And they didn’t think anyone would notice?

Via The Hill:

Two female Democratic senators named Barbara plan to retire in 2016 — and the White House is recycling the same lines to praise them.

Statements from President Obama and Vice President Biden honoring Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, repeat statements lauding Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Mikulski announced her plans to retire on Monday, and Boxer made her announcement last month.

Biden used almost the exact same closing joke in both statements, swapping out each senator’s name.

“I am sorry to see her go, but there are still two years left. And two years of Barbara Mikulski is like six years of any other senator,” Biden said in a statement Monday after Mikulski announced that she’d retire after this term.

“I am sorry to see her go, but there are still two years left. And two years of Barbara Boxer is like having four to six years of any other senator,” he said in January.

And Obama doesn’t get a better grade for creativity either.

“Senator Mikulski is more than just a legendary senator for the people of Maryland, she’s an institution in the United States Senate,” Obama said Monday morning.

That language is almost identical to Obama’s statement on Boxer, which begins: “Barbara Boxer is more than a senator — she’s an institution.”

Mikulski on Monday said that she wanted to spend her next two years devoted to the issues she supports instead of worrying about the rigors of a campaign.