In 1998, first lady Hillary Clinton famously claimed there was a vast right-wing conspiracy against her husband.

On Sunday, NBC's David Gregory actually asked Vice President Joe Biden on Meet the Press, "Do you think that there is a modern right-wing conspiracy that has aligned against this president?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

DAVID GREGORY, HOST: Let me ask you about the ways of Washington in a concluding area here. We've talked before. I've asked you about the-- the fact that Washington doesn't work very well right now, and hasn't for now a number of years that coincides with-- Obama-Biden being in the White House. And you've been very critical of Republicans. Do you think that there is a modern right-wing conspiracy that has aligned against this president?

Are you kidding me? Is that the kind of question to be asking a sitting Vice President in the middle of an election cycle?

Maybe even more surprisingly, Biden didn't take the bait:

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: No, I don't think there's a modern-- I think the Republican Party's been taken over by the Tea Party. It happens. Those things happen. My party was taken over by the far left, when I got elected in 1972. We go through phases like this. This isn't fundamentally new. What we need is a Republican Party. We need a strong Republican Party. A party that there's two or three or four people when they're not in office or if they have a president, when he's in office, can speak for the party, can make agreements. That's what we need.

Seems in this instance one of the top personalities at NBC News was a better shill for Obama than his own Vice President.

Now THAT'S saying something!