Think Mitt Romney had a bad week? Joe Biden's was worse.

Progressives snickered endlessly last night, re-assured that the GOP primary will continue to be a bruising, embarassing, drawn-out affair for MITT ROMNEY and NEWT GINGRICH. 

They should count themselves lucky that the South Carolina primary sucked all the oxygen out of the news cycle -- otherwise, someone might have noticed that JOE BIDEN had a spectacularly bad week, managing to make three unbelievably harmful gaffes in a few days. Just as it begins to sink in that the Republicans are bereft of an electable candidate, we got the uh-oh moment, reminding us of the ugly spectre of Biden's toxic mouth -- and its potential for causing trouble for Obama's re-election campaign.

Let's take a look at Biden's triple-play, shall we?

1. At a $1000-per-plate fundraiser in San Francisco, on the eve of an NFC divisional championship game between the 49ers and the New York Giants, Biden stood tall at the podium and said, "The Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl." He was immediately boo'd. Thanks, Joe. You just lost California. 

2. Attempting to make up for that gaffe, Biden attempted to praise his boss by drawing a distinction between the President, who is on his first wife, and a certain surging GOP contender, who is on his third. What came out was an unfortunate sound bite which, according to one correspondent, went like this: the president has “character traits that don’t lend themselves to 2012 national politics.” Can't wait to see $113 million in Super-Pac ads replaying that one in October. 

3. And then, to complete the trifecta, Biden managed to do what Hollywood, the RIAA, and $100 million in lobbying cash couldn't do: he brought SOPA back from the dead. Ed Henry, Fox News's chief White House correspondent, reported that Biden had spoken the previous night with a group of tech CEOs, and was scheduled to meet with studio chiefs, to work out a deal. But shortly after that report appeared, the Biden camp apparently had a Romney-like change of heart, and Henry tweeted, "Update on VP Biden: A White House official tells me he is NOT meeting with studio chiefs tonight (despite what VP said moments ago)." We'll attempt to translate: Obama sent Biden on a secret mission to broker a deal on the single most divisive free-speech issue of the winter, one in which Obama was widely seen to have made a rare example of sticking his neck out for civil liberties, and Biden, unable to keep his trap shut, went and blabbed about it to Fox News. 

Ugh. UGH.

Gonna be a very long general election.