Biden best known as Senate expert on world affairs

[1corona4u]

Dec. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
WASHINGTON — Under cover of night, Sen. Joseph Biden Jr. drove up to a yellowed stucco mansion in Belgrade where Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic was waiting. It was April 1993, about a year after Serbian forces and paramilitary gangs armed by Milosevic had unleashed a murderous campaign against Bosnia's Croats and Muslims.

Biden had been calling for sanctions and NATO air strikes against the Serbs and lifting a weapons ban on the Bosnians. All that would happen later, but at the time he was getting nowhere. Milosevic was paying attention, though. He invited Biden to his palace for a private chat.

As Biden tells the story in his memoir "Promises to Keep," the Serbian leader argued that the Serbs weren't persecutors but victims. Biden responded with accusations of Serbian atrocities. Milosevic denied them. Finally, Biden recalled, "Milosevic could tell I had just about had it with his lies, and at one point he looked up from the maps and said, without any emotion, 'What do you think of me?"'

"I think you're a damn war criminal, and you should be tried as one."

The incident defines much about Biden. He's known for being blunt and plainspoken. He's also highly regarded in the Senate for his knowledge of the world. As for Milosevic, the air strikes Biden pushed for eventually helped lead to his surrender; Milosevic was tried for war crimes and died in prison.

Biden, 64, is running for president largely on the strength of his foreign affairs expertise. People who know him, however, say that the character he's shown since he experienced tragedy at age 29 is an equally important part of who he is.

In 1972, Biden's wife and baby daughter were killed in a car accident. His two young sons were hospitalized with serious injuries. The accident happened a week before Christmas and six weeks after Biden had been elected one of the youngest U.S. senators ever.

One of his sons, Beau Biden, now 38, the attorney general of Delaware and the father of two children himself, recalls that his father said at the time: "Delaware can get another senator, but my boys can't get another dad."

"Those weren't just words," he added. "He lived them."
(more)

http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2007/12/09/news/elections/303594.txt

[1corona4u]

1. snip from same article;

One veteran Senate Republican, Orrin Hatch of Utah, worked with Biden on the 1994 crime bill that provided federal funding to boost community law enforcement. One part of it was Biden's Violence Against Women Act, which increased training and resources for those who respond to domestic violence and sexual assault.

"He's willing to work with you," Hatch said. "That's why we got a lot done together."

[nyc 4 Biden]

3. I want smart this time. n/t

[1corona4u]

13. Me too.

[K Gardner]

2. "I think you're a damn war criminal, and you should be tried as one."

Words that he should say to the war criminal in the WH.

He's been all over the news this morning re: CIA tapes. I don't think anyone could underestimate Biden's importance, at this critical juncture in our history, to America and the world.

[1corona4u]

5. Who else but Joe would have had the balls to say that...

I mean, really...we need a leader that doesn't suck up to anyone, but is still well liked and respected the world wide.

[ecstatic]

4. I wonder what specific language he added to the IWR

I really do want to know, if anyone has the details.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/24/173956/320

[1corona4u]

7. I don't read daily Kos

too much extreme lefty spin for my taste...I like to form my own opinion, if you know what I mean...

[Skidmore]

6. I like Biden, and I have a lot of respect for him but the reason I will not vote for him

is that periodically the man's mouth-brain connection just plain old short circuits and he blurts out stuff that comes from I just don't know where. We don't need any more of that type of fritzing out.

[1corona4u]

8. Hey, that's your choice...

personally, I think we have bigger fish to fry, than to worry about the preconceived notion that Joe will say something that some people might get upset over...it's just not high on my priority list at the moment.

[youthere]

9. Agree..and to tell you the truth..

I appreciate the fact that he isn't "scripted".

[1corona4u]

10. Exactly...

but that's where this world is headed. You really can't say anything anymore, without someone getting their panties in a twist. It's just ridiculous if you ask me. I'm sick of the PC bullshit. Eventually, we'll all just be walking around like a bunch of cyberbots, saying the same thing, because everything will be sterilized to the point, where we all lose out individuality, and personalities. Freedom of speech will become a moot constitutional right.

[PatSeg]

20. "Preconceived notion"

That's the point. Biden doesn't make any more blunders than anyone else, but the tag has been put on him, so that he can't open his mouth without people reading between the lines. I don't see it. I see the media taking his words out of context and saying "there he goes again". This is just cheap, underhanded politics like Hillary's "cackle" and Dean's "scream" and Kerry's "flip flop".

[skipos]

11. I don't like any candidate 100%

Joe's occassional foot in mouth problem, and few bad votes are overcome by the fact that he is
1. very experienced and knowledgable
2. a great speaker and debater
3. is respected by politicians all along the political spectrum
4. is respected by foreign leaders around the globe. They don't call Rice or Bush, they call Biden.
5. etc

The bonus? He is the only candidate who can pick any VP he wants. He doesn't need to add perceived experience to the ticket like many others... he could have a VP like Obama, Richardson, a female like Gov. Sebelius of Kansas, a 1 term westerner like Gov. Schweitzer of Montana.

[1corona4u]

12. I thnk a lot of us feel that way...

we're not saying he's perfect, but as you point out, he has many, many, other good qualities.

[frazzled]

14. The expertise to support the Iraq invasion initially?

Thanks but no thanks.

[1corona4u]

15. Yeah, I mean...

It's not like he's the ONLY one who has been very vocal about the war since, and actually stands UP to this administration NOW, unlike any of the other candidates. Viable candidates, that is.

[inthebrain]

17. He has a history of attacking the anti war left

He's supported the war and still does. His only beef is the manner in which it was carried out.

[Think82]

33. Might want to watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1op8vwF5UA

[inthebrain]

16. My take exactly

Joe Biden was wrong on that vote and I don't think "I was duped" is an apt excuse. Cheney and Rumsfeld have long history of this kind of shit. One that spans back 30 years.

I would question why some got this right and some got it wrong.

Why did a handfull of senators get it right while a foreign affairs expert got it wrong?

[1corona4u]

18. You're so pathetic. Really, you are.

[ginchinchili]

25. Life is better w/him on ignore.

Every now and then I see "ignore" on a Biden thread and I just smile and move on.

[murbley40]

19. kick

[Steely_Dan]

21. Wow! What a Story

Biden is all too human...I'll take this man's shortcomings any day of the week to get his experience, intelligence and insight. For me there is NO close second.

-Paige

[1corona4u]

22. Isn't it...

[PatSeg]

23. Not for me either

Certainly I could support another Democratic nominee, but never with the passion and certainty I have for Biden.

[1corona4u]

24. I don't have a second choice....

and there are 2 others that I refuse to vote for.

[PatSeg]

26. What a lot of people here don't realize is that when Biden

supporters say they "don't have a second choice", many initially supported another candidate. We did not come to this position easily or lightly.

[1corona4u]

28. Exactly.

And, the choices that remain, won't get my vote. They just won't. To do so would be going against everything I believe, and above all, I will not betray myself.

[BenDavid]

27. also known as a plagiarizer.Joe Biden’s history of plagiarism

http://www.famousplagiarists.com/politics.htm

[1corona4u]

29. WRONG;

Professional Board Clears Biden In Two Allegations of Plagiarism
Print Save Share
Del.icio.usDiggFacebookNewsvinePermalinkAP
Published: May 29, 1989
LEAD: Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. was cleared of allegations that he committed plagiarism in law school by a panel under the authority of the Delaware Supreme Court, The News Journal reported today.

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. was cleared of allegations that he committed plagiarism in law school by a panel under the authority of the Delaware Supreme Court, The News Journal reported today.

The Wilmington newspaper also said Mr. Biden has received a clean bill of health from his doctor after two life-threatening brain aneurysms in 1988.

The Delaware Democrat withdrew from the 1988 Presidential campaign after accusations that he had quoted the British Labor Party leader, Neil Kinnock, without attribution and had plagiarized an article while attending Syracuse University's law school.

Mr. Biden called his failure to attribute the quotes to Mr. Kinnock an oversight.

The alleged law school plagiarism involved an essay Mr. Biden wrote in 1965 for an introductory class on legal methodology. 'A Personal Vindication'

The Senator ended his Presidential campaign Sept. 23, 1987, and, because the allegations involved his standing as a lawyer, he notified the state Supreme Court about them later that year.

The court's Board on Professional Responsibility, consisting of lawyers and non-lawyers, ruled on Dec. 21, 1987, that Mr. Biden had not violated any rules.

Mr. Biden said he decided not to publicize the ruling, which was confidential. ''I guess I had in the back of my mind . . . this was more of a personal vindication than a political one,'' he said.

But he added that he had decided to divulge the ruling because he expected ''somebody would go back someday and check. And I knew there was a hard record there.''

L. Susan Faw, independent disciplinary counsel for the board, confirmed that the ruling had cleared Mr. Biden.


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE1DD1230F93AA15756C0A96F948260



Maybe you could tell them to update their website, given that he was cleared back in 1989.


Jezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

[PatSeg]

30. Do you have to confuse us with the facts???

[1corona4u]

32. I mean, really..........

doesn't anyone pay any attention to anything?!?! I wrote to the jackass and told him to update his website, and that he had half of the facts, and the rest was total bullshit. (famous plagiarist) Unbelievable.

[tabasco]

31. Joe seems like a pretty good guy.

But I can't get behind anyone who voted yes on IWR.

With all of his knowledge, he still got fooled by Bush?

Or was it brazen politics in utter disregard for the lives that would be destroyed?

Either way is a disqualifier for me.

[1corona4u]

34. Yes, well too bad then.