Custard manager Scott Borkin what he owed him. Borkin replied, "Lower our taxes and we'll call it even."

With local TV cameras recording the action, Biden revisited the remark minutes later, admonishing Borkin, "Why don't you say something nice, instead of being a smartass all the time?"

After the jump, check out the video of the Borkin and Biden Show, and why Biden's reply should have surprised no one.


Here's the ABC-12 footage of Smartassgate.



Honestly, we would've lost it if they corrected us for calling it an "ice cream shop." We're sure there's a difference between ice cream and frozen custard, but who really cares?

In an interview with Fox News, Borkin said Biden's comment was "shocking," which was a lot funnier than his tax quip. I guess he missed Biden's famous F-bomb in the East Room of the White House earlier this year. Perhaps "smartass" carries some kind of colloquial sting in Wisconsin, but among working-class East Coasters, it's practically a term of endearment.

Biden is so famous for his occasional bluntness, in fact, that Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton recently lamented the vice-president's absence when we asked him to respond to comments by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:



Burton may be on to something. There are times when you need cautious, well-crafted responses from an experienced press secretary, but in today's rough-and-tumble political climate, perhaps more Biden is just what the doctor ordered.

Tommy Christopher is Asylum's White House Correspondent.