Joe Biden biography by Jules Witcover: on Government Reform
Dick Cheney:
Championed theory of "unitary executive" to expand power
Cheney concentrated on efforts to strengthen and expand the powers of the presidency--and his own great influence within the George W. Bush administration. As described in Barton Gellman's account of the Cheney vice presidency, "Angler," he not only
deftly maneuvered the vice presidential nomination for himself but went on to shape the office of the vice presidency into an unprecedented power center in its own right. Cheney championed the theory of the "unitary executive," holding that the
Constitution bestowed total power upon the president as commander in chief of the armed forces in wartime. In the process, he embraced and stoutly defended administration legal positions justifying extreme practices in foreign and domestic intelligence
surveillance that dismayed civil liberties defenders. Joe Biden labeled Cheney as the most dangerous vice president in the history of the Republic.
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.402
Oct 5, 2010
Joe Biden:
1973: Senators deserve more than $42,000 salary
In the Senate, without challenging Jesse Helms's motives, he didn't hesitate to square off against him over the issue of a Senate pay raise.
Biden said he didn't disagree in terms of economic conditions that it might not be the best time, but he took issue with what he say as Helms's argument that the senators didn't deserve more than their 42K annual salary.
Biden himself pointedly had no stock investments, as most others did, and he empathized with colleagues who had to maintain two homes, one in their state and one in Washington, although he himself had no residence in the capital.
In floor debate, Biden argued," It seems to me that she would flat out tell the American people we are worth are salt."
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.113-114
Oct 5, 2010
Joe Biden:
1987: Bork fight changed rules of nomination process
In the 1987 Bork nomination, Biden wrote later, "I had to reset the table on the nomination process, which had focused almost solely on character and qualifications. Robert Bork was a bona fide scholar. The way to stop was on the question of his
outside-the-mainstream judicial philosophy--or ideology--and that was a long shot, too."The basic understanding was that as long as a Supreme Court nominee had the intellectual capacity, a breadth of experience in constitutional law, and a reasonable
judicial temperament, the Senate was bound to confirm a nominee. Ideology was the third rail of Supreme Court nominations.
Biden wrote that in the toughest confirmation cases in the 1960s, the nominees "were rejected for personal shortcomings, but the
clear and unspoken reason was ideology. I thought it was time to take up ideology in the open and avoid personal attacks." In a major speech on the Senate floor, Biden cited specific precedents in which ideology had been the deciding factor.
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.181-182
Oct 5, 2010
Page last updated: Feb 14, 2019