Biden Jokes About Potty Mouth at Bill-Signing Ceremony

Think Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by his verbal gaffe at the health care bill signing ceremony? If so, he's over it. Biden joked about the incident Wednesday night in Baltimore, saying President Obama threatened to have a T-shirt made memorializing the awkward moment.

Biden said the president told him the "best thing" about the White House event Tuesday was "Joe's comment." The comment in question was an F-bomb delivered with a wide grin after Biden introduced the president and stage-whispered to him, "This is a big . . . deal." A live mic picked it up.

"If you thought it was so good," Biden said he later told Obama, "why didn't you say it?" Turning to former Sen. Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, he insisted, "I would have never made the faux pas I made if you were still around." And he added, "Thank God my mom's not . . ." Laughter drowned out the rest of that line. Biden's mother, Jean Finnegan, died in January at the age of 92.

When the subject of the midterm elections came up, the vice president turned serious. He was, after all, speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee. "We're going to have losses," he warned. "Barack generated such an overwhelming turnout and enthusiasm, that we had the biggest [voter] turnout in history. It was gigantic. And a lot of really good Democrats got washed up on shore, and all of sudden were congressmen in districts that Democrats have no business having congressmen."