Biden will have huge problems with the left in '08 and it might not be a year in which people are looking for moderates. (Maybe, we won't know that for a long time to come.)
Biden voted for the Bankruptcy bill, he said this about the filibuster (which he voted to uphold and he also voted to deny Alito the seat on the Supreme Court):
U.S. Senator Joseph Biden (D-De) Is Interviewed On Cbs'S "Early Show"
(01-27-2006)
SMITH: Your colleague, Senator John Kerry, is interested in putting together a filibuster to block the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Do you want to help him out?
BIDEN: No. I think that a filibuster is not likely to bear any fruit here. We already have four Democrats who've announced they're going to vote for Judge Alito. That gets it down to a pretty slim majority.
I think we should make fulsome statements as to why -- in my case, why I think Judge Alito should not go on the bench. He gives much too much power to the presidency, thinks the president can go to war without the consent of Congress, et cetera.
But a filibuster, I think, is not likely to occur. But who knows? One man can generate a filibuster.
On the Iraq War Withdrawal Amendment:
THE WAR IN IRAQ /
Kerry's stand on fixed date for troop pullout roils party /
As the Senate prepares to debate issue, Democrats attempt to create a broader consensus
Houston Chronicle,(06-21-2006)
By KATE ZERNIKE
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON - When Sen. John Kerry was their presidential nominee in 2004, Democrats fervently wished that he would express himself firmly about the Iraq war.
Kerry has found his resolve. But it has not made his fellow Democrats any happier. They fear the latest evolution of Kerry's views on Iraq may complicate their hopes of taking back the majority in Congress in 2006.
As the Senate prepared for what promises to be a bitter debate starting today about whether to begin pulling troops from Iraq, the Democratic leadership wants its members to rally behind a proposal that calls for some troops to move out by the end of this year but would not set a fixed date for complete withdrawal.
Kerry has insisted on setting a date, for all U.S. combat troops to pull out in 12 months, saying that anything less is too cautious.
In drawing up a schedule for today's session, the Democratic leadership has arranged for its plan to be debated first, pushing Kerry and his proposal into the evening, too late for the nightly television news, to starve it of some attention.
Senate Democrats have been loath to express their opinions publicly, determined to emphasize a united front.
But interviews suggest a frustration with Kerry, never popular among the caucus, and still unpopular among many Democrats for failing to beat a president they considered vulnerable.
Privately, some of his Democratic peers complain that he is too focused on another date: 2008, and the next presidential campaign.
Kerry describes the war in Iraq as a mistake, even though he once supported it.
His critics say they believe the new stand reflects more politics than principle, and ignores other Democrats' concern that setting a fixed date will leave those in tough re-election fights open to Republican taunts that they are "cutting and running" in Iraq.
The Democrats' exasperation has increased in the past week, as they postponed a vote on Kerry's amendment to try to fashion a broader consensus among themselves.
Democrats up for re-election asked him not to propose a fixed date. But Kerry, several Democrats said, was unwilling to budge from that idea.
In the end, Kerry agreed only to extend his deadline, from Dec. 31 of this year to July 2007.
Kerry's insistence on pushing ahead with his own plan has left the Democrats divided, and open to renewed Republican accusations that they are indecisive and weak.
"There are certain Democrats who think that this is over, that we've lost or that there's nothing constructive the president is going to do," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, who, like Kerry, is considering running for the presidency.
"What it really is, in fairness to them, is a frustration that they see no learning curve on the part of this administration. I can understand that frustration. But setting a date is not a plan."
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Kerry characterized his statement as the position of strength, and said his party had made a mistake not to take a firm stand on a pullout date.
"The Democrats need to be strong and stand up ... ," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, we should go right at Karl Rove and his phony tough talk."
There are Democrats who take unpopular stands and piss off the Dem caucus and then there are Dems who stand and watch and criticize and really take no stand before it has been poll-tested for it's tepidness. I think I know where Biden is.
BTW, Kerry was 100% right in pushing this amendment. He was criticized for this on political grounds. Ahm, he could not have been more right, on political grounds, as it was the #1 issue in '06.
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