• Criticism: As a freshman, he was named Time Magazine 200 faces for the future in 1974

Background

Entering Washington, D.C. at the age of 30, Democrat Joe Biden is currently the 47th Vice President of the United States. Previously, he served six terms representing the citizens of Delaware in the United States Senate.

Early Life

Born Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden was the first of four sibling raised into his mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan's, Irish American Roman Catholicism. At the age of 10, the Bidens moved to the Delaware suburb of New Castle County, where Joseph R. Biden, Sr. was a car salesman. In 1961, Joe graduated from Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware and in 1965 from the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware with a double B.A. in History and Political Science. He moved onto the Syracuse University College of Law, married Neilia Hunter in 1966 with whom he had three children, Joseph R. III (Beau), Robert Hunter, and Amy. He graduated from law school in 1968 and a year later was admitted to the Delaware Bar.

Rise of the Young Senator from Delaware

Joe Biden was elected by the citizens of Delaware to the United States Senate in 1973, beating the popular Republican incumbent Senator J. Caleb Boggs (link) and becoming the fifth youngest Senator in U.S. history to enter the office. The political arena in 1972 was such that a freshman could gain such a big win; Boggs had intended to retire, leaving the office to be fought over between two Republicans, U.S. Representative Pete du Pont and Wilmington, Delaware Mayor Harry G. Haskell, Jr. President Nixon stepped in and convinced Boggs to run again to avoid inner party turmoil, which Boggs agreed to without entusiasm. With Republican underestimation of the new 18-year old voter block and Biden's political talent, Boggs lost the election. The victory, however, was bittersweet. Shortly after, Biden's wife Neilia and their infant daughter Amy were killed in a car accident. Beau and Hunter were injured but safely recovered. Biden was sworn into the Senate at the bedside of his sons. In order to both care for his sons and remain in the Senate, Biden began commuting the hour and a half Amtrak ride from Wilmington, Delaware to Washington, D.C. He remarried in 1977 to Jill Tracy Jacobs, they have one child, Ashley. In 1988, Biden was hospitalized for two brain aneurysms and was out of the Senate for seven months. Since 1991, Biden has served as an adjunct professor at the Widener University School of Law teaching seminars in constitutional law. Biden's elder son Beau was elected Attorney General of Delaware in 2006 and is a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard where he serves in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. (JAG). Biden's younger son Hunter is a lawyer in Washington, D.C. and serves on the board of directors of Amtrak.

An Experienced Voice in the Senate

In the current Democratically controlled 110th Congress (January 3, 2007-2009) Joe Biden serves on the following Senate (sub)committees: Chairman of Committee on Foreign Relations, Committee on the Judiciary (Subcommittees on Antitrust Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, Chairman of Crime and Drugs, Human Rights and the Law, Immigration Border Security and Citizenship, and Technology Terrorism and Homeland Security. Additionally, he is the Co-Chairman of the Caucus on International Narcotics Control.

As a long-time member of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary (chaired from 1987 until 1995), Biden has crafted legislation on drug policy, crime prevention and civil liberties and has presided over the Senate confirmation hearings of Robert Bork (not confirmed) in 1987 and Clarence Thomas (confirmed) in 1991. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (a.k.a. the Biden Crime Law) which banned the manufacturing of 19 specific semi-automatic assault weapons, expanded the federal death penalty and refined or created new federal offenses relating to immigration, hate crimes, sex offenses, and gang-related crime. Biden also created the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA), which contains measures to combat domestic violence and provide billions of federal dollars to such projects as the Austin, Texas based National Domestic Violence Hotline which require equipment and expertise. Although parts of the VAWA were deemed unconstitutional, it was reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. As chairman of the International Narcotics Control Caucus, Biden created the U.S. "Drug Czar" position which oversees and coordinates national drug control policy. In 2003 he put forth the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act (RAVE Act) in an effort to battle ecstasy and other date rape drugs. Additionally, in 2004 he worked on a bill outlawing sport related performance-enhancing steroids.

Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee

On the Foreign Relations Committee, which he currently chairs, Biden has gained expertise in foreign policy, national security and arms control. He served as the ranking minority member and chaired from June 2001 through 2003. Biden was at the center of the 1990's Balkan conflict debate after traveling there several times, calling Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic a war criminal and advocating NATO air strikes in the region. His advice was influential to President Clinton's decision to act militarily. After 9/11, Biden was supportive of the President's war in Afghanistan and his insistence on the removal of Saddam Hussein from Iraq. The Bush administration, however, rejected a resolution by Biden and Sen. Richard Lugar (link) that authorized military action against Hussein only after exhausting diplomacy. In October 2002, Biden nonetheless voted for the final resolution to support the war in Iraq. Biden has more or less ran with his party on the issue of Iraq; he initially supported the Administration's effort and voted for the money to pay for it, but he voted against the troop surge and feels the war needs to be both internationalized and realistically talked about with the American citizens.

In November 2006, Biden and the President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations Leslie Gelb, wrote up a strategy to end sectarian violence in Iraq. The 'Biden-Gelb Plan' rejects the strategy presently used to harness a civil war and it rejects the notion of an immediate withdrawal. The plan calls for a "a third way that can achieve the two objectives most Americans share: to bring out troops home without leaving chaos behind." Biden envisions system of federalization under a unified central government. The Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis would each inherit their own semi-autonomous region, dividing the most contentious religious sects.

1988 Presidential Campaign

Biden's first campaign for President started promisingly but was derailed by accusations of plagiarism. While giving a speech in Iowa, Biden did not attribute a speech that did not substantially differ from British politician Neil Kinnock. It was a speech he had given frequently, and with attribution. Unfortunately for Biden, the Iowa speech was the only one captured on video. He withdrew from the race shortly thereafter.

2008 Presidential Campaign

Joe Biden campaigned for the 2008 Democratic Nomination for President of the United States. Biden's visit to the UN to advertise the Biden-Gelb Plan for Iraq has begged many to ask, could Biden be fashioning himself into a potential '08 Secretary of State? The former Presidential hopeful has addressed such questions with a firm, "Hell, no."

Biden has been the only Democratic candidate to forcefully advocate for partitioning Iraq Partitioning of Iraq. Fellow Senator Sam Brownback(R-KS) Sam Brownback and Biden held a joint campaign appearance to advocate their support of splitting Iraq into three separate ethnic regions.

After faring poorly in the Iowa Caucus, Biden withdrew from the presidential race on 03 January 2008 (Source: Reuters).

Professional Positions

• New Castle County's county council. 1970-1972 U.S senator. (Delaware) Longest serving senator in Delaware's history. 1973-ongoing

• Chairman of U.S Senate Committee of the Judiciary. 1987-1995. Ranking Minority Member: 1981-1987 and 1995-1997. Dealt with issues related to drug policy,crime prevention, and civil liberties.

• Ranking minority member of the U.S Senate Committee on foreign relations: 1997-2001, 2003-ongoing. Chairman of the U.S Senate Committee on foreign relations: 2001-2003. He called on Libya to release political prisoner, Fathi Elajami, called the Serbian leader at the time, Slobodan Milosevic a "war criminal"

Accomplishments

Works published

• Toward Enlightend Nationalism- (October 28 2003). Address to the Peoples' Congress of Libya- (March 3 2004)
• The Purpose of American Power- (April 12 2005) America's Purpose: Leadership for a new Security Consensus- (September 6 2005).
• Turning the Corner in Iraq- (November, 21, 2005). Commencement Address at Syracuse University, College of Law- (May 12 2006)
• National Security and Civil Rights- (April 3 2007)

Criticism

Additional Information

Biography Links

• White House Bio