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Title: Joe Biden: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Source:
CFR
URL Source: http://www.cfr.org/bios/1451/joseph_r_biden_jr.html
Published: Aug 23, 2008
Author: CFR
Post Date: 2008-08-23 17:53:32 by Arator
Keywords: Biden, Mixed, Bag
Views: 180
Comments: 13
The Good: For years, Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been calling for the prison camp at Guantanamo to be shut down, saying it has “become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world.” Biden says the prisoners should be moved to the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has cosponsored legislation that would release all Guantanamo prisoners who have not been charged. This would mean releasing nearly all the prisoners. Biden voted against the Military Commissions Act. Sen. Biden (D-DE), who was in the Senate at the passage of FISA in 1978, spoke out against Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, which he called “unconstitutional” and an “illegal expansion of presidential power” in a January 2006 Miami Herald op-ed. But like many of his fellow candidates who have spoken out on this issue, Biden’s objections to the program appear to lie more in Bush’s circumvention of the courts than in the eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. “There is nothing the president needed to do to protect Americans that could not have been done through FISA,” said Biden, citing provisions in the act for emergency seventy-two-hour warrantless wiretapping, and even for fifteen- day surveillance without a warrant in case of a war declaration. Sen. Biden (D-DE) was one of the four Democratic candidates at the April 2007 debate to say he does not believe in the war on terror. He has argued that the phrase and the doctrine behind it are problematic. “Terrorism is a means, not an end, and very different groups and countries are using it toward very different goals. If we can’t even identify the enemy or describe the war we’re fighting, it’s difficult to see how we will win,” he said in 2006. Still, Biden strongly opposes permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. In August 2006, Biden sponsored an amendment, which passed, opposing any attempt to create permanent bases in Iraq. In early 2007, Biden cosponsored the Iraq War Policy Bill, which expressed disagreement with President Bush’s troop surge plan, though it did call for a continuation of military operations against al-Qaeda and other insurgents in Anbar province. That bill failed in the Senate. Biden also sponsored the Iraq War Policy resolution in January 2007. That measure expressed that “it is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen its military involvement in Iraq, particularly by escalating the United States military force presence in Iraq.” The resolution also failed in the Senate. Sen. Biden (D-DE) in general espouses free trade policies but has been a recent critic of Bush administration bilateral and regional agreements on opening markets. He voted against the creation of FTAs with Oman in 2006 and with Singapore and Chile in 2003. He also voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in 2005. All of those bills were passed in the Senate. Biden criticized CAFTA, as well as the Singapore and Chile bilateral deals because, he said, they lacked effective provisions to ensure enforcement of labor and environmental standards. Biden also voted against the Trade Act of 2002, which reauthorized the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), granting certain trade benefits to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been a prominent voice calling for “hard-headed diplomacy” with Iran. Biden says he supports direct engagement with the country. He also has called for the implementation of “coordinated international sanctions” on Iran, adding “we should complement this pressure by presenting a detailed, positive vision for U.S.-Iran relations if Iran does the right thing.” Biden has spoken out forcefully about a possible war with Iran. "War with Iran is not just a bad option. It would be a disaster," he wrote in December 2007. Biden has threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Bush if he starts a war with Iran without Congressional approval. The Bad: Sen. Biden (D-DE) advocates sending U.S. troops to Darfur. He says 2,500 U.S. troops would likely be sufficient to stem the violence. In July 2007, he introduced a resolution with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) calling for the deployment of an international peacekeeping mission to Darfur. That resolution passed unanimously. Biden voted to confirm Michael Hayden as CIA director, despite Hayden’s role in administering the NSA wiretapping program. He did not always object to the idea of a war on terror. In 2002, Biden wrote in The Hill that the goal of the war on terror should be “to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the means to make them.” Sen. Biden (D-DE) is a self-described Zionist. Biden believes the United States should maintain extremely close ties with Israel, because in his experience, the Middle East has only progressed when “the Arab nations have known that there is no daylight between us and Israel,” as he said in a March 2007 interview with Forward. Biden dismissed the Iraq Study Group’s claims that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is related to the problems of the Iraq War, saying on Shalom TV in March 2007 that Israel’s behavior has “nothing to do” with Iraq. Biden cosponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. That act, which passed, expressed U.S. support for a two-state solution. It also deemed the Palestinian Authority a terrorist organization and cut off all U.S. funding until it renounces terrorism, acknowledges Israel’s right to exist, and holds up its former agreements with Israel. He has regularly supported military and financial aid packages to Israel throughout his long career on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which he is now chairman. Sen. Biden (D-DE) has supported the U.S. policy of economic embargo and now calls for the development of a strategy for democratization in a post-Castro Cuba. In a CNN interview in 2006, Biden said, “We should be putting together a plan as to how we are going to play a positive role in moving that country, after the Castros are gone, to—more toward democratization and liberalization in their society.” In 1996, Biden voted for the Helms-Burton Act, also known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act. That act, which was passed, sought more stringent international sanctions against the Castro government. In 2000, Biden voted for the U.S.-China Trade Relations Act, which normalized trade relations with China. Although Sen. Biden (D-DE) initially supported the war in 2002, he has become one of its fiercest critics in the Senate. With Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden proposed a five-point plan (PDF) for the future of Iraq. The plan calls for a federalized Iraq with three regional governments (Kurd, Sunni Arab, and Shiite Arab) and a centralized government for management of “truly common interests” like oil and border defense. The plan also advocates a “regional non- aggression pact” and a redeployment of U.S. troops by the end of 2007. Biden says that a “small residual force” of U.S. troops should remain in the region even after that redeployment. In 1999, Biden voted in favor of the Africa Free Trade bill, which authorized a “new trade and investment policy for sub-Sahara Africa” and the granting of trade benefits to Caribbean countries. Through that bill, the U.S. tied trade benefits for sub-Saharan African countries to those countries’ free market and democratic policies. Biden also voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993. Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been a prominent voice calling for legislation to stop climate change. In February 2007, after the release of the IPCC report, Biden urged fellow lawmakers and President Bush to take action, saying, “We have wasted the past six years on the sidelines of international negotiations and our leadership is needed to produce a global solution.” Biden cosponsored the Clean Power Act of 2005, a bill which would have implemented a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions had it become law. With Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), Biden has proposed two Senate resolutions on climate change. They put forward the Lugar-Biden Climate Change Resolution (PDF), passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May 2006. More recently, Biden and Lugar proposed Senate Resolution 30, which calls for the United States to comply with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and to establish a “bipartisan Senate observer group” to monitor international climate change negotiations. In November 2007, Biden said as president, he would increase humanitarian aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year, triple what it is now (NPR). He advocates tying non-security aid to Pakistan to “progress in developing democratic institutions and meeting good-governance norms.” Before Bhutto’s assassination, Biden said he would reexamine “big-ticket weapons systems” in U.S. military aid to Pakistan, including F-16 jets and P-3 maritime surveillance aircraft, if Musharraf did not “restore his nation to the democratic path.” Biden cosponsored a resolution condemning Musharraf’s imposition of a state of emergency, and calling on Musharraf to relinquish his military post, which he later did. Biden said in a November 2007 speech that increasing U.S. resources in Afghanistan “would embolden Pakistan’s government to take a harder line on the Taliban and al-Qaeda.” The Ugly: In 1999, Biden and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) cosponsored a bill to authorize the president to use “all necessary force” in the Kosovo conflict. In 2003, Biden voted in favor of the appropriation of $87 billion to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden, who sits on the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, has said the Department of Homeland Security has inadequately responded to the country’s security challenges. If elected president, he says he would create a Homeland Security and Public Safety Trust Fund “to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations and invest in law enforcement." He wants an additional $10 billion a year for the next five years to be allocated to homeland security, raised by increasing taxes on the very wealthy. This would be used to fund the hiring of an additional 1,000 FBI agents and 50,000 police officers, among other items. In 2006, Biden voted against making FEMA independent from the DHS. Biden voted in favor of the USA Patriot Act in 2001 and voted to adopt a conference report to reauthorize it in 2006. In 2005, Biden voted for the Homeland Security Grant Program Amendment, which restored $565 million in cuts to first-responder programs. That amendment passed. He also voted for the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, which would create a National Intelligence Authority (NIA) that would serve to facilitate U.S. intelligence activity. That act would also create a National Counterterrorism Center.
Poster Comment: Obama could have done alot worse than Biden. Biden's got some good points, along with some very bad ones. But Biden's mixed bag is certainly better than neoconish blackholes like Evan Bayh or Chet Edwards.
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#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
What do you think of this pick?
Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.
Americans have a false choices. We can do no worse. Choosing the hood color of our executioner is the sport at hand.
He's all over the board - some things are dead-on correct, and others are lunacy. He needs to get his implants tuned to the correct frequency.
And that clown is all over the place.......just a few short months ago he was telling the world that the big "O" lacked foreign policy experience and it wasn't something to be learning on the job (or words to that effect); so then, when he is offered the 2nd in charge position, he's the greatest thing since Mom's Apple Pie. Furthermore, he was singing the praise of Mc! Hmmmm.........musta been that quick trip to E-ran and Aff Gani Stan stuck alongside the Wailing Wall that made the guy the best choice for liar in chief. Yep. Guess that's it, cause the nooz sure didn't print that he had gone to any diplomatic schools in the last 19 months, or that he was on the Foreign Affairs Committee, or whatever.
In my view, Obama believes that Biden can help him get elected. Post-election... I doubt he'll be Obama's Cheney. You're likely to see him at foreign funerals and maybe given responsibilities over condom distributions in Darfur or similar humanitarian missions.
Antiparty - find out why, think about 'how'
Our "choice" with the establishment is whether we prefer death by firing squad or lethal injection. It doesn't make a lot of difference either way and the candidates they foist off on us are two wings of the same evil bird of prey. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. It's interesting how the Dems embrace JBT's when it suits them. Isn't it? They won majority in Congress by lying, and now, their 'people' want more of it. While they know the evils, they choose to have it served by their own, to their own. There is no greater evil.
I'm so sick of hearing that refrain about every born again "anti-war" Democrat. "I didn't really mean it" or "I was misled" is just another way of saying "I'm lazy, don't want to rock the boat, and I go along with whatever's popular at the time." People like Hillary, Biden, and Kerry are almost worse than McCain and Bush. At least with McCain you know where he stands: crazy warmonger then, crazy warmonger now. Biden was crazy warmonger then, peacenik now (now that the polls say that the war isn't a popular vote-getter).
I can live with it. He needed a good attack dog in a V.P., he's got that with Biden. And Biden is very knowledgeable about foreign policy and brings things Barack Obama needs to the ticket to handle McNasty when he's in his desperate little Admiral son mode willing to do anything to try to get his way. This ticket will win in November, which is just the start of things. How well Obama does depends largely on how well he keeps and asserts his independence from those who really control power in the United States. And this is a tense time anyway when I wonder if the current criminal administration will even surrender power, allow the election and inauguration of the new president to happen. One of the reasons I so want to see the Democratic side win, is I am convinced McCain is the only acceptable replacement to the shadow government to Bush. I want then to be forced into doing the power gambit now, not after the American people have been further processed and the Constitution gutted further as we slip down the slippery slope we are on to fascism. If they are going to assert control, let their mask come off now and let it happen now.
If they are going to assert control, let their mask come off now and let it happen now. Great points, Mike. I agree. We may not survive another PNAC president and an Obama admin at least gives us a chance to defeat them and put them out of power permanently. BTW, at the RNC next week, I will be carrying a sign with the following message: ___Psy-opsing And on the other side: McCain= Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.
People like Hillary, Biden, and Kerry are almost worse than McCain and Bush. At least with McCain you know where he stands: crazy warmonger then, crazy warmonger now. Biden was crazy warmonger then, peacenik now (now that the polls say that the war isn't a popular vote-getter). well said. it's not laziness, however. they're deliberately lying. they will say whatever is politically expedient at the time. that includes what they say about each other. they disgust me. but what disgusts me even more are those who willfully dismiss and/or excuse the lies. Disgusted, may i borrow your name?
Do You Know What Freedom Really Means? Freedom4um.com
the same thing was said of clinton. no need to worry. they're all collaborators in the opposite side fraud for sheople consumption. in reality, it's just one smooth transition from one corrupt administration to the next.
Do You Know What Freedom Really Means? Freedom4um.com
the same thing was said of clinton. no need to worry. they're all collaborators in the opposite side fraud for sheople consumption. in reality, it's just one smooth transition from one corrupt administration to the next. Yup! And, those who believe that the DEMs will roll back the fiat powers that BushCo seized with "signing statements and clever legal interpretations by the AG" are truly naive. The DEMs have their "fondest wishes" list and "select enemies to do in" first, before any serious discussion about damage to the constitution can proceed....
#2. To: Arator (#0)
Obama could have done alot worse than Biden.
#3. To: Arator (#1)
#4. To: Arator (#0)
#5. To: Arator (#1)
#6. To: nikki (#2)
Americans have a false choices. We can do no worse. Choosing the hood color of our executioner is the sport at hand.
Lord Acton
#7. To: James Deffenbach (#6)
Our "choice" with the establishment is whether we prefer death by firing squad or lethal injection. It doesn't make a lot of difference either way and the candidates they foist off on us are two wings of the same evil bird of prey.
#8. To: Arator (#0)
(Edited)
Although Sen. Biden (D-DE) initially supported the war in 2002, he has become one of its fiercest critics in the Senate
#9. To: Arator (#1)
"You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power -- he's free again. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
#10. To: Ferret Mike (#9)
(Edited)
One of the reasons I so want to see the Democratic side win, is I am convinced McCain is the only acceptable replacement to the shadow government to Bush. I want then to be forced into doing the power gambit now, not after the American people have been further processed and the Constitution gutted further as we slip down the slippery slope we are on to fascism.
___Neocons
___Attacked
WTC & Pentagon!
PNAC signee =
neocon tool =
TRAITOR!
#11. To: Rupert_Pupkin, Disgusted (#8)
I'm so sick of hearing that refrain about every born again "anti-war" Democrat. "I didn't really mean it" or "I was misled" is just another way of saying "I'm lazy, don't want to rock the boat, and I go along with whatever's popular at the time."
#12. To: Ferret Mike (#9)
And this is a tense time anyway when I wonder if the current criminal administration will even surrender power, allow the election and inauguration of the new president to happen.
#13. To: christine (#12)
And this is a tense time anyway when I wonder if the current criminal administration will even surrender power, allow the election and inauguration of the new president to happen.
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