When Joe Biden’s would-be successor’s campaign was tanking, the now-retiree came up with a plan he thought would help rescue it – a pickleball call to arms in northern New England.

“No joke” Joe couldn’t scrape up enough wrinkled Democrat retirees from the pickleball courts in the two oldest-demographic states – Maine and New Hampshire – to get him reelected.

But in working-class Kittery it doesn’t take many pickleballers to keep a third-shift hospital worker awake.

She’s hired a lawyer to force a solution.

The net effect of a potential lawsuit has prompted municipal officials to hire a noise engineer to try to figure out how to muffle the irritating sound.

The trauma nurse who works nights “has sought medical care for the stress and health impacts of sleep deprivation,” Kittery Town Council Chair Judy Spiller explained when the complaint first surfaced.

Portland attorney Jeffrey Shafto said his client has been “unable to sleep soundly” due to pickleball noise in a local park.

Shafto said his client has even tried white-noise machines and installing new windows.

The town has put up sound barriers to no avail.

“We made a mistake putting the pickleball court there,” town Councilor Cyrus Clark said. “The only resolution is for it to no longer be a pickleball court.”

Stephen Langsdorf, an attorney for the town, believes the local noise ordinance is for barking dogs and crowing roosters, not pickleball.

The increasing popularity of the “sport” nationwide has triggered a growing number of complaints about the irksome noise it creates.

The game was invented by a politician, no surprise. Joel Pritchard, former congressman from Washington state, came up with the idea in 1965. (The damn ‘Flowers In Your Hair‘ ‘60s.)

Pickleball last year was named the fastest-growing game in the U.S. by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.

Take that, you Republican bowlers.

All is not lost – even pickleball’s peaking popularity in a presidential election year couldn’t rescue a tired old senile shuttlecock from the jaws of defeat.