Melanie Morgan

Did she or didn't she snort that blow?

The daughter of Vice-President Joe Biden is the subject of intense scrutiny today as The New York Post is breaking a story about her alleged cocaine use caught on camera.

Ashley Biden, who youngest of Joe and Jill Biden's children is a social worker in Delaware, and spent a year on the campaign trail with her father.

"...A "friend" of Vice President Joseph Biden's daughter, Ashley, is attempting to hawk a videotape that he claims shows her snorting cocaine at a house party this month in Delaware.

The anonymous male acquaintance of Ashley took the video, said Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer representing the seller.

Dunlap and a man claiming to be a lawyer showed The Post about 90 seconds of 43-minute tape, saying it was legally obtained and that Ashley was aware she was being filmed. The Post refused to pay for the video.

The video, which the shooter initially hoped to sell for $2 million before scaling back his price to $400,000, shows a 20-something woman with light skin and long brown hair taking a red straw from her mouth, bending over a desk, inserting the straw into her nostril and snorting lines of white powder.

She then stands up and begins talking with other people in the room. A young man looks on from behind her, facing the camera. The lawyers said he was Ashley's boyfriend of a few years.

The camera follows the woman from a few feet away, focusing on her as she moves around the room. It appears not to be concealed. At one point she shouts, "Shut the f--- up!"

Allrighty then. We all know about the troubled off-spring of Presidents, Vice-Presidents and other politicans (Patty Davis and Eleonor Mondale spring to mind) but it is interesting to me that the media is starting to cover this kind of scandal - so early in The Chosen One's administration. Usually they cover it up for awhile. Now, not so much.

If this story is true, and if Miss Ashley has a problem, I wish restored health and sobriety for her.

Addiction is ugly. Trust me, I know.