"There are two foreign policies in this administration and he hasn't made up his mind on which one yet," Biden says. "In fairness, I've been here since Nixon, and every governor that's come into office -- no matter how they were viewed ahead of time, as being brilliant or slow, whatever the characterization was -- they all did the same thing. They come in not at all sure about foreign policy ... So what do you do? You go out and pick from one of each category that's on your shelf. You're not confident to know where you want to go."

Rumsfeld vs. Powell isn't so odd when you look at the similar tug of war in the Carter administration between Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Biden says. Or the Reagan administration face-off between Secretary of State George Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.

Biden isn't quite sure how to best help Powell, though. He recently told the secretary of state a story about a conversation he had more than 20 years ago with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Eastland of Mississippi, a fellow Democrat who offered to help Biden in a tough 1978 reelection contest.

"What can Jim Eastland do for you?" the senator asked.

Biden was at the time worried about the issue of school busing, in which he had sided with the civil rights community, and was concerned with how a boost from a Dixiecrat would play in the housing projects of Wilmington. "Mr. Chairman," Biden said, "quite honestly, some places you can help me, but a lot of places you could hurt me."

"I'll just come to Del'ware and campaign for you or agin' you, whichever helps you the most," Eastland drawled.

"Mr. Secretary," Biden told Powell, 23 years later, "I'll be for you or agin' you, whichever helps you the most."

It's a thin line Biden hopes to walk, like the one he trips over again and again when talking about Bush. He insists that he's trying to be "cooperative," trying to defend the president when appropriate, but his opinions, political instincts and candor won't let him. Asked about Bush's trip to Europe, Biden says that he felt it was successful. But he goes on. "I was quoted as saying -- and I should have completed the quote -- that the reason it was so successful was 'he did no harm.'" Reporters and aides in the room laugh.

"I meant more than that," Biden insists. "I meant more than that." He clarifies: European leaders were concerned that Bush was going to pull the country out of commitments to Europe and NATO, and "I think the president was very helpful in making clear" that wasn't the case.

Not quite a ringing endorsement, but not quite a pointed barb, either. Call it the Biden Doctrine. It's where Biden refers to Bush's infamous April 25 gaffe about Taiwan by pointing out that he didn't make as much political hay out of the matter as he certainly could have.

"You never heard me go after the president on his Taiwan statements," Biden says. "That's too dangerous. Great political fodder can be made. But what am I gonna do? I'm gonna play in? I sat down with Powell, I went down and said, 'Let's parse the statement and figure out where we can both say this is what he really meant.'" Biden did this only because he thought it was a legitimate screwup, he says. "If I thought this was an intended thought-out change in policy then I'd be debating him about it, I'd be taking him on, I'd be having as many press conferences as I could, as many hearings as I could. I don't think it was intended."

But in fact, Biden did criticize the president, rebuking him instead by telling the world, "Words matter, nuance matters," and writing a pointed Op-Ed in the May 2 Washington Post, titled "Not So Deft n Taiwan," that charged Bush's "inattention to detail has damaged U.S. credibility with our allies and sown confusion throughout the Pacific Rim."

Biden's point seems to be that he could have certainly gone after Bush for more, but that he held back.

"Now, he makes that same mistake on my COPS bill" -- the Community Oriented Policing Services effort from the 1994 crime bill. "I'll go out and ... try to make hay about it," Biden says, "but this stuff is too serious."

In incident after incident, Biden offers his take on Bush as he "tries to figure this out." There's Tuesday's slap in the face to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, wherein Bush referred to having made "progress" in the Middle East peace negotiations, though Israelis, who have ceased fire, continue to see terrorist attacks kill their fellow citizens, and Sharon strongly disagreed with Bush's assessment that any "progress" had been made.

"Any disagreement we have with Israel -- and I have many -- should be dealt with the way we deal with any disagreement we have with Great Britain or any other ally," Biden says. "It should be dealt with privately. I'm sure -- I'm not sure -- I believe the president, day before yesterday, in his photo op ... [could] not be seen as having initiated something that isn't making progress ... Now it's a minicrisis."

Before Bush left for his trip to Europe, he asked Biden for advice. "The president asked me what I thought his purpose should be," Biden says. "I know he was just being polite in asking me what I thought," but Biden shared his thoughts anyway. He told him about the January headline wish list meetings he holds with his staff, and told Bush, "'If I were you, I'd be looking at your trip in those terms.' And he said, 'Well, what would you want it to say?' I said, 'I'd want two headlines. One: America Remains Engaged in European Power. And secondly: Bush Engaged.'"

Bush got one of his headlines, and is still shooting for the second one. Biden's are pending.

Salon News A Salon-eye view of the day's news, with investigative reports, analysis and interviews with newsmakers.