Biden In For Bumpy Ride?

Filed in National by on October 18, 2009

In Sunday’s News Journal, there’s an article about Beau Biden and the possibility of him running for US Senate. The article is titled, “Senate run could distract Biden“. Now, I normally like Esteban Parra’s writing, but not this time.

The first quote about the possible Biden campaign comes not from Beau Biden, not from his father, not from a source close to Biden, but from Charlie Copeland. Yes, that’s right, Republican Charlie Copeland, who some may say might have a stake in seeing Mike Castle win the Senate seat as well as a possible candidate for Congress. What does Copeland say:

“Having been an absentee owner of the Attorney General’s Office for the last year, it is in a more chaotic state . . . Whether he is to blame for that or not, it is immaterial. You’re just going to have to deal with that.”

Seriously, Charlie, Biden was in Iraq serving his country. Not exactly “absentee” in the classic sense. But Parra doesn’t stop there. He goes on to quote another politician, this time Tom Ross, State Committee Chairman of the Delaware Republican Party. Nice.

GOP state chairman Tom Ross said Biden’s decisions on who led the office while he was away were not good, causing him to wonder what would happen if he delegates to others again.

“When you leave an organization, ultimate success or failure resides with the person at the helm,” Ross said. “Unfortunately, there have been some shortcomings at the Attorney General’s Office and it raises concerns.”

Ross said it was Biden’s people and his process that failed.

Ross might want Biden to fail. Just saying.

Parra does quote someone close to Biden, the treasurer for Biden’s attorney general campaign but only in regards to website ownership and links.

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Comments (34)

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  1. John Manifold says:

    Like Ginger Gibson last week, misreading campaign finance reports and inflating the candidacy of the iconic Greg Lavelle, the assigned N-J reporter has his eyes off the road, this time planted firmly in the rear view mirror.

    Unexplored angle: Castle will be the nominee of a party whose base resides in Western Sussex County, whose gubernatorial candidates have pulled an average of 36.5 percent over five elections, whose registration deficit has tripled [now past past 100,000] in a decade.

    Fun fact: in the GOP wave of 1994, Bill Roth pulled 55.8 percent. Consider that as the long-ago ceiling of a GOP incumbent with A-list Democratic opposition.

    This will be a dogfight, but it’s nuts to think that Castle will lope to election because he was a well-liked governor when Billy Ocean was topping the charts.

  2. Sorry to nitpick, but could you at least spell his name correctly? It’s “Parra.”

  3. Delaware Dem says:

    Thanks Mike. I will edit.

  4. nemski says:

    Thanks for the catch. Was I at least consistently wrong?

  5. No problem. I’m generally not much of a grammar/spelling/punctuation Nazi, but I couldn’t let that one go!

  6. Delaware Dem says:

    Yeah, Nemski. You were consistently wrong. LOL.

  7. nemski says:

    Well, someone needs to pull up the typo slack around here. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  8. RICO says:

    “This will be a dogfight, but itโ€™s nuts to think that Castle will lope to election because he was a well-liked governor when Billy Ocean was topping the charts.”

    that sentence only makes sense if you pretend Castle has been out of office since he was Governor.

    He has won state wide election every two years for the last 16. He was last elected to statewide office just 11 months ago.

  9. Jason330 says:

    For this Castle Senate run to make sense you have to believe a lot of crazy stuff.

    You have to believe that Castle is healthy and able to campaign hard statewide.
    You have to believe that Charlie Copeland is an objective political analyst.
    You have to believe that it is not big deal that Castle voted against the economic stimulus package.
    You have to believe that David Broder has his finger on the pulse of Delaware politics.
    You have to believe that voters will not be reminded of Castle’s voting record.
    You have to believe that Democrats really don’t care if they hold the seat.
    You have to believe that Castle is still pulling in 65% of the vote.
    You have to believe that Tom Carper calls the shots for the Biden family, and
    you have to believe Castle wants to go to the Senate and be part of the current Republican operations there.

    This run does not make any sense and the NJ comes up with this crap? *sigh*

  10. RICO says:

    This run does not make any sense… to Jason the Castle Stalker.

    big shocker there.

  11. Delaware Dem says:

    Jason the Castle Stalker. I love it.

  12. Jason,

    Your list is strangely missing a reference to Celia Cohen handily wiping a bedridden Castle’s ass. Or something pithy like that. C’mon, man…don’t let me down!

  13. Jason330 says:

    Here you go…”You have to believe that Celia Cohen’s creepy Mike Castle shrine in the corner of her spinster bedroom has the magical powers that she thinks it has.”

  14. Delaware Dem says:

    Oh my. Jason is back in true form. Keep it coming.

  15. As someone who respects both Castle and Cohen, I have to admit that Jason is funny. MM not so much in that comment. You should leave the clever insults to Jason. Hate to admit it, but half the time I find Jason funny when he insulted me. The man has talent unlike the guy who is left this week. There is a fine difference between biting sarcasm and being mean. Jason found it.

  16. Jason330 says:

    *blush*

  17. cassandra_m says:

    So — did I miss the piece of this article that notes that:

    *talks abut how distracted Castle was when he ran for offices from his previously elected jobs?

    *talks about how distracted Carer was when he ran for offices from his previously elected jobs?

    *talks about how distracted Charlie Copeland was when he ran for Lt. Gov while half-doing his Senate job?

    This smacks of a piece fed the Mr. Parra from some Castle partisan — people run for higher offices from the ones they have now all of the time. Pretending they might be distracted from a current job presumes that there is something quite unique here.

  18. The Castle partisans have been very busy this week, talking to George Will, David Broder and the NJ.

  19. Jason330 says:

    Cassandra

    You mean to tell me that our 4th estate paper of record with all the journalistic ethics that blogs are so lacking would run a spoon fed PR piece for Castle? Shocking!

  20. anonie says:

    This is a huge race for the Delaware GOP. If Castle’s loses, there is nothing left. Nothing. No statewide office holders. No bench. No young stars. Nothing. Copeland and Lavelle? Zeroes. Protack and what’s her name? Intellectual lightweights. You couldn’t ask for a weaker group of potential candidates, none of whom will EVER win a statewide race in Delaware. Even if Castle wins, it’s his curtain call and Beau will take the seat in four years where he likely will remain for 30 or 40 years. So even in victory, defeat is just around the corner for the Delaware GOP.

    Nationwide, it’s a huge race for the GOP. While the republican party could pick up as many as 20 house seats in conservative districts, they face an uphill battle in holding onto their measly 40 seats in the Senate. In fact, the dems could pick up 2-6 seats in the higher chamber, essentially neutralizing any losses they may suffer in the House.

  21. Delaware Dem says:

    Well, anonie, they will always have Wagner.

  22. nemski says:

    anonie, I wouldn’t say Lavelle is a zero, he’d be their only hope.

  23. anonie says:

    Wagner. Is he running?

  24. anonie says:

    If Lavelle is your only hope you have serious problems.

  25. Jason330 says:

    Pierre DuPont could dust off the “Pete” and hit the Rotary Club circuit. He and Castle are around the same age.

  26. nemski says:

    Did Pete have a beer with Caesar Rodney too?

  27. cassandra_m says:

    It’s a huge race for the GOP but only to the extent that it changes the 60 vote edge of Dems in the Senate. Where we’d expect Castle to be just as obstructionist as the rest. Whether he wins or loses, the local GOP still has an an awfully shallow bench.

  28. Delaware Dem says:

    Anonie…. until Wagner says he is not running in 2010, I have to assume he is.

  29. liberalgeek says:

    He is running. I spent an hour or more with him 2 weeks ago and he is in. He was creating his Twitter account and no one was amused (except me) when I suggested that he make his name, “Former State Auditor Tom Wagner”

  30. Delaware Dem says:

    Ha! Great one Geek.

  31. John Young says:

    Jason, your comments here don’t lead with “Bush was a loser and worst president ever”

    you got no “cred” with your DL crew now…..in fact, I think that makes you a pedophile. I just made that up but it sounds true, so let’s go with this:

    “people like” Jason330 have pedophilic tendencies because they don’t disclaim their posts with “Bush was an asshole and worst ever” or some other similar lead in…..

    See how silly your ad hominem attacks are….

    I know, you don’t.

  32. nemski says:

    Hmm, maybe we should do a post about whether the News Journal can survive and our first interview can be with a blogger and then the second interview could be with someone on Twitter.

  33. Parra is BFF with Lee Williams, the now paid-shill from Ceasar Rodney Institute. CRI and WNJ editorial staffers are BFF too. It’s one happy family.

    The Chamber of Commerce and the Delaware Public Policy Institute are the policy wonkers whom everyone who is anyone in Delaware Politics must heed or ‘die’, I suppose. I imagine that that’s the mantra that echoes through the state houses and county and municipal halls and, unfortunately infiltrates many of our non-profits.

    Thank the gods for John Kowalko, Karen Peterson and Dave Sokola and the few other who consistently lift their sights to the public good rather than the corporate masters program.

    It’s an uphill battle and I cherish every sound bite that DL creates to buck this system as do every other liberal in our state.

  34. anonie says:

    Okay. I accept the fact the Delaware GOP has one statewide office holder other than Castle with a chance at reelection. But, since both are really old………