Biden: 20 percent of GOP ‘probably ready to go to war on any circumstance’

Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) said Friday that “20 percent of the Republican Party is probably ready to go to war on any circumstance.”

Biden, the outspoken chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the remark in the context of refuting charges that Democrats are weak on national security issues.

{mosads}“I’m sick and tired of Republicans characterizing Democrats, generally, as well as [Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.)], as being weak on national security,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today Show.”

“The truth is, we’ve never been weaker in the last 100 years in terms of our position in the world than under this administration,” he claimed.

Biden said Democrats should “not back away,” although he acknowledged a significant anti-war constituency within the party.

“Twenty percent of our party really is anti-war almost under any circumstance, just like 20 percent of the Republican Party is probably ready to go to war on any circumstance,” he stated.

Biden argued that Democrats should show the voters that they are ready to lead on national security issues. He compared the current situation, in which Democratic candidates are perceived to be weak on the issue, to a time when the party was viewed as soft on crime.

The senator noted that, following the passage of a massive crime bill, Democrats were able to shed the label of not being tough on crime.

The Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.