Update: The Wilmington News Journal has now corrected their story based on a statement from the Vice President. According to Biden, he did not ask the columnist to encourage his son Beau to run; he asked the columnist to encourage senator Ted Kaufman to run – assuming that Beau elected to forego a race.
As Ed notes, if anything, this correction seems to suggest it’s more likely that Beau will not run.
For months now, politicos in DC and Delaware have been waiting for confirmation that there would be closely-fought, high-stakes battle for Joe Biden’s Senate seat. Congressman Mike Castle was seen as the only Republican with a prayer of taking the seat. The entry of Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden – son of the Vice President – would set up a high-profile battle that the whole nation would watch.
The only problem is that Biden has so far refused to jump in. Delaware Democrats are growing worried, because there’s really no ‘Plan B’ if Beau doesn’t run. And based on his father’s comments today, it sounds like Delaware Democrats may be out of luck:
Our conversation ended with a surprising request from the vice president as he hurried off to a national security meeting. Spontaneously, he turned to the possible Delaware senatorial campaign of his son Beau.
Biden: “If you run into Beau, talk him into running; he respects you.”
Me: “I don’t think he wants to run, though.”
Biden: “I don’t think he does either. I know he doesn’t want to. … I’m so proud of the job he’s done [as attorney general]…”
I doubt Beau Biden “respects” me, but it was quite startling to hear the vice president confirm what many Democrats fear — that Beau does not want to be the candidate.
If Joe Biden were a normal politician – one who put his brain in gear before speaking – he wouldn’t share something like this unless Beau were pretty much decided against a run. Since that’s not the way Joe Biden works, we have to consider that this may just have been a reckless and unintentional slip. Delaware Democrats will certainly hope so. Otherwise, Mike Castle will have just become a prohibitive favorite to seize a Senate seat that Republicans have not held since 1949.
Update: Nate Silver points out that if Beau Biden doesn’t run, the Democrats are basically down to 57 Senate seats before the cycle even starts. (Presumably, he assumes a victory by John Hoeven in North Dakota’s open Senate seat.)
When Al Franken was seated as the Democrats’ 60th vote in the Senate, who would have thought that people would soon speculate about the chances of the GOP winning the Senate just a year later? The odds are still long – about as long as winning the Senate seats of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Ted Kennedy.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Moe Lane (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 1:39PM EST (link)[breathe]
[check email]
[get a cup of coffee]
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
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Also: DOOM.
Moe Lane (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 1:40PM EST (link)By the way… HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
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Gotta Love It
Brian Faughnan (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 1:46PM EST (link)The Vice President is worried that his son will waste his talents in the Senate, and deprive the people of Delaware of the great work he’s going as AG.
Beau is a real trooper. Count yourself lucky to have him, Delawar… ites.
Maybe the One needs to send his 2008 Campaign goons to Delaware,
USNJIMRET (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 2:00PM EST (link)so they can ‘convince’ the apparently reluctant, but perhaps more in touch with things Beau, that the growing tide of public discontent with Democrats isn’t really what it looks like.
Perhaps Biden the Younger recognizes that 2010 is going to be a very bad year for Democrats Nationally, and can’t figure out why he should ruin his political potential on a sure to be expensive as hell and, quite possibly, failed swim against the tide?
Or maybe he likes his job as State AG, and doesn’t want to be a junior U S Senator when the Dem’s are looking like the soon to be minority party?
Just wondering…..
So is Castle the best we got there?
clement Sunday, January 24th at 2:07PM EST (link)We don’t have anyone better? Shame…
In DE?! Not Really. (nt)
IJB Sunday, January 24th at 2:24PM EST (link)Umm, we have NOBODY there.
zbigreddogz (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 6:01PM EST (link)Castle is like the only elected Republican of any stature in the state at all. We don’t even have a well known State Senator.
“At the top there are no easy choices. All are between evils, the consequences of which are hard to judge.” – Dean Acheson
Best not count on 57 votes.
skorrent1 (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 2:09PM EST (link)They’ve got Bernie the Socialist who’s with them so long as they keep going left, and Senator Joe, who cost them the public option. Decisions, decisions!
Pass the popcorn.
Popcorn, beer nuts, cotton candy, slim jims
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 3:14PM EST (link)pistachios, sodas, junior mints……
It’s gonna be some FUN watching this ship go down…..
Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
Does Biden serve any useful purpose in life?
Bill S (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 2:46PM EST (link)I swear – I should be on my knees praying every night that nothing ever happens to Barack Obama, as that would leave Biden in charge, and I don’t even want to THINK about what would happen. This nation is a paradise with Obama in the WH compared to what it would be with a Biden presidency.
:shudder:
“It’s such a fine line between stupid, and clever.” – David St. Hubbins
I think he carries an organ donor card.
Tbone (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 2:53PM EST (link)Think of him as “Inventory”.
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
5555555555! -nt
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 3:14PM EST (link)Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
Hold up, folks
CowboyUp4419 (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 4:18PM EST (link)The reporter made a mistake (imagine that!). Biden was referencing Ted Kaufman, the current placeholder senator not being candidate, not his son Beau. We may yet still get the satisfaction of knocking Junior out of his dad’s seat.
I re-read it
proudgop (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 6:22PM EST (link)and it still sounds like Joe Jr ain’t running
i do love how Biden makes his sons political announcements but whats more telling is that its almost 12 hours later and no comment still from Beau ( not exactly clear sign he is running)
I’ll be interested to see what Castle raised for his Senate campaign
If I had to bet I'd guess you're right
CowboyUp4419 (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 10:18PM EST (link)I’ve been wondering for a while now if the reason Beau Biden hadn’t officially declared was because he wanted to see how big the Red Wave would be this year so he could skip the race if it looked like Castle would cream him.
Maybe what Joe was trying to say was that he wants Kaufman to hang around and actually run this year so he takes Beau’s buttkicking for him.
Here's the part I don't get: if Beau isn't not running...
Moe Lane (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 11:49PM EST (link)…why doesn’t he end this and announce? DE Democrats are eager to start up his campaign, supposedly.
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Hope?
CowboyUp4419 (Diary) Monday, January 25th at 3:56AM EST (link)Maybe they thought it wouldn’t be all that bad or that Obama would actually get something done so Democrats would have a leg to stand on. We’ve already got some strong evidence that hope makes Democrats do some silly, irrational things. Point in case: electing Chauncey Gardiner to be our president.
It could be that since we’re still in the afterglow of Brown’s victory they don’t want to announce now that Beau won’t be seeking the Senate seat because it would look like they were frightened. They are frightened I’m sure but if you wait a couple weeks you can chalk it up to a thoughtful decision rooted in principle and love of being Delawre AG rather than the stark realization of “Oh crap, we’re screwed in November.”
But wait, if it's the Biden seat...
bk (Diary) Sunday, January 24th at 6:26PM EST (link)HA! Even if it’s with Castle and Kirk, it would be awesome to win the Obama/Biden seats.
What's really funny is the implication that...
Conservative Phantom Sunday, January 24th at 10:37PM EST (link)…Biden’s son doesn’t respect Biden. What else can you make of Biden asking a reporter to talk Biden Jr. into running, saying, “He respects you?”
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can this week get any better?
thurman Sunday, January 24th at 11:55PM EST (link)After the misery of the last 2 years, this week almost makes up for it all at once
I can’t wait to hear the excuses and creative Bush-blaming once we manage to steal the Senate seats Reid, Obama, Biden, and Teddy held all in a 10 month span
This is Christmas in January
can this week get any better?
thurman Sunday, January 24th at 11:55PM EST (link)After the misery of the last 2 years, this week almost makes up for it all at once
I can’t wait to hear the excuses and creative Bush-blaming once we manage to steal the Senate seats Reid, Obama, Biden, and Teddy held all in a 10 month span
This is Christmas in January
John Carney?
Third Street (Diary) Monday, January 25th at 4:29AM EST (link)I’d heard (and I don’t know if this was confirmed or just someone’s theory) that Carney had wanted and expected to be appointed to this seat upon Joe Biden’s resignation and then run for the full term in ’10; that Biden pre-empted that by getting the governor to instead appoint Ted Kaufman as a placeholder for his son, and that Carney took revenge by running for the House seat — which, by giving Castle his first serious race in years (maybe ever), nudged the latter into the Senate contest and made him a slight-to-moderate favorite for a race that would otherwise have been a coronation of Biden the Younger.
So, if B. Biden really is out then Carney would seem to be the Dems’ natural choice to try to get into the Senate race, except that 1.) his chances would probably be no better than Biden’s and 2.) the Dems would then have to find another candidate for the House seat and its pickup would no longer be as assured. Meanwhile there’s talk of them just running Kaufman for the full term but he’s the model of a placeholder senator; not the kind of guy you appoint if you’re even remotely serious about running him later.
Pass the popcorn, indeed.
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” –Wilkins Micawber, “David Copperfield”
Confirmed
TC Robinson (Diary) Monday, January 25th at 10:02AM EST (link)Per the AP, Beau Biden confirmed to supporters in an email this morning that he will run for re-election as Delaware Attorney General and forego a Senate bid.
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Link
TC Robinson (Diary) Monday, January 25th at 10:04AM EST (link)http://www.bidenag.com/home.html
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It would appear that Beau...
chbroussard (Diary) Monday, January 25th at 10:32AM EST (link)…has more sense than his old man. Possibly the loss of the Massachusetts “Kennedy seat” has shown that the voters are in fact tired of seats being considered a particular politician’s seat for as long as he lives and then automatically gets passed down to his son, daughter, nephew, niece, or wife. The Founding Fathers never intended for politicians to be elected for life and they certainly didn’t intend for seats to be part of the inheritance when the pol passed away.