Of all the distortions, misstatements and outright lies in Joe Biden’s truly appalling performance in the Vice Presidential debate, no passage counts as more perplexing than the following utterly addled recollection:

“When we kicked – along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and barack said, ‘Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know--- if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it.’

“Now what’s happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.”

I defy any rational observer to explain what, precisely, Biden was talking about in this bizarre fantasy altogether untethered from any historical reality.

No, we never kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon – not with France, not with anyone else. As matter of fact, Hezbollah kicked us out of Lebanon back in ’82 and ’83, after murdering 261 US Marines and another 60 Americans at our embassy.

Is there any actual record of Biden and Barack saying “move NATO forces in there” to avoid Hezbollah control?

Is the Senator thinking of Syria’s departure from Lebanon? If so, he has not only said “Hezbollah” (a local Lebanese militia) when he meant “Syria,” but he’s also horribly mangled the history – because “we” hardly kicked them out, nor did the French. The Lebanese themselves, as part of their “Cedar Revolution,” forced the Syrian departure.

The deeper question about Biden’s ludicrous gaffe involves the amazing reluctance of anyone in the mainstream media to question it. Has anyone asked him to apologize or clarify or justify his lame-brained excursion into the foreign policy twilight zone?

Imagine if Sarah Palin had used the Vice Presidential debate to stumble into an imaginary world in which the U.S. and France “kicked out” Hezbollah from Lebanon  (in spite of the obvious fact that Hezbollah has exerted uninterrupted power in that country for the last 25 years). Had Palin spoken as irresponsibly and inaccurately as Bozo Biden did, she would have faced renewed demands for her withdrawal from the ticket.

The double standard when it comes to candidate accountability remains the most outrageous current example of prevalent media bias.