WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden, in a bid to become an influential second-in-command, is striving to carve out meaty roles for himself quickly.
The flurry of activity follows a first week marked by gaffes. At a swearing-in ceremony of White House staff, Mr. Biden joked about Chief Justice John Roberts's faulty memory, provoking President Obama to give him a stern nudge to stop. During the taping of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" the day before the inauguration, his wife, Jill Biden, said her husband was given the choice of being vice president or secretary of state, which was quickly refuted by the White H......
