Vice President Joe Biden kicked off a national fundraising fundraisers tour in Portland today and if our fair city's campaign stop for Representative Kurt Schrader is any indication of how the VP's trip is going to go, reporters have one thing to look forward to: a locked door.

Biden spoke this morning at the swank Tiffany Center in Goose Hollow to a crowd including former Governor Barbara Roberts and other notables, all of whom shelled out for a $200 ticket (or more) to the sold-out private event. Rep Schrader is in a race against Republican Scott Bruun and Republicans took the chance to tell their angle on the event to media, sending out a press release this morning describing Schrader as Obama's "loyal lapdog."

I called campaign spokesperson James Atkin last week and again on Tuesday to make sure the Mercury was on their media list for the event, but Atkin informed me Tuesday that the White House was handling media and they wouldn't know the details till Wednesday, just 24 hours before the speech.

Not hearing any word back on Wednesday, I headed over to the event, snapped some photos of the couple protesters and headed for the door. No dice. "This is a closed event," Atkin informed me. "Sorry."

Uh, what? A speech by the vice president on the behalf of your candidate and you don't want any reporters there? Well, they allowed one reporter in. "The White House is handling media and they picked just one reporter to cover the event," said Atkin. Who's the one? Atkin said he didn't know.

I was seriously dumbstruck. I just uttered, "Uh... I guess I'll leave then?" Where's the articulate free press, open media rant when you need it? But seriously, even Sarah Palin's camp lets reporters into her events, and keeping them out only generated bad publicity and now the White House is allowing only one reporter to cover Joe Biden? What are they afraid of?