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A Senate Stalwart Who Bounced Back

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The New York Times

Published: October 26, 2008

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

Then a three-term senator from Delaware, 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, Biden, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was leading the Democrats in a successful battle against Robert H. Bork, President Reagan's nominee to the Supreme Court.

Soon after, Biden underwent surgery on two brain aneurysms.

The tumult of that period transformed him into the role of a student of policy and government.

Vital Stats

Age: 65

Born: Scranton, Pa.

Education: Graduate of the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School

Of note:

•As a local councilman in Delaware, he decided in 1971 to challenge a popular incumbent senator and won a tight race. He turned 30 in time to meet the legal age requirement.

•A month later, driving in search of a Christmas tree, Biden's wife, Neilia, and their three young children were struck by another car. Neilia and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed; his two sons were hospitalized but recovered.

•Biden was persuaded to start his Senate term, and five years later, he wed a teacher, Jill Jacobs, and they have a daughter, Ashley.

•In 1988, he underwent surgery to repair two aneurysms in arteries in the brain. The first of the aneurysms tore without warning, leaking blood and causing neck pain and nausea. Biden wore a brace until the correct diagnosis was made. The second aneurysm apparently caused no symptoms and was repaired. Biden returned to the Senate after a seven-month absence.

•Biden has commuted for years between Washington and Wilmington, Del., so he is home every night.

•He has long been ranked as one of the least-wealthy members of the Senate.

Career Highlights

•Led the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995, and Foreign Relations from 2001 to 2003 and since 2007

•The Democrats' point man on crime and champion of the Violence Against Women Act

•Drew ire from some feminists about the treatment of Anita Hill, a witness who alleged sexual harassment, during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court in 1991

•He was the only member of the Judiciary Committee to emerge from the contentious hearing with favorable marks from a majority of Americans in a Gallup poll.

•Ultimately voted against Thomas and, more recently, nominations of John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

•Widely recognized as an educated 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

On Iraq

Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama became colleagues upon Obama's entry to the Senate in 2005 and his appointment to the Foreign Relations Committee. Obama was perhaps best known at the time for opposing military action in Iraq. Biden, who had opposed the Persian Gulf war in 1991, worked in 2002 with the committee's ranking Republican member, Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, on a resolution that would authorize action to remove weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - but not to remove President Saddam Hussein. The White House opposed the idea, which foundered; Biden ultimately voted for the war resolution that Obama opposed.

Since then, Biden has been a critic of the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq and a leading advocate of partitioning Iraq into three semiautonomous regions, for Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - modeled somewhat on the division of Bosnia in the 1990s, an effort he was involved in.

Campaign Issues

Gaffes: A man of strong and many opinions, with an inability to say no to Sunday news programs, Biden has been satirized as the personification of senatorial windiness. In announcing his second bid for the presidency in January 2007, Biden referred to Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Biden said at another point that year that Obama was "not yet ready" for the presidency.

Plagiarism: A devastating incident eventually forced him to exit the presidential primary in 1988. During a speech at the Iowa State Fair, Biden delivered a moving closing monologue about his family's humble roots. It turned out that he had borrowed the passage from a British politician, Neil Kinnock, who had been describing his own personal history. Biden previously attributed the words to him on the stump, but for some reason did not this time.

Corporate ties: Biden has been derided by some critics as the "Senator from MBNA" because of his close ties to the credit card behemoth that was based in Wilmington, Del., until it was bought three years ago by Bank of America.

•Employees of MBNA Corp. had heavily contributed to Biden, pouring more than $214,000 into his campaigns going back to 1989, making the company his single biggest supporter, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

•In 2003, after Biden's son Hunter graduated from law school, MBNA hired him as a management trainee and quickly promoted him to executive vice president.

•Biden became an early supporter of a controversial bankruptcy law that was championed by the company and other credit card issuers and passed in 2005, making it more difficult for consumers to erase their debts.

•Obama, who voted against the measure, recently skewered the Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, for backing the bill, saying it allowed "banks and credit card companies to tilt the playing field in their favor."

•A report last year by the Credit Suisse investment bank concluded the law had a "profound impact" on the subprime mortgage crisis, leading to a rise in foreclosures.

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