Offers Briton His Talks ‘Without Attribution’ : Biden Meets Kinnock, but He’s Not Speechless

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) gave Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock a collection of his speeches today and said he told the British politician “to use them wherever he would like--with or without attribution.”

Biden said there was good “chemistry” between the two men, a sentiment echoed by Kinnock, who said in a statement that “it was a very enjoyable meeting and in policy terms, very worthwhile.”

Biden told reporters outside the House of Commons that he did not apologize for using Kinnock’s moving rhetoric without attribution, insisting: “I did not steal his speech. I attributed his speech on all but on one occasion.”

Biden, touring Europe to prepare for Senate debate on the U.S.-Soviet treaty to reduce intermediate-range nuclear forces, paid a 1 1/2-hour courtesy call on Kinnock as a leader of Britain’s main opposition party.

But attention focused on what the two politicians would say to each other about Biden’s use of one of Kinnock’s speeches in his presidential campaign. Ensuing plagiarism charges forced the Delaware senator to quit the Democratic field last year.

“I presented him with a copy of a series of my speeches and told him he was welcome to use them wherever he would like--with or without attribution,” a smiling Biden told reporters outside Parliament.

“He did not give me any more ideas for speeches, nor I him, and both of us thought in time the whole matter would be put in perspective,” Biden said. “It’s clearly in perspective with both of us.

“It was, quite frankly, much ado about nothing--but it was enough of ado about something to send me out of the race,” Biden said, borrowing a line from William Shakespeare.

Before the meeting, Biden said Kinnock should be pleased at the fame brought to him by the incident.

Biden dropped out of the presidential race in September two weeks after a videotape circulated showing that he had borrowed portions of a Kinnock speech without attributing it to the Labor leader.

“Why was it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright?” he said in an Aug. 23 speech.

“Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because our predecessors were thick?” Kinnock said in a 1987 television advertisement before the June general elections in Britain.

Gov. Michael S. Dukakis (D-Mass.), another presidential contender, admitted his campaign manager, John Sasso, leaked the videotape. Sasso resigned.

The uproar over the speech led to further accusations against Biden.

He ended his campaign Sept. 23 after confirmed reports that he had committed plagiarism while in law school and had falsely claimed he had attended law school on a full academic scholarship and had finished near the top of his class.