Oct 27th, 2008 at 9:34 am
The Biden Era
Marc Ambinder wonders about the future — who will replace Joe Biden? “What about Delaware? Beau Biden?” I think you’d have to guess that Beau will be tapped. He’s Attorney-General of Delaware, and Delaware’s lone House member is a Republican. So completely apart from being Joe Biden’s son, he’d be the logical choice. And then, of course, the iron triangle can be closed by elevating Hunter Biden from the Amtrak board to the top passenger rail job. Then voters who thought they were getting the Age of Obama will recognize that we’re in fact facing the Era of Biden.
44 Responses to “The Biden Era”
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October 27th, 2008 at 9:44 am
And I’m sure we’ll get Jesse Jackson, Jr. in Obama’s vacant Senate seat, too.
Becuase nothing says “Change” like another round of mindless nepotism.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Beau may be supremely qualified for this office but I do not like even the appearance of hereditary office transfers. The governor should appoint a care-taker senator and then have Beau Biden run for the seat on his own in 6 years.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:48 am
I would think Lt. Gov. John Carney would be a more logical choice, given that he’s more experienced and close to Gov. Minner. It’s not clear if Minner will be the one making the appointment, I guess.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Uh, this is probably academic — Beau’s unit is on active duty in Iraq (he’s something in JAG), and I’m not sure there’s any way out of that even if an appointment to his dad’s seat were a possibility.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:51 am
@ Bill in Chicago,
I was going to use Illinois and Chicago in particular to make my point but thought it might be too parochial. However, you couldn’t make a better case against hereditary office transfer then by sharing the examples of Lipinski, Stroger and to a lesser extent Daley and Madigan in Illinois.
I happen to think Jackson wouldn’t necessarily fall into this category though. His dad is not an office holder and Rep. Jackson has a much different temperament than does his father. He’s also relatively independent from the Daleys and from Gov. Blagojovich’s circle. That’s probably why he won’t get it. I’m guessing Obama’s replacement will be someone who is perceived as a “short-timer”. Jackson, Duckworth, and Shakowski would not fit that bill.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:53 am
The governor should appoint a care-taker senator and then have Beau Biden run for the seat on his own in 6 years.
An appointment–whether it’s Beau Biden or anyone else–will only be good until the next biennial election, or until 2010. That election will determine who is in the seat until it’s due up again in 2014.
My guess is that whoever it is has already been chosen, and that if Joe Biden is elected VP he will immediately resign his seat. His appointed successor will be the person the Delaware Democratic Party hopes will hold the seat for the forseeable future, and will get a small head start in seniority by Biden’s resignation.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I think I read somewhere that the problem with Beau Biden is that he’s dumber than a bag of hammers. Is this true?
October 27th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Minner will make the appointment. You can pretty much count on it. Carney lost in the Democratic primary to Jack Markel, a former Republican. Biden, Minner and the Democrats aren’t going to let Markell name the successor.
My understanding is that Biden would have to resign from the Senate before being sworn into office as VP and prior to the next governor of Delaware being sworn in.
It may very well be John Carney that gets tapped as the placeholder.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Put Minner in the Senate and Carney in the governor’s office. I agree with Col. Danite that nepotism is such a sin that sometimes we have to quash the hopes of perfectly adequate candidates because their success condones nepotism. There’s no constitutional right to be senator, especially by decree.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Agree with K.
It’s kind of funny that Matt brings this up given that Biden’s leaving for Iraq has been mentioned in a debate and in Biden’s convention speech.
The fact that Beau Biden just deployed on October 3 would make it rather difficult to take his father’s place in January.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:18 am
The fact that Beau Biden just deployed on October 3 would make it rather difficult to take his father’s place in January.
Why not Hunter Biden? If Beau is a dumb as a bag of hammers (see prior comment), Hunter surely must be a lot brighter, being a Yale law graduate.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Enough with the damned nepotism! Wasn’t GW Bush enough?
Instead of a Biden, how about we find somebody qualified? The Biden kids can go out and get a job.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:28 am
What it highlights, though, is the problem of political advancement in small states. We’ve seen it in Alaska over the past few years: on the one side, you have Don Young and Ted Stevens, on the other you have Frank and Lisa Murkowski playing the nepotism shuffle; and the person who breaks in turns out to be Mayor Mooselini.
So, in Delaware, you have a two-term governor who was the Lt Gov to the previous governor who is now the other senator, and the pool is pretty shallow: Minner, Carney and Beau Biden. That’s not just because Joe Biden has been in the Senate forever: it’s common in many one- and two-rep states.
In Illinois, at least, you can rattle off half a dozen possibilities.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:37 am
@ pseudonymous in nc
You can’t tell me there are no mayors, county officials, educators or businesmen/women that are qualified to be the US Senator from Delaware. I think part of the problem not that the pool is pool is too small but rather that the entrenched interests don’t let anyone jump into the pool with them.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I saw some discussion of this issue earlier, but forgot how it was resolved — would Beau (or any other active / career military type) have to resign/quit the armed forces to avoid the constitutional ban on serving in two of the three Gov’t branches?
October 27th, 2008 at 10:57 am
“And I’m sure we’ll get Jesse Jackson, Jr. in Obama’s vacant Senate seat, too.
Becuase nothing says “Change” like another round of mindless nepotism.”
Nepotism is not when you win an election – like Jesse. Nepotism is Dick Cheney hiring his under qualified
daughter to work at the State Department so she can
wip up war fever against Iran and spy on FSO liberals.
Nepotism is Cheney hiring his son in law etc
October 27th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Is it “Beau” Biden or “Bo” Biden?
During the DNC convention, his name was spelled “Bo” in the
press materials and on some of the programs.
Also CNN called him “Bo.” (like Dukes of Hazzard)
October 27th, 2008 at 11:14 am
@Comment
It’s probably “Beaux”. He’s a Liberal and therefore probably French.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Just because someone “read somewhere” that Beau is dumber than a box of hammers, that does not make it true. Even if it was true (and it’s not), there is no requisite IQ needed to join the Senate (as is made quite clear from time to time). All that said, he’s not going to be the pick since he’s in Iraq.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:20 am
What’s the over/under on when some nutter at TownHall or RedState will claim that Obama and Biden want to retreat from Iraq just so Beau could come home and be selected Senator?
October 27th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Well maybe it’s “Beau” when he is litigating in Delaware, but “Bo” when he is trying to get votes in the rust belt and down south.
Politics is the oppposite of college – In college you pretend to be smarter than you are and you often lie about your vast experience with women. In politics it’s the opposite, you pretend to be earnestly dumb and sincerely moral.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I’m sorry, but the name “Beau” is just wrong. It means beautiful and it’s not from a long-dead language like Latin or Aramaic. It’s actually an English word–a loan from a language not known for…anything good.
Could you imagine “Beau the Plumber” or “Beau Sixpack”? Come on.
Only Beau Bridges gets a pass: on acount of being Jeff Bridges’ brother.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
if only ygz had any Delaware ties…
October 27th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I don’t know if it means he’s as dumb as a box of hammers, but it did take Beau Biden 4 tries to pass the Delaware bar.
October 27th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
pj, I seem to remember Hillary having a lot of trouble passing the D.C. bar (she never did).
I don’t think you can assume someone’s stupid because of that. The Bar is a difficult examination aimed at an already highly selected for intelligence group of individuals.
October 27th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
It took Hillary a few times to pass the bar. She finally did it in Arkansas but I wouldn’t call her dumb.
October 27th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
@ Col D: I’ll agree in part: it’s clear that Delaware has specific characteristics that affect statewide officeholders. A state that’s home to more corporations than people will end up that way. Is the mayor of Wilmington (pop. 72,000) qualified per se to be a US Senator? Sure. Will he be appointed? Nah.
In practical terms, it’s a big leap in small states to go from citywide office, and in Delaware, there’s a well-worn path to Congress through the Governor’s office. It’s frankly difficult to get yourself in a position to challenge for statewide office. Biden’s election in 1972 was an exception: Cale Boggs (3-term US Rep, 2-term Gov, 2-term Senator) was persuaded to run again to forestall a divisive GOP primary, and Biden beat him.
That difficulty of establishing yourself extends across most small states. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) just happened to have a grandaddy who was governor, a daddy who ran for governor, and a last name that’s wrapped up in the state’s political history.
October 27th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I’m from Delaware and I know a Matt Denn campaign staffer (Denn is running for Lt. Governor alongside Markell) who says the consensus in DE Democratic circles is that Minner will appoint Carney. Markell is unlikely because he (seems to) genuinely want to be governor. Beau is a fairly popular AG, but he’s unlikely because of the expected charges of nepotism. However, Mike Castle (the current rep) is actually more likely than you’d think. He’s a very moderate (and popular) Republican multi-term House member, and before that he was a popular Governor and Lt. Governor. Carney, however, is still the more likely replacement.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I’m more worried about who will replace Biden as chair of the SFRC.
I know Dodd is next in line, but, I’m hoping beyond hope that it’s Kerry.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Yeah, Dodd is pretty well-positioned for the coming session. He’s chair of Banking, and next in line on both Foreign Relations (with Biden possibly about to leave) and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (with Kennedy about to die soon). He can only chair one committee at a time, and it sounds like Kennedy wants to keep on plugging away until he drops, so I’d guess Foreign Relations is Dodd’s if he wants it.
I’m ambivalent about Tim Johnson, who’s next in line on the Banking Committee, taking over that post, though. Johnson’s a died-in-the-wool Blue Dog. On the plus side, he did vote against the bailout. On the other hand, he also voted in favor of the deregulation of the financial sector that helped cause all of this in 1999 (along with 89 other Senators and Bill Clinton, to be fair).
As for who replaces Biden, I suggested a week or so ago that you appoint MBNA or the DuPont corporation and cut out the middleman. The Senate could save the cost of a salary and set an example for the great unwashed provincial middle classes that pundits are always calling on to “sacrifice” more and more and more.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Washington, DC—During a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee today, U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) stressed that any bailout of the auto industry should shield risks to taxpayers and further industry innovation.
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