Biden asks for website's 'number'

During an interview on Wednesday, US Vice President Joe Biden told viewers to check out a government-run website tracking stimulus spending, but admitted he was embarrassed because he couldn't remember the site's "number".

"You know, I'm embarrassed. Do you know the website number?" he asked an aide standing out of view. "I should have it in front of me and I don't. I'm actually embarrassed."

Biden, who seemed to indicate that he thought the Internet worked like a giant telephone, sounded an unusually Luddite note inside an administration often heralded for its mastery of the Web.

The website Biden was searching for was Recovery.gov, which he announced moments later when reminded of the proper address.

Bloggers wondered aloud whether the vice president knew how to use the Web, though some correctly pointed out that websites do indeed use a number system, and are identified by their numeric Internet Protocol address.

But this wasn't Biden's first error involving the name of the website. During a nationally televised address to the US Conference of Mayors on February 20, he directed the assembled leaders to visit the stimulus site -- but sent them to the wrong one.

Biden isn't the first politician to make a serious flub concerning the ways of the Internet. Former US Senator Ted Stevens called it a "series of tubes" in a now-famous address on the floor of the Senate.