Joe Biden
Joe Biden | |
|---|---|
| File:Bidenj.jpg | |
| Senior Senator, Delaware | |
| Preceded by | J. Caleb Boggs |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent (2009) |
| Personal details | |
| Nationality | american |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Jill Jacobs |
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician. A centrist Democrat and U.S. Senator, Biden has represented Delaware in Congress since 1973. Biden failed in his bid to win the Democratic nomination for President in 1988. Biden has expressed interest in the United States presidency in 2008, and has stopped just short of formally declaring his candidacy. [1]
Biden is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. His experience in foreign policy and arms control issues has won him considerable bipartisan respect.
He is a Roman Catholic.
Biography
Senator Biden grew up in New Castle County, Delaware. He graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965, and from the Syracuse University College of Law in 1968. Prior to his election to the Senate, Biden practiced law in Wilmington, Delaware and served on the New Castle County Council from 1970 to 1972. Since 1991, Biden has been an adjunct professor at the Widener University School of Law, where he teaches a seminar on constitutional law.
In some political circles, Sen. Biden is one of the more respected voices in the Senate on national security, law and order and civil liberties, and has steadily rebuilt his political reputation after his unfortunate Presidential campaign. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972, Biden is currently serving his sixth six-year term in office. In the small state of Delaware, Biden is regarded as a highly effective campaigner. During the campaign he was accused of having ties to Iran, being not sufficiently concerned with local issues and making regular gaffes like threatening pilots that he would "screw" them unless they supported one of his proposals.[2] He was re-elected in 2002 with 58% of the vote, with double the campaign budget of his Republican opponent Ray Clatworthy, a businessman with interests in restaurants and radio stations.
Sen. Biden has been instrumental in crafting significant federal crime laws over the last decade, including the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, also known as the Biden Crime Law. He is also the author of the landmark Violence Against Women Act of 2000, which contains a broad array of groundbreaking measures to combat domestic violence and provides billions of dollars in federal funds to address gender-based crimes. Part of this legislation was later struck down as being unconstitutional. He introduced the controversial RAVE Act in the 107th United States Congress.
As chairman of the International Narcotics Control Caucus, Sen. Biden also wrote the laws that created the nation's "Drug Czar" who oversees and coordinated national drug control policy. Sen. Biden continues to work to stop the spread of "date rape" drugs such as Rohypnol, as well as other drugs such as Ecstasy and Ketamine.
Sen. Biden has been a staunch supporter of college aid and loan programs and has crafted legislation to allow families to deduct up to $10,000 per year in higher education expenses on their annual income tax returns. His enacted "Kids 2000" legislation established a public/private partnership to help provide computer centers, teachers, Internet access, and technical training to young people across the nation, particularly to low-income and at-risk youth.
Biden campaigned for the U.S. presidency in 1988, but dropped out of the race amidst scandal. He was alleged to have plagiarized a speech from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. After Biden withdrew from the race, it was learned that he had correctly credited Kinnock on other occasions but failed to do so in an Iowa speech that was recorded and distributed to reporters by aides to Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee. Dukasis fired the senior aide responsible, but the damage had already been done to Biden. (see Richard Ben Cramer's Pulitzer Prize winning account of the 1988 campaign, "What It Takes") [3] It was also alleged that Biden had plagiarized in law school 20 years earlier when, in a first year Legal Writing class, Biden was unaware of the appropriate standards for legal briefs, and used a single footnote while citing five pages from a legal article when multiple citations were required. But both Syracuse University Law School and the Delaware state Bar Association cleared Biden of those charges. Though today none of the allegations stand up to scrutiny, his candidacy was unable to withstand the barrage of negative publicity.
Another plagerism controversy occured during Biden's 1996 U.S. Senate reelection campaign. A television advertisement that was put out by his campaign listed various laws that he had written, the list included the Megan's Law. The Megan's Law was actually authored and sponsored by Congressman Dick Zimmer of New Jersey (U.S. Public Law 104-145). It is not known whether or not Biden was personally aware of the content of this particular advertisement before it was aired.
In February 1988, he was hospitalized for two brain aneurysms and couldn't return to the Senate until seven months later.
In 2003, Biden was urged by many of his supporters to join the Democratic field of candidates for president. He declined the offer, deciding to devote his time to the Senate rather than the campaign trail, saying he didn't have enough time to cultivate a sufficient fundraising base. Some experts and pundits considered Biden to be a possible running mate for presidential candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election. However, Biden had expressed interest in a Kerry-John McCain ticket. On July 5, 2004, Biden said on CNN that he was uninterested in the vice-presidential nomination. The next day, Kerry picked Senator John Edwards as his running mate. Biden had been discussed as a possible candidate for U.S. Secretary of State in a Kerry-Edwards administration. These discussions were rendered moot by the re-election of President Bush.
His name is mentioned on the long list of possible candidates for President in 2008, and in December 2004 he said he would pursue the possibility, noting "I'm going to proceed as if I'm going to run." [4]. He announced in mid-June 2005 that he will seek the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008. Supporters note that he has a friendly outgoing personality, similar in its widespread appeal to George W. Bush's; and he has more than 30 years experience in the Senate, a mark that distinguishes him from many of the newer, less-experienced potential candidates.
A resident of Wilmington, Delaware, Sen. Biden tragically lost his first wife and an infant daughter in a car accident shortly after winning election in 1972. His two young sons were seriously injured, but made full recoveries. Sen. Biden is married to the former Jill Jacobs, and is the father of three children and four grandchildren. One of Sen. Biden's sons is a first lieutenant in the Delaware Army National Guard; Joseph R. (Beau) Biden III is a judge advocate.
On the June 20, 2005 edition of Face the Nation, Biden said, "if, in fact, I think that I have a clear shot by this November or December, then I'm going to seek the (2008 Democratic presidential) nomination."
Resources
Works
- Administration’s Missile Defense Program And The Abm Treaty: Hearing Before The Committee On Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, December 2004) ISBN 0756719593
- Examining The Theft Of American Intellectual Property At Home And Abroad: Hearing Before The Committee On Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, May 2004) ISBN 0756741777
- Hearings to Examine Threats, Responses, and Regional Considerations Surrounding Iraq: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, November 2003) ISBN 0756728231
- Strategies for Homeland Defense: A Compilation by the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, September 2003) ISBN 0756726239
- Putin Administration's Policies Toward Non-Russian Regions of the Russian Federation: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, September 2003) ISBN 0756726247
- Threat of Bioterrorism and the Spread of Infectious Diseases: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, September 2003) ISBN 0756726255
- How Do We Promote Democratization, Poverty Alleviation, and Human Rights to Build a More Secure Future: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, June 2003) ISBN 0756724783
- Political Future of Afghanistan: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, January 2003) ISBN 0756730392
- International Campaign Against Terrorism: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, January 2003) ISBN 0756730414
- Halting the Spread of HIV/AIDS: Future Efforts in the U.S. Bilateral & Multilateral Response: Hearings Before the Comm. on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate edited by Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, 2002) ISBN 0756734541
- Hague Convention On International Child Abduction: Applicable Law And Institutional Framework Within Certain Convention Countries Report To The Senate by Jesse Helms, Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Diane Publishing, April 2000) ISBN 0756722500
External links
- LookSmart - Senator Joseph Biden, Jr. directory category
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