Biden Could Cast More Votes Before Leaving Senate

Biden Could Cast More Votes Before Leaving Senate
By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff


Something rare may transpire in the Senate in the coming week or so, if Democrat Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware casts a vote in the 111th Congress.

Biden was elected vice president on Nov. 4, but he also won election that day to his seventh full term in the Senate — and he will take his seat in the chamber again next week when the 111th Congress convenes Jan. 6.

Biden has not yet said when he will resign from the Senate, although he will do so before Jan. 20, when Barack Obama will take the oath as president and Biden will be sworn in as vice president.

In an ordinary year, a new Congress would take a break between its opening day or two and late January. But with the economy in a deep recession, the financial system in crisis and two wars in progress, there will be no such breathing space this time around.

Obama wants Congress to have a massive economic recovery package ready for his signature as soon as possible after he takes the oath Jan. 20. That means both chambers may be taking roll call votes before Inauguration Day.

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votes to get the economic stimulus package moved forward it's a good move. We need all the votes we can have to keep the assholes that just want to stop progress from being successful.

Little mention has been made of this, but if he really was bent on having his weight felt in this world, he should have retained his seat and resigned from all his committee positions and just shown up for important votes. Thus, he could have kept up with his golf game and still voted on an Auto bailout and other controversial votes for which some of us like to see our elected officials held to account and judged accordingly.

Now, we'll never know how he would have voted on various bills, just as we don't really know how he would have voted on the Sense of the Senate on Iran, even though he excoriated Senator Clinton endlessly for her vote for it.

An elected official owes us a debt to be there for us when it's important and to stand up and make his/her position clear. If critical bills fail by one vote, will Obama take any heat for it? He should.

The argument that he didn't "have the time" for his Senatorial duties is crap: it's a pledge he made to us to serve, it wouldn't take much time at all to show up for the occasional important vote and he could have dropped all other attendant duties. This wouldn't take any real time from the business at hand of the transition, and he needn't have shown up at all if nothing close came up for a roll call, but the vote would be there if Reid needed it.

To me, it just looks like more of the same positioning and avoidance.

Besides all that, if he's got time for golf, he's got time to be available for the odd vote now and then. We don't OWE him a vacation; frankly, the presidency is a huge obligation and we should expect tirelessness and steadfast presence, so "giving him a break" seems a pretty flimsy justification.

And I do think PE Obama had many more things to concentrate on than remaining in the Senate. For starters, getting his cabinet selected and seated, despite what you might think, didn't seem to me to be an easy task.

His initial motive in leaving the Senate might have been to get another Dem seated in his place before seeing the Blago and Burris show unfold.

And don't forget, the man just went through a grueling primary and election campaign, as did his family. He 'paid' me by sticking to it and doing such a fantastic job. I think he had every right to take a vacation because the next year will be no picnic.

You sound very 'bitter'. :eyes:

for being an ass and not doing his job in seating a person right away instead of trying to sell the seat.

Of course we know how he would have voted on the auto bailout as he stated his position many times on that issue. You sound really bitter and nasty and bringing up his future Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and what happened during the primary lets me know that you are stuck there when even Hillary has evidently moved on.

No we don't owe him a vacation and we don't have any right to complain about him taking one...unless we are petty as hell and looking for fault. He has a family and life like most of us do and he also had a Grandmother he memorialized on his vacation and played some golf, ate some ice cream, and worked out while he was at it. And I'm hoping he's enjoying every fucking minute of it before he steps into the shit hole of issues most of us are hoping he succeeds at fixing.

What happened to being "generally supportive" of democrats here? Even if you evidently have some real issues with the PE? Hope you get over yourself. He'll be sworn in on the 20th of January.

Even if he hadn't resigned his seat, it would be inappropriate for him to vote on bills that he would end up signing or vetoing. I don't think it would be illegal but it seems like a violation of the principal of separation of powers to me. With Biden it's a little different because the vice president does have a constitutional role in the Senate and vice presidents don't sign and veto bills.

If he had known what was going to go down with regard to his Senate seat, he might have held onto it a little longer, but he had no way of knowing that. One of his reasons for resigning early was to give the next senator from Illinois a little bit of a leg up on seniority, which would have happened had Blago filled the seat quickly and not played games with it. The fact that the seat is vacant now is not Obama's fault.

Certification by the Secretary of State of Illinois is not necessary

If not, why have it?

Heck I know it definitely makes me feel better, what else in a recessed economy?

and the man needs a vacation before stepping into one hellish job left by Shrub.