tyreay

Joseph Biden Can Now Strut His Stuff

January 16, 2007
By Donna Brazile, Roll Call Contributing Writer

It used to be hard not to turn off the TV or switch cable channels when Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) had the microphone. Not this time. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden has one of the best seats in Congress to help shape and influence America's role in the world. Take the nationally televised hearing last week featuring none other than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

This was his moment, and for a while I worried that Biden would harken back to the old days when he got "lost in translation." This time, he was prepared and conducted himself like a seasoned statesman. He also got some leading Republicans, such as Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), to air their strong opposition to President Bush's new mission or strategy to stabilize Iraq.

Although this is Biden's moment, he shares it with others running for president. At a time when Congress is preparing to debate the merits of this new (if you can call it different from what has been tried and proved unsuccessful before) strategy, Biden appears ready to push for a "Plan B" -- if and when this current strategy fails to produce the outcome the president believes is necessary to declare victory and bring our troops home.

As fresh new troops arrive in Baghdad this week for a mission that remains in flux, the newly emboldened Congress must hold the Bush administration accountable and Biden must continue to press for a sound and effective policy shift. Still, the challenge is for the chairman to spend some quality time with his colleagues to help forge a consensus policy and a way forward, while at the same time continuing to establish his credentials as someone worthy of top-tier candidate status. Although potential rivals surround Biden on both sides of the dais -- Hagel and Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.), Barack Obama (Ill.) and John Kerry (Mass.) -- only he, as chairman, has the opportunity to lead and forge a consensus around an alternative option, or Plan B. Biden's moment won't be judged by how his sound bites play on a given day, as compared with Obama's, Dodd's or Kerry's, but whether, over the coming weeks, he can produce a policy. If so, he leaps to the top tier.

For weeks, Biden strongly and forthrightly has opposed the new troop surge and has provided crucial leadership at a critical time on a matter of great national importance. When others have chosen to equivocate, testing the wind before taking a stance, Biden has shown courage and fortitude in his vocal opposition. For many Americans, who both oppose the surge and care about our troops and the right outcome in Iraq, Biden has an opportunity to strut his stuff and to come out of this process with a new cadre of fans.

Although Biden's alternative plan for decentralizing/partitioning Iraq did not get any traction from the Iraq Study Group, it did play an important role in the 2006 elections by offering Democrats who opposed both "stay the course" and "cut and run" another alternative to highlight. This at a time when most Republicans and some in the media were quick to say, "Democrats offer no alternative."

With Biden's regular TV appearances and his frank criticism of the administration's terrible incompetence in managing the Iraq War, Biden offered to Democrats and Republicans alike another alternative.

Perhaps the 33-year veteran of the Senate was at his best during the second day, in what is expected to be three more weeks of hearings, when Biden parsed no words and said, "We have tried this kind of escalation twice before, in Baghdad. It failed. If we try it again, it will fail again. ... In all my years in the Senate, I don't think we have faced a more pivotal moment. Failure in Iraq will not be confined to Iraq -- it will do terrible damage to our ability to protect American interests all over the world, and for a long time to come."

And he's right. Even the Republicans know he's right. At that same committee meeting, GOP Sens. Hagel, Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), John Sununu (N.H.) and George Voinovich (Ohio) all voiced deep skepticism, if not outright opposition, to the president's plan. Hagel said, "It is not in America's national interest to increase our troop presence in Iraq. The president's strategy will cost more American lives, sink us deeper into the bog of Iraq making it more difficult to get out, cost billions of dollars more, further strain an American military that has already reached its breaking point, further diminish America's standing in the Middle East, and continue to allow the Iraqis to walk away from their responsibilities."

For now, Biden must continue to lead Democrats to help forge a bipartisan consensus on finding a way out of Iraq. It's his committee, along with the Armed Services Committee, that must defend and protect our troops and stop the escalation of the conflict in Iraq.

We all support a stable, peaceful Middle East, but the nation now is looking to Congress to help lead us there without sacrificing more of our troops. And after Congress has paved that new road to stability, it's men like Joseph Biden who will be in a position to go to the voters in those early primary and caucus states and tell their stories.

Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore in 2000, runs her own grass-roots political consulting firm.

Visit Index of /

__________________
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. ~Richard Armour

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle. ~Alexis de Tocqueville

indago

You mean THE Joseph Biden?

musica

i dunnnoo hes got the looks but uhknow ive been disapointed by a pretty package, is he still runnin???? anyway if he cant get close to democcractive law he aint gettin my vote....musica........possum........catheri p.g. ward federal & international judgeW....law reasearcher::::

abrubttruth

September 10, 2008

Senator Biden was quoted yesterday in a CNN news article <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/09/biden.special.needs/index.html>
and addressed the issue of "special needs kids" as children with a "birth defect", a completely misinformed statement of truth. In fact, special needs children come from a variety of backgrounds and are not necessarily physically or emotionally or mentally handicapped, but develop at a differing rate when compared to other children their age.

I am surprised at his candor, and am considering looking more deeply into his educational platform when it comes to accommodating the needs of children from a special needs background. His statement remains, to me, incomplete, and perhaps a further address of what his true points of view are, or could be, about special needs children and educational directions could be elaborated upon.