Placeholder Senator: Ted Kaufman, D-Biden

While President-elect Barack Obama has surrendered his US senate seat and said he'll stand back and let Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich name a successor, Vice President-elect Joe Biden is not letting go of his senate seat quite so easily. The Delaware Democrat plans to retain the seat he has held for almost 36 years until he takes his new job. And when he does give the seat up, Biden will hand it off to a short-term appointee who will quit in two years.

The placeholder senator, Ted Kaufman, served for nineteen years as Biden's chief of staff before becoming a co-chair of Biden's vice-presidential transition team. He will be appointed in mid-January by Delaware Governor Ruth Minner, a Democrat closely ties to Biden who is retiring at the end of this year, and will serve only until a 2010 special election.

Kaufman has announced that he won't be running in that election. "I also want to make clear that I am very comfortable with retiring after 2 years," says the senator-to-be. "I don't think Delaware's appointed Senator should spend the next two years running for office."

That's appropriate, since the spectacle of appointed senators parlaying a lucky break (or a personal connection) into a decades-long career -- as did Alaska appointee Ted Stevens, who took office in 1968 -- is about as ugly an assault on democracy as, well, Ted Stevens. And Kaufman, an able Capitol Hill aide, will probably be a better appointed senator than most elected ones.

But the convenient twist to Biden-aide Kaufman's self-imposed exit strategy is that it will create an open US Senate seat in a very Democratic state in very short order. And who, who could seek that seat? Why, perhaps Delaware's attorney general, an impressive young Democratic official who is currently deployed to Iraq as a captain in the Delaware National Guard.

His name? Beau Biden.

Comments (25)

1. "It ain't me, it ain't me/I ain't no senator's son..." Except, he isn't a fortunate son, either -- he's deployed. So back off.

   Posted by RLawrence at 11/24/2008 @ 11:14pm

2. Posted by HAPPYLonghorn at 11/24/2008 @ 11:09pm

   If Beau Biden was running for President, I'm sure you (or Rush et al) would find SOME way to attack him, HAPP.

   Since Max Cleland, Repubs show no problem attacking combat veterans.

   Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 07:14am

3. echoeing happy here. why not?

   some families produce doctors, lawyers, plumbers, generation after generation. some produce pols...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/25/2008 @ 08:08am

4. Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/25/2008 @ 08:08am

   Diminishing returns possible though, IBB.

   After all, I know of a family....grandfather was a moderate, even liberal Republican who supported public housing and Planned Parenthood...

   father was a moderate, later quasi-conservative Republican who built international coalitions and wasn't a total wackadoodle on social issues...

   but the son was Dubya.

   Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 09:35am

5. Posted by lvliberty1 at 11/25/2008 @ 11:39am

   No, I'm saying you don't have the right to question the patriotism....with overlapping pictures of a Saddam and bin Laden...

   and a triple-amputee combat vet.

   Attack his politics all you want...but don't you DARE say the man doesn't love his country.

   Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 11:42am

6. but the son was Dubya.

   Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 09:35am | ignore this person | warn this person

   oh sure...the ecclesiastes lamentation...degeneration of the line...

   but such is our world.

   THE DYSTOPIC FUTURE IS NOW!!!!

   after all...and i feel fine!

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/25/2008 @ 12:05pm

7. lvliberty-Max Cleland had his patriotism questioned by,yet another,non veteran GOP wimp who refused to serve in the military during Nam even though he supported the war.

   Posted by i'm nobody at 11/25/2008 @ 12:30pm

8. "grandfather was a moderate, even liberal Republican who supported public housing and Planned Parenthood."

   Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 09:35am

   "Public housing and Planned Parenthood",eh?

   Is that what we're calling concentration camps and genetic experimentation, these days? 'Cause I'm pretty sure, that's what grampa bush was supporting.

   Posted by Malcontent at 11/25/2008 @ 2:35pm

9. Posted by Malcontent at 11/25/2008 @ 2:35pm

   Then, you're pretty WRONG, Eric.

   Outside of the left-wing blogosphere, look up the actual bio on Prescott Bush.

   YES, he had business dealings with Germany in the 30s, so did Averill Harriman a trusted advisor and ambassador to Truman and John Kennedy.

   He also supported Planned Parenthood and got public housing money in Connecticut.

   I know this might blow your "they're genetically evil, them Bushes" "truthiness"....but history isn't as black or white or even MYTHOLOGICAL as you might think.

   Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 2:38pm

10. Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 2:38pm

    " His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy"

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

    Just like Halliburton doesn't profit from the enemy, whilst supplying them.

    He may not have CARED that he was supporting the nazis. Maybe he was only in it for the money. But he stll KNEW what he was doing.

    Posted by Malcontent at 11/25/2008 @ 3:11pm

11. ...either way, he did what he did, until he was forced to stop.

    Posted by Malcontent at 11/25/2008 @ 3:12pm

12. Bush is still evil. Genetic or not.

    Posted by Malcontent at 11/25/2008 @ 3:14pm

13. Maskot completely misses a cogent point........again.

    What else is new?

    Here's a snippet of a short review of Kevin Phillip's (who's a conservative by the way, not a "left-winger") masterful, "American Dynasty":

    In American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, Phillips traces the rise of the Bush family from investment banking elites to political power brokers, using their Ivy League network, vast wealth, and questionable political maneuvering to obtain the White House and consequently, shake the foundation of constitutional American democracy. Citing the Bush family mainstays of finance, energy (oil), the military industrial complex, and national security and intelligence (the CIA), Phillips uses copious examples to show the dangerous alliance between the Bushes' business interests (huge corporations such as Enron and Haliburton) and the formation of national policy. No other family, Phillips says, that has fulfilled its presidential aspirations has been so involved in the ascendancy of the arms industry and of the 21st-century American imperium--often at the expense of regional and world peace and for their personal gain.

    It is hard to tell what offends Phillips the most: the Bushes' systematic deceit and secrecy, their shady business dealings, their cronyism, or their family philosophy that privileges the very wealthy and utterly dismisses all the rest. It is clearly all of these things combined. But at the top of Phillips' list is the dynastic nature of their family power, for it is that concentration of power and influence that strikes at the heart of our democracy. Past administrations have transgressed, albeit not so egregiously, and other political families have had dynastic ambitions.

    Posted by b_kool_66 at 11/25/2008 @ 3:36pm

14. But none have succeeded as thoroughly as the Bushes. Jefferson and Madison would be horrified, and according to Phillips, we should be too.

    End quote.

    Phillips is noted for writing "The Coming Republican Majority" in the late 60's and has become an apostate Republican in the wake of Republican bumblings over the last couple of decades.

    His stuff is always measured, deeply insightful, and well researched.

    Take it from him, the Bushies have been poison to our democratic republic for a long, long time.

    Finally, I highly recommend that you read the book, Maskot. If you like a good political book now and then, it's a damn good one.

    Posted by b_kool_66 at 11/25/2008 @ 3:36pm

15. Posted by Malcontent at 11/25/2008 @ 3:12pm

    I know admitting you are wrong ...well, just isn't going to happen.

    But the facts are the facts, Eric. Prescott Bush was no "Nazi". Unless you can figure out how a liberal Republican who supported Planned Parenthood and PUBLIC HOUSING is a "fascist".

    Again, you want your mythology of the "Bush dynasty of evil" because it makes for a nice little secular religion of "sinister forces at work throughout history" or some such Robert Anton Wilson nonsense.

    But Bush the Elder was a businessman...same as Democrats like Harriman and they saw an opportunity in Germany and took it. And (and I'm sure you would) if you blame Prescott, you've got to go after a LOT of people for "turning a blind eye" including Roosevelt.

    But he was not a "genocidal monster".

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 3:57pm

16. Posted by b_kool_66 at 11/25/2008 @ 3:36pm

    WHEN did Kevin Phillips write "American Dynasty"?

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 3:59pm

17. lvliberty-The fact that you deemed the ad to be okay is irrelevant to the fact that the rest of us have the right to deem the ad to be questioning the patriotism of a disabled Viet Nam vet and it would not be a lie to see the ad in that way.Many conservatives did not like the ad,either.It isn't up to you to view the ad and decide for everyone how to interpret it.We each get to see it and decide for ourselves.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 11/25/2008 @ 4:09pm

18. WHEN did Kevin Phillips write "American Dynasty"?

    ~Maskot

    2004

    I have a signed copy, myself. Phillips is a cool dude.

    Posted by b_kool_66 at 11/25/2008 @ 4:18pm

19. Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 3:57pm

    Never said he was a nazi. (Although my first post may have implied it).

    I said he was evil and only cared about his bottom line. Country and humanity be damned.

    Remind me next time I am wrong and I will acknowledge it.

    "(and I'm sure you would)"

    Well, then, you would be wrong. It's called ethics.

    Posted by Malcontent at 11/25/2008 @ 4:22pm

20. Posted by b_kool_66 at 11/25/2008 @ 4:18pm

    Exactly....three years AFTER Dubya became President.

    Not predictive of some "lineage of evil"...but merely "tying it all together."

    Posted by Malcontent at 11/25/2008 @ 4:22pm

    Then Averill Harriman was "evil"...and Harry Truman and John Kennedy co-conspirators because they gave the man numerous positions of ambassadorship.

    So...want to stretch the "diabolical cabal" from Hyannisport to Independence, MO?

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 8:44pm

21. Nepotism ends up despicable in a lot of cases (Bush & Bush), but not always, (Roosevelt & Roosevelt) or (Judy & Liza). Okay, maybe my comparisons are weak. Truly, what do we know about Beau Biden that we don't like?

    Posted by truthandjustice at 11/25/2008 @ 8:57pm

22. Special election will be in 2010... plenty of time for you to move to Delaware, establish residency and run against Beau if you don't like him

    Posted by takemyveepplease at 11/26/2008 @ 12:34am

23. Posted by lvliberty1 at 11/25/2008 @ 11:09pm

    So showing pictures of Cleland with Saddam and bin Laden was "just about his honesty", not his patriotism?

    Posted by Mask at 11/26/2008 @ 09:19am

24. lvliberty-There most certainly is a way to see that ad as questioning Cleland's patriotism.I have no interest in who gets elected to the senate from Georgia and have no motive to see that ad in the way that I see it.In fact,I would normally prefer that the republican won in Georgia, since there are enough democrats in the senate,but can't go with someone who puts out ads like that about our disabled combat veterans.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 11/26/2008 @ 10:02am

25. So...want to stretch the "diabolical cabal" from Hyannisport to Independence, MO?

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2008 @ 8:44pm

    Only if the facts lead me there.

    Posted by Malcontent at 11/26/2008 @ 9:31pm