Joe Biden's chief of staff appointed to Joe Biden's Senate seat

Wow, some real change here.

Delaware Democratic Gov. Ruth Ann  Minner (see photo) just announced that she intends to appoint Ted Kaufman to fill the next two years of longtime Delaware Sen. Joe Biden's new term.

Who's he? you ask. He's a Biden family spaceholder.

By an amazing coincidence the 69-year-old Kaufman is Biden's current Senate chief of staff and heading the senator's transition team for the vice presidency of the new Barack Obama administration.

By another strange coincidence, by the time of the special election in 2010 to fill the remaining four years of Biden's brand-new term, his son Beau will be back from National Guard duty in Iraq and still the state's attorney general.

Joe Biden has held that same Delaware Senate seat for 36 years, since his new boss, the new president, was 11 years old.

In fact, Biden was too young to take office when elected at age 29 in 1972. But he turned 30 just before being sworn in.

Despite the Richard Nixon landslide in Delaware that year, Biden's bare-bones insurgent campaign beat political veteran J. Caleb Boggs by 3,162 votes. And Biden hasn't had to look back since.

Biden was again on Delaware ballots on Nov. 4 as both a Senate and vice presidential candidate. He won both. It's unclear when he intends to resign his Senate seat, as Obama did Nov. 16, giving any appointed replacement a little extra seniority.

Biden will probably take the oath for his seventh Senate term in early January and then cede the seat to Kaufman. Surprisingly, Joe Biden heartily approves of his longtime aide. "With Ted Kaufman in the Senate," the about-to-be vice president said, "Delaware will be in very good hands."

The tiny, insignificant state is the second smallest in size behind only Rhode Island and with a population of barely 783,000, has fewer people than even Montana.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Office of Gov. Ruth Ann Minner

Comments

[B Carson]

Insignificant state? Don't say that to a corporate lawyer.

[MK]

"tiny, insignificant state"? Tiny, yes. But I would think that by the very fact that the new Vice President of the United States is the Senator from Delaware would prove that the state is not "insignificant". What was the point of that statement? A perfectly good article suddenly smacks of snarky elitism.

[Laura]

I have zero connection to Delaware or the Biden family but have to say I am taken aback by your tone. Sarcasm and snide remarks have no place in journalism.

Delaware may be tiny, but it's by no means "insignificant." I imagine the residents of Delaware would be extremely insulted by your characterization of the state. Their interests, lives and families are by no means insignificant, and that is precisely what their U.S. Senator advocates for (one hopes).

I don't disagree that this Senate appointment smacks of nepotism. But you could have - and should have - told this story in a way that does not belittle the people of Delaware who have no say in the decision. That is, until 2010.

[M.J. Parker]

Are you beginning sentences with phrases and terms like "By another strange coincidence" and "Surprisingly" to imply some sort of conspiracy or power grab on the part of Biden and his chief of state - ahem, chief of staff?

You surely must know there's no conspiracy here, just a simple confluence of dates and terms and minutiae. I understand that you have column space to fill, but please don't bother to post this sort of innuendo-laced missive unless you have a clear point to make.

[Ule]

By what theory is the President the boss of the Vice President? Can he fire him?

[cliff]

Tiny, insignificant state?

Geeze, you want to be a little MORE condescending?

Yes, it's tiny, but even if you were to ignore the good people and land of Delaware its self, it's extremely significant because of it's corporate law. Ever notice how many companies are incorporated in Delaware? There's a reason for that.

[Blues Mama]

Having a little trouble aiming that snark-pistol today? I think you just shot yourself in the foot with it, Andrew.

[bob sweter]

btw, your article doesn't make sense. ted kaufman is not joe biden's current chief of staff. i read in the new york times that he hasn't been since the early 90's.

oops

[Steve]

Insignificant? A majority of Fortune 500 companies love it so much that they incorporate there.The First Staters have two votes in the Senate and one in the House. Hardly insignificant to your 500 (thousand or so) brethren here in the nation's capital.

[Philly]

Does anyone else see the hunor in a statement penned by an insignificant writer?