A good Lear reference

I love a good Shakespearean reference, so I was pleased to see a somewhat tongue-in-cheek mention of King Lear in a recent column by The New York Times' David Brooks. He writes about Sen. Joe Biden's tendency to bloviate at hearings for Supreme Court nominees:

I rise to defend Joe Biden, who is being attacked for his verbosity during the Alito confirmation hearings. Some have concluded that Biden is a blowhard, though I assert he is thoughtful, just at Wagnerian length.
After years of study, I have come to recognize that it is wrong to regard Biden's committee room interventions as questions. They are senatorial arias of immense emotional range. At times he will ascend to heights of rage and contempt; at other times he will wander like Lear through the desolation of undesirable policies.

Read the column here. (Sorry, you will need to be a TimesSelect subscriber to see it.)
My favorite Lear quotes: "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!" and "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is/To have a thankless child." (The latter I will use to hilarious effect whenever my mom and I have some trivial disagreement. At least I think it's to hilarious effect.)