Joseph R. Biden Jr.: A Senate Stalwart Who Bounced Back

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: A Senate Stalwart Who Bounced Back
By PATRICK HEALY and MICHAEL LUO
Published: August 23, 2008

September 1987 was a month of ruin and renewal for Joe Biden.

Then a three-term senator from Delaware, Mr. Biden saw his bid for the Democratic nomination for president in tatters after he had been caught cribbing from other politicians’ speeches. He exited the race amid a chorus of Washington chatter that the presidency would never be his. Yet just as his candidacy was ending, Mr. Biden, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was leading the Democrats in a successful battle against Robert H. Bork, President Ronald Reagan’s nominee to the Supreme Court. And soon after, Mr. Biden underwent surgery on two brain aneurysms. Had he continued running for president, friends say, the rigors might have exacerbated his health problems and even killed him.

The tumult of that period transformed Mr. Biden: He settled down into a role as a statesman of the Senate, becoming a serious student of policy and government. As the Democrats’ point man on crime and as a champion of the Violence Against Women Act, among other bills, Mr. Biden became a close ally of labor unions, civil rights leaders and women’s groups. While he drew ire from some feminists over the treatment of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings, in 1991, he was also the only member of the Judiciary Committee to emerge with favorable marks from a majority of Americans, according to a Gallup poll.

He has become widely recognized as a respected voice on foreign policy, the two Iraq wars (against the first, for the second), the Balkans conflict, global AIDS prevention and a wealth of national security issues. From his perch as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, he has aggressively criticized President Bush for his unilateralist approach to the world.

It was this expertise in foreign policy that helped raise Mr. Biden’s standing with Mr. Obama, who announced in text and e-mail messages early Saturday that Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., 65, was his choice to be the next vice president of the United States. An Irish Catholic son of Scranton, Pa., the sort of white, working-class city that Mr. Obama is fighting to win this November, Mr. Biden is in some ways a political elder brother to the 47-year-old Mr. Obama: competitive and protective, far more experienced in government and politics, and already a veteran orator when Mr. Obama was still finding his voice....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/us/politics/24bio.html?pagewanted=all

[Cha]

1. I wonder what that

whole plagiarism is about? Like Obama borrowing from Deval?

[DeepModem Mom]

2. I don't know a lot about it either. I don't know if it was careless, done by a staffer...

deliberate, etc. This article sort of leaves the impression that it was something that a still immature Biden might have done, but after the events described, he emerged a changed person, whose reputation hasn't been questioned since (except maybe re. one of his verbal gaffes).

[Cha]

3. Yeah, that's what I got..

It's encouraging to know he learns from his mistakes.

[dbmk]

4. As far as I know it..

..he borrowed parts of a speech by Neil Kinnock of the British Labour party. And usually crediting him for it. Except once - which they got on film. So, I guess you could say yeh, sort of like that.

(and to throw in some local and completely irrelevant trivia; Neil Kinnocks son is married to the leader of the Danish Social Democrats.)

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks for the info, dbmk (and the local note). nt

[Cha]

8. WOW..no wonder someone posted Neil Kinnock's

reaction to Biden being our VP last night! :)

I was like.."O-Kay."

[MiniMe]

6. zidzi, it was a mistake by Biden and he has admitted

What happened is that he had been quoting somebody throughout the primaries. In a debate, he used the quote but forgot to give the author credit. He was wrong, but it really isn't as big of a deal as it is made out to be.

Watch this video of Biden on Letterman last year for more info.

edited to add the link which I stupidly left off

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x173408

[Cha]

9. Thank you Mini-Me!

I knew it had to be no big deal ..just our fascist press doing its job to take down Dems and get empty tools elected like bu$hit&mccain.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Just found a new Media Matters piece on the plagiarism allegation. Posted here --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6726622

[Cha]

10. Thanks, DeepModem Mom..

There's so much the m$m has to answer for.

[Hippo_Tron]

11. And I wonder if his campaign would've survived if the internet had been around back then

It certainly would've been much easier for people to spread the word that he attributed it to Kinnock every other time.