I think Joe Biden is unstable — unfit to be a United States senator, let alone a heartbeat from the presidency.

Here's an example of what I mean: Last week, he was in Deerfield Beach, Fla. Someone said to him, "I'd like to know if you guys are going to pursue the violations that have been made against our Constitution by the present administration."

Biden answered: "Yes. We will not be stopped from pursuing any criminal offenses that occurred" during the Bush years. "If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued."

Of course, criminal prosecutions are not supposed to be a matter of politics. They are supposed to be part of independent investigations by Justice Department officials and other law enforcement professionals. Perhaps someone in the Barack Obama camp pointed this out to Biden, because he began backtracking later in the week.

"I don't know where that report is coming from," Biden said later.

He doesn't know where that report is coming from?

It's coming from Biden's own mouth. It's coming from his own addled brain. It's coming from his vicious and arrogant character. It's coming from a mental and psychological instability that is so pronounced I just don't understand why no other commentator is pointing it out.

It's obvious. The man is not all there. And it is extremely dangerous for him to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Of course, it's hard to worry about Biden being a heartbeat away from the presidency because to get there, Obama will have to be in the presidency, which is a scenario at least as scary as Biden in the wings.

Last spring, Obama was only slightly more circumspect in making a similar threat. Asked about investigating "high crimes in the White House," he said he would "have (his) Justice Department and (his) attorney general immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued."

Our standards for leadership in Washington are getting lower year after year. More and more, we are seeing politicians pursuing power with little consideration of morality, ethics or the rule of law.

Because this phenomenon is so widespread — so much a part of the fabric of our political dialogue — it goes right over the heads of most Americans.

I am hardly a Bush apologist. I believe emphatically that the Bush administration has violated the Constitution time and time again. But so has Biden. So has nearly every member of Congress. If we're going to start prosecuting for that offense, we're going to need internment camps near Washington for the show trials.

Until that time comes, it's probably best to appeal to the American people to reclaim their Constitution and make them the enforcers.

We've drifted so far from our constitutional heritage that neither party really recognizes the strict limits our Founders placed on the actions and powers of the federal government.

No one wants to see the Constitution respected and revered and upheld and obeyed in Washington more than I do.

But Joe Biden and Barack Obama are proponents of a "living Constitution" that changes to suit their own crazy ideas. Do you know what a "living Constitution" really is? It's a dead Constitution. It's one that means anything you want it to mean, which is to say it means nothing at all.

Do we really want to put the power to prosecute political enemies in the hands of people like that?

Joseph Farah's newest book, "None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year To Cast the Ultimate Protest Vote," is available now. To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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