Tag Archives: Beau Biden

Biden and Brady

Now that it appears Beau Biden is going to be fine after suffering a mild stroke yesterday, it is time to talk about the political ramifications of the Ammon Report on the Bradley case. You are saying to yourself right now that this case is not political, and no one should be playing politics with it since it is such a grave matter concerning a horrible crime against our most innocent. And I agree, but given the polarized age we live, everything is political, with one side always looking for political advantage over the other, and thus nothing is sacred from the touch of politics. Indeed, when this story first broke, we saw politics being played.

But in reading the report, I am more convinced than ever that there is no political advantage one side can take over the other.

First, everyone is guilty, especially in the most oft repeated failure contained in the report: that everyone failed in not reporting what they knew or suspected to the medical board. Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative, nurse and doctor, parent and police officer, Attorney General and Judge, everyone…. EVERYONE failed to report what they knew when they knew it. And that is both a moral and legal failure, since the law does require police, prosecutors, doctors and nurses who “reasonably believe” a doctor is guilty of misconduct or unfit to practice medicine to file a written complaint to the board. And even if you were a person not required by law to report it, you were required by your conscience to report it. And people remained silent.

Thus, everyone shares in the blame for the tragedy that befell Earl Bradley’s victims.

Second, in looking for political ramifications, you naturally look at the two political actors in this tragedy: former Republican Attorney General M. Jane Brady and current Democratic Attorney General Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III. But the report exonerates both insofar as there was no specific decisions, actions, or failures to act that you can point to and say, “But for this, the tragedy could have been avoided.” I know you are thinking how can I say that, especially in reference to Jane Brady, as she refused to prosecute Bradley after being informed of the Milford PD’s investigation of Bradley in 2005. Indeed, Jane Brady was the guilty party in my mind, for at least Beau Biden’s AG office was investigating Bradley and trying to get a search warrant in the fall of 2008. As a Democratic partisan looking for political advantage over my Republican rivals, I would love to blame Brady for refusing to investigate. But the truth is not that simple.

Dean Ammon’s full report says this:

There is no indication that [Brady] was aware of the decision not to prosecute. Judge Brady stated she had no knowledge of the case, and it seems reasonable to believe that as fact because Steve Welch, the Deputy Attorney General responsible for the criminal investigation of Bradley in 2005, stated he never discussed it with her.

Now you may say she is still responsible for the conduct of her office, and she is. And you may question how she her office was run if she was not involved in decisions to prosecute. But if I am going to honest here, it is Steve Welch who really has to answer for the decision not to prosecute in 2005. Ammon asked him.

Steve Welch was the head of the Kent County Felony Unit for the Delaware Department of Justice in 2005 and was also the Deputy Attorney General who sat in on the CAC interview with Victim #2. After the CAC interview, Deputy Attorney General Welch contacted his superiors, Steve Wood, the State Prosecutor, and Bobby O‘Neill, the Kent County Prosecutor, and advised them that there was insufficient evidence for an arrest, but that Detective Brown would investigate further. […]

The results of Detective Brown‘s investigation were presented to the Attorney General‘s Office. On May 23, 2005, after consultation with Steve Wood, the State Prosecutor at that time, Deputy Attorney General Welch decided not to prosecute the case. There was no indication that the discussions between Welch and Wood went any higher in the Attorney General‘s Office. In an interview with Welch, he indicated that he has a handwritten note on a May 25th e-mail sent to Wood which said that Welch spoke with Detective Brown the day before and Brown would contact the Medical Board. According to the note, Brown agreed that there was not enough evidence to prosecute. Welch also maintained that it was his idea to report the allegations regarding Bradley to the Medical Board. According to Welch, he determined that Deputy Attorney General Michael Tischer represented the Medical Board and he sent Tischer an e-mail asking if Tischer did indeed represent the board. Welch also claimed that he followed up his E-mail with a phone call to Tischner. It does not appear that Welch had any other contact with Tischer, and there was no evidence that anything more was done regarding reporting the allegations regarding Dr. Bradley to the Medical Board.

For his part, Tischer remembered receiving the call from Welch and Bobby O‘Neil and remembered an e-mail from Welch. In what he described as a 5 minute conversation, Tischer said he was told by Welch that a doctor was being investigated and was asked if [Tischer] thought it was unprofessional conduct for a doctor to kiss a patient. Tischer said he told Welch that standing alone the prosecution would have a hard time. Tischer maintained that Bradley‘s name was never mentioned and that he was not privy to the evidence gathered in Welch‘s case. Further, Tischer did not want to have access to the information because of his role representing the Board. Tischer was the Deputy Attorney General who advised the Board with its hearings, and therefore he felt he had an obligation to ensure objectivity by not being involved either in the investigatory or the prosecution of cases that might come before the Board. Tischer recalled telling Welch to report the matter to the Board and the Division of Professional Regulation. When Welch was asked why he did not contact the board, he said “We relied on him (Brown) to contact the board, and he did.” Welch added, “I didn‘t have any doubt that Brown would call…We did take this seriously; I think Brown did a thorough investigation.”

Detective Brown vehemently disputed Welch‘s account on who agreed to report the allegations against Dr. Bradley to the Board. Brown maintained that before Welch had decided not to prosecute Bradley, it was Brown who went to the Medical Board to get them to investigate the Bradley allegations and was turned away. Brown further stated that out of his frustration with the way the Board investigator refused to assist him, he relayed the information to Welch, and it was at that point, Welch said he would reach out to the Deputy Attorney General who represented the Board.

Yeah, I agree, there is a lot of CYA and He Said-He Said-He Said going on here. Everyone ducting responsibility. Brady’s office and her subordinates will have to answer for and defend the decision not to prosecute, Welch specifically. But is Jane Brady directly responsible? I can’t say that she is with a straight face.

Now let’s turn to Beau Biden. For his part, when the State Police investigation began in the fall of 2008, Beau Biden was shipping off to Iraq, leaving Acting Attorney General Richard Gebelein in control of the AG office during the investigation and attempts to obtain a search warrant.

[State Police] Troop 4 of the Major Crimes department received three (3) reports of inappropriate conduct by Dr. Bradley during exams of patients. These complaints included that of a 12-year old female, who was taken to Bradley for a sore throat and pink eye, and was given a vaginal exam; a 6-year old brought to Bradley for Attention Deficit Disorder and given a 4 minute vaginal exam; and an 8-year old with an excessive urination problem who was given at least three (3) vaginal exams over a six-week period. A forensic interview was conducted of each child at the Sussex County CAC.

As a result, in December 2008, Deputy Attorney General Stacy Cohee, based on affidavits of probable cause from Delaware State Troopers, with the assistance of the State Police High Tech Crime Unit, applied for a search warrant from the Delaware Superior Court in Georgetown for Bradley‘s computers. That warrant application was denied. According to Cohee, the judge indicated that the application was better as an arrest warrant. A former State Police Detective, who has since retired, confirmed that the judge who denied the search warrant stated that he would sign a criminal arrest warrant. The criminal arrest warrant was not obtained. As there is no written decision or transcript of an oral decision, it is not clear as to why the search warrant application was denied, nor is there a contemporaneous documented explanation as to why an arrest warrant was not requested.

However, Deputy Attorney General Cohee stated that she was concerned about making an arrest without more evidence because of the nature of the information DOJ had at the time. In 2008 there were three complaints, which alleged vaginal exams in the presence of guardians, and a complaint about kissing of one of those persons. Cohee indicates she called the Delaware Department of Justice‘s child abuse expert at that time, Dr. Allen DeJong, and asked for an opinion regarding the propriety of Bradley‘s exams, and was told that vaginal exams in certain circumstances were acceptable as a routine procedure. As will be discussed supra, DeJong considered this an informal consult, but Cohee stated that she talked with him at great length -for at least 15 minutes – and was specific about the facts concerning the vaginal exams.

When the alarm bells did not go off for DeJong, Cohee contacted another doctor, Dr. Cindy Christian at Children‘s Hospital of Philadelphia. While Cohee did not go into great detail about her discussions with Christian, Dr. Christian allegedly told Cohee that generally vaginal exams are not appropriate. Thus, conflicting opinions from experts led Cohee to conclude that making an arrest under the circumstances was not the best way to proceed at that time.
After deciding not to arrest and prosecute Dr. Bradley in early 2009, the Delaware Department of Justice and the Delaware State Police stated that they continued to investigate Dr. Bradley using other methods. According to Cohee, there was no indication of the magnitude of the alleged offenses until after Bradley was arrested in December 2009.

To my conservative friends, if I cannot with a straight face blame Brady, than neither can you, on these facts, blame Biden. It would appear that decisions to prosecute are delegated to Deputy Attorney Generals handling the cases. Whether that is a good idea is up for discussion and debate, but in past practice during the Bradley case during both Brady and Biden’s terms as Attorney General, it is the reality.

If the culpable party in letting Bradley go in Brady’s encounter with the Bradley case is Steve Welch, the culprit in 2008 is the unnamed Superior Court Judge who denied Deputy Attorney General Cohee’s application for a search warrant. And I would definitely like to know who that Judge is (I have narrowed it to three Judges but I am not going to guess), and I would like to know his reasons for his decision. Because if cause existed in his mind for arrest warrant to issue, then cause existed for a search warrant to issue.

We will likely know what other methods were employed to continue the investigation past that denial of the search warrant (which Ammon referenced in the report) once the trial of Earl Bradley begins.

But in my mind, the trial of Jane Brady and Beau Biden is over, and by the Ammon report, they were both acquitted of specific wrongdoing.

Yes, they both were guilty, but only insomuch as everyone was guilty in this case.

Analyze This: The Bradley Report

First off, I won’t play the political blame game concerning Jane Brady and Beau Biden on this issue until we know whether Beau is going to be fine. Today, I am just reporting the substance of the Bradley Report, or more specifically the findings and recommendations of Widener Univerity School of Law Dean Linda Ammons. The Bradley Report, as prepared by Ammons, spreads the blame all around, rightfully so. The report “pinpoints a multitude of failures and lack of action by people in position to stop Bradley dating back to 1994.”

“A tragedy of this magnitude may have been pre-empted if the individuals directly involved had been more focused and alert, less willing to give Bradley the benefit of the doubt, and if they had scrupulously followed the law,” Ammons wrote. “Systems were in place to catch a perpetrator, but, they were either not properly accessed, or when called upon, human and mechanical error prevented the appropriate actions from being taken.”

FAILURE NO. 1Delaware’s Board of Medical Practice issued Bradley a medical license in April 1994 even after knowing that there was a complaint pending against him in Pennsylvania. In June later that year, the Pennsylvania’s board did dismiss the complaint and the Philadelphia police decided the complaining mother’s statement was not credible. Still, with a pending abuse complaint against an applying Doctor, our medical board should have never issued a license.

FAILURE NO. 2 No one in law enforcement or the medical community contacted Delaware’s medical board about Bradley’s inappropriate contact with girls after a 1996 investigation by Beebe Medical Center, despite a state law requiring police, prosecutors, doctors and nurses who “reasonably believe” a doctor is guilty of misconduct or unfit to practice medicine to file a written complaint to the board.

The first known complaint against Dr. Bradley in Delaware occurred in 1996, when Joan Davis, a nurse who worked with Bradley at Beebe, complained to her supervisor about what she thought were too many catheterizations of female patients for urine samples by Bradley in his annexed office next to the hospital. Davis’ allegations regarding Bradley also included allegations of excessive kissing of patients, inappropriate remarks about females, and that Bradley was taking pictures of patients’ without out their parents consent or knowledge and putting them on his computer. The hospital did conduct an internal investigation and after consulting with three independent doctors, deemed that the catheterizations were medically appropriate and closed the investigation. Relying on Delaware’s peer review statute, the procedures of their accreditation standards, federal statutes, and the fact that other experts in the field had cleared Bradley’s actions as accepted medical practice, Beebe Hospital did not report Davis’ allegations to law enforcement or the Board of Medical Practice. It does not appear that Beebe’s internal investigation addressed Davis’ other allegations.

It does not appear that the records of Beebe’s investigation in 1996 were ever given to law enforcement until after Dr. Bradley was arrested in 2009. That is true even though Bradley’s records at Beebe were subpoenaed in 2005, but more on that in a second. That is simply astonishing.

FAILURE NO. 3 No one in law enforcement or the medical community contacted Delaware’s medical board about a 2004 report to the Medical Society of Delaware, a trade association of and for Delaware physicians, by Bradley’s sister, Lynda Barnes, despite a state law requiring police, prosecutors, doctors and nurses who “reasonably believe” a doctor is guilty of misconduct or unfit to practice medicine to file a written complaint to the board.

In October 2004, Dr. Bradley’s adopted sister, Lynda Barnes, sent a letter to the Delaware Medical Society alleging that Dr. Bradley was self-medicating, writing prescriptions in the name of a relative for himself, that he physically and emotionally abused his son, that he had abused a stepchild in another state, and she mentioned complaints from parents concerning improper touching of their children. Several of the above allegations were supposedly not contained in the version of Barnes’ letter that was received by the Medical Society.

Regardless if the Medical Society was aware of the allegations of improper touching, the letter appeared to provide enough allegations to at least put into doubt Bradley’s fitness to practice medicine. Therefore, the Medical Society should have filed a formal complaint with the Board of Medical Practice, even if all it did was forward the Barnes letter.

FAILURE NO. 4 The then-society president Dr. James P. Marvel Jr., a colleague of Bradley at Beebe, refused to recuse himself in deciding on the 2004 Barnes report, despite the obvious conflict of interest.

FAILURE NO. 5 Dr. Marvel decided the 2004 tip from Mrs. Barnes should be dismissed because, outrageously, “it was a family matter.”

FAILURE NO. 6 No one in law enforcement or the medical community contacted Delaware’s medical board about a 2005 investigation into complaints about Bradley by Milford police, which was overseen by Attorney General Jane Brady, despite a state law requiring police, prosecutors, doctors and nurses who “reasonably believe” a doctor is guilty of misconduct or unfit to practice medicine to file a written complaint to the board.

In March 2005, the Milford Police Department initiated an investigation of Dr. Bradley after a three-year old patient stated that Dr. Bradley had “kissed her tongue”. As part of the investigation, the Milford Police Department identified three additional victims and five witnesses who alleged Dr. Bradley was performing improper examinations and /or exhibited unusual behavior. One of the witnesses Milford Police interviewed was Lynda Barnes, who provided police with the letter she had faxed to the Delaware Medical Society in October 2004. […]

Besides allegations of sexual abuse, Barnes and others told Milford investigators that Bradley was self-medicating, that his office was in disarray, and that he had abused his own children. Such allegations seemingly put into question Bradley’s fitness to practice medicine, and therefore such allegations should have been reported to the Board of Medical Practice. While there appears to be a factual dispute regarding who assumed the responsibility for reporting the results of the Milford Police Department investigation to the Board of Medical practice, the bottom line is that the Board never received a written complaint regarding Bradley, which the law required.

FAILURE NO. 7 Attorney General Jane Brady refused to prosecute or open her own investigation after the Milford PD reporting the findings of their investigation.

On May 23, 2005, after Milford Police presented the findings of their investigation to the Attorney General’s Office, who decided not to prosecute Bradley based on the evidence that they had at the time, the Milford Police Department investigation was closed. Without opining on the propriety of the decision not to prosecute, and regardless of the criminality of Bradley’s alleged
conduct, the Attorney General’s Office should have reported the findings of their investigation to the Board of Medical Practice.

FAILURE NO. 8 No one in law enforcement or the medical community contacted Delaware’s medical board about the 2008 state police investigation, which was overseen by Attorney General Beau Biden, despite a state law requiring police, prosecutors, doctors and nurses who “reasonably believe” a doctor is guilty of misconduct or unfit to practice medicine to file a written complaint to the board.

FAILURE NO. 9 Even though Bradley’s practice of using a catheter on young girls to take urine samples was so widely known that Lewes area mothers jokes about it at parties (JOKED!!!), no one filed a report or a complaint save the above referenced individuals.

FAILURE NO. 10 The mysteriously unnamed, even now, Superior Court judge refused to grant a search warrant for Dr. Earl B. Bradley’s office in December 2008, even though, inexplicably, he (aha, the judge is a man) told investigators he would sign a warrant for the pediatrician’s arrest. So, there was enough probable cause to arrest him for abuse, but not enough for a search warrant. That does not compute. That Judge should be named, and I want to hear his legal theory behind his decision.
Ammon’s Recommendations

1. Ammons recommends that current Delaware law be amended so that the Board of Medical Practices and other peer review groups’ records are not held strictly confidential, but may be available under certain circumstances, including via subpoena by law enforcement.

2. In order to better ensure that mandatory reporters fulfill their duty to report, the General Assembly should couple reporters’ immunity in the statute with stiffer penalties for failing to report. In addition, all licensees of the Board of Medical Practice should receive mandatory training regarding their duty to report.

3. The General Assembly clarify whether law enforcement are exempted from the duty to report allegations against medical professionals to the Board of Medical Practice during the course of a criminal investigation. In addition, all complaints to the Board, whether they are written or oral should be documented and investigated by the Board.

[7th Update]: BEAU BIDEN HOSPITALIZED; MILD STROKE

Just breaking:

Vice President Joe Biden’s office released this statement:

“Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden is at Christiana Medical Center undergoing treatment at present. He is alert and awake, and communicating with his parents and his wife, who are with him. We will provide more details as they become available.”

Let us hope this is not serious. Best wishes to the Biden family.

UPDATE: The third hand rumor from the hospital is that Beau Biden suffered a stroke. It must be stressed that it is an unconfirmed third hand rumor at this point.

2ND UPDATE: NBC News is confirming the problem is “neurological.” That means it could be a stroke or aneurysm.

3RD UPDATE NBC is now hedging and says the problem “could be neurological.”

4TH UPDATE (from DD): I am not a fan of going 2 hours now without any news. To me, that is an ominous sign. It could mean that Beau is in surgery or undergoing tests, and thus the doctors and/or the AG’s office or the Vice President’s office do not have anything new to say. Or it could mean something else.

The News Journal, in our waiting, as added this bit of color:

There are a number of government SUVs at the maternity wing entrance to the hospital and a state police car at the main entrance. Secret Service officers are at the entrance to the emergency room. There is only one helicopter on the hospital’s landing pad, and it belongs to the hospital. [..]

Beau’s father underwent two surgeries to correct near-fatal brain aneurysms in 1988.

“It goes to the whole thing about the grace of God and the good will of neighbors when your time is your time,” Biden said during a campaign stop in 2008. “When mine burst, fortunately, as described to me by the neurosurgeons, it ricocheted off my skull instead of into my brain. …

“It just makes you think about … every single day, you don’t know. You’d better take advantage of the day,” he said.

Asked at the time how he felt, Biden responded, “Oh, I’m fine. As a neurosurgeon will tell you, they either fix it or they don’t. And when they fix it, it’s fixed. If they don’t, they don’t and there’s not much in between.”

One in 15 Americans develops a brain aneurysm, a weakening of the walls of an artery or vessel. When the artery ruptures, it causes bleeding into the brain, causing a hemorrhage, which can lead to stroke, brain damage and death.

They don’t confirm that Beau has a brain aneuryism, but they begin talking about Joe Biden’s 1988 brain aneuryism. That is a big clue that the News Journal knows something and everyone is sitting on the story, perhaps for a news conference, or for others to be informed. And that again is not a good sign.

5th UPDATE: WPVI in Philadelphia is reporting that Biden presented with signs of a stroke:

Beau Biden was showing signs of a possible stroke and was then rushed to the hospital from his home. A source close to the family tells ABC News that Beau had some discomfort and a headache.

6th UPDATE: CBS3 in Philadelphia calls it an “apparent stroke.”

7th Update:

From a statement:

Here’s the explanation:

“Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden was admitted this morning to Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware after having what we believe to be a mild stroke,” Dr. Timothy Gardner, Medical Director of the Center for Heart and Vascular Surgery at Christiana Care Health System, said in a just-released statement.

Did Biden Screw Over Democrats In The Senate Race?

Let me say up front, I think the DE-Sen race is wide open and Chris Coons can emerge victorious. However, Joe Biden is now saying Beau Biden’s decision not to run was made around Thanksgiving:

Vice President Joe Biden predicted Tuesday that New Castle County Executive Chris Coons will “surprise the devil out of” election watchers in the contest for Biden’s old Senate seat in Delaware.

…

Asked on MSNBC whether Beau had bowed out of a Senate campaign because the political terrain was just too unfavorable for Democrats, the vice president said that’s not how things went down: “He basically made that decision at Thanksgiving. It’s a question of how it got rolled out.”

Really? It sure would have been nice for Beau Biden to tell the party that he was leaning against running 2 months ago. The long delay in making the decision sure screwed Chris Coons out of 2 months of fundraising. I don’t think party officials were aware of this decision either since I kept hearing from them that Beau was running. Something is fishy here.

How Biden Decision Screws Dems Statewide

“I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”-Blanche DuBois from Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire”.

So have down-ballot candidates in every election. The top of the ticket drives out the voters, and those further down the ballot benefit or suffer based on who is motivated to vote in any given election cycle.

Now, riddle me this, Batman. With two non-competitive races apparently heading this year’s ballot, how the bleep are the Democrats gonna drive out their voters? No presidential, no gubernatorial, two statewide offices that nobody gives a bleep about, and, frankly, I, for one, couldn’t care less whether the Beaudhisattva gets reelected. And, other than the rabid Archmere groupies, I don’t think most D’s do either. Bottom line: The D’s are in trouble, and are clearly in danger of losing the State House of Representatives. To a large degree, regardless of how good a job a given Rep is doing, if they’re in a swing district, they’re in trouble.

It was always gonna be a difficult landscape for Democrats. With a tanked economy nationally and locally, and people looking for instant solutions, incumbents are vulnerable. And D’s are especially vulnerable as they’ve proven themselves incapable of developing and advancing a coherent message.

The one saving grace was a high-profile Senate race that would drive all the loyalists out. A high-profile race engineered by the Bidenistas with the passive acquiescence of Gov. Chicken  ‘n Dumplings.

I HATE these family dynasties. However, once the deal was cut, the Beaudhisattva was obligated to follow through, and the Bidens were obligated to make it happen. But they didn’t. No doubt Joe will puff out his chest and tell everyone that Beau displayed extraordinary integrity in making this choice. Bullshit. The Beaudhisattva has shrunk in office and, now, has shrunk from it. Time for pere to find fils a nice position in the ‘investment industry’.

For the D’s in the House, you’re gonna have to survive on your own. Acting like Democrats for a change must be Step One. If all that you do this year is cut and cut, you inevitably are cutting services that those most at risk (and most likely to be D’s) want and need. You know that the R’s are just gonna obstruct. Start by making the wealthy pay their fair share by reversing the trend towards a flat tax for the millionaires. Save programs with those $$’s and dare Rethugs to oppose them.

In addition to funding essential programs at the expense of the flat-taxers, and enabling Democrats to run like Democrats, it will also raise taxes on the self-entitled Bidens. Maybe they need to be reminded how the other half lives.

Do Delaware Democrats Have A Plan B?

We are now more than halfway through the month of January and there is still no announced Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Ted Kaufman. How much longer do we have to wait? If Beau Biden isn’t planning to run he’s really putting the Democratic candidate at a disadvantage, Castle has been raising money since October.

So, let’s read the tea leaves.

Factors leaning against a Beau Biden run for Senate:
– Dr. Bradley child molestation case
– Panicked Democratic mood right now
– The long time with no announcement

Factors leaning towards a Beau Biden run for Senate:
– The long time with no announcement makes it difficult for another Democrat to get into the race
– The sense of inevitability

So, what do you think – will Beau run? If he doesn’t run, who will?

Unacceptable.

On pretty much every front, really. And that is the most family friendly title I could come up with.

If you haven’t seen the NJ article this AM recounting some of the history of the despicable Dr. Bradley, then do yourself a favor. People with blood pressure issues should be forewarned. But this is a just a horror show on pretty much every front:

  • Parents have been complaining about this doctor for years — one parent cited noted that he daughter was abused in 1999
  • Doctors and others who worked with Bradley apparently knew he was a pedophile — or at least that there was something quite out of the ordinary — and it doesn’t look like they did much to report him.  (Which might be wrong, but I’m guessing from this article)
  • Police tried charging him in 2005, and AG Brady decided that they could not win such a case (!)
  • The AGs office tried getting a search warrant in 2008 for Bradley’s office which was turned down

There’s more at Chris Barrish’s great article — but the point here is that pretty much every part of the system that is supposed to protect kids from the Bradley’s of the world seemed to completely fail here.  COMPLETELY.  I can’t fathom how so many people could know about a pedophile — and one with the kind of access to kids that Bradley had — and not be able to do something about this.   I can’t fathom how so many people could know about this and just live with themselves everyday.  It is simply unconscionable and, frankly, I wonder how much of the Delaware Way contributed to this sorry state of affairs.   But it seems clear to me that plenty of people conspired to fail these children and their parents.

AG Biden and his office don’t appear to have done much to get in front of this, either, and protecting kids was supposed to be his issue.  He’ll probably do some handwaving at not damaging the case or tainting a jury pool or something, but THIS is what a systemic system failure looks like and someone needs to start talking about how this happened and how this gets fixed.  No one should be expected to settle for handwaving or excuses here.  And chemical castrating of pedophiles means jack when in fact the entire system that should be in place to get these people into courts in the first place is utterly dysfunctional.

Good News, Bad News for Beau Biden

It was a bad December in Sussex county in the last two weeks of the month, while they should have been enjoying family and friends, Sussex citizens were fretting about crimes.  There was an abduction and murder of a young girl just over the state line in Maryland (her body was found on Christmas day).  Ordinarily, that would dominate the news, but there is another cloud over Sussex.

There is a huge mountain of evidence building in a case of a pediatrician that may have molested at least 100 children.  That mountain of evidence is being compiled by Beau Biden’s Attorney General office.  Biden has been very engaged in the whole process.  This is the role that an Attorney General is built for.  And by all accounts, Beau’s presence has been a comfort for victims families.  He is building a case for these citizens against one of the worst kinds of criminals.

From a purely political standpoint (and I am a little hesitant to even bring it up, but hear me out…) Beau is finally getting an opportunity to be what we all hoped that he would be, an AG that can make a difference in this state and not just a guy biding his time for a higher office.  He can make a name for himself that is distinct from his father’s legacy and can give him a base upon which he can aspire to future office on his own merits.  But the timing sucks.

This is announcement season.  If I were in Beau’s position, I would have announced months ago to engage in a conversation with voters, to raise money and to prove that he has the electoral chops required to be a Senator.  But his tenure in his only elective office has been diminished by his deployment to Iraq.  Both are valid ways to spend your time, but he hasn’t exactly had a lot of time in the AG’s office.  He can make up for that with a solid case against this doctor and quality community engagement to alleviate some of the suffering of these Sussex families.

And there’s the rub.  Can Beau be a full-time AG prosecuting a major case that has garnered him respect in “enemy territory” of Sussex and be a candidate for the junior Senator from Delaware?  Let me say right now that I think that Beau will come to the conclusion that the prosecution of Dr. Earl Bradley is more important that taking on Mike Castle for a partial Senate term and we will be stuck with Mike Castle for another 4 years.  But we will have a grateful Sussex County that won’t forget the hard work of a fully committed Attorney General that made the worst days of their lives a little more bearable.

Castle 45- Biden 39

That is the result of the Public Policy Polling poll that they completed this week (as we all voted on last week). From the PPP blog:

Two major trends have shown up in both polls to give Castle the early advantage. The first is an overwhelming 52-23 lead with independents. That mirrors a national trend of strong Republican performance with that group, although Castle’s edge is particularly large. The second is that he wins over far more Democrats than Biden does Republicans. Castle has a 79-10 lead within his own party, while Biden is up just 65-20 in his. Castle is winning more support from people who approve of Obama than any other Republican Senate candidate we’ve polled on nationwide this year.

They still didn’t specifically poll O’Donnell, but:

Castle may get a bit of a challenge from Christine O’Donnell in the Republican primary because 30% of the party’s voters think that he’s too liberal. Compared to other Republican Senate candidates across the country Castle is unusually popular with Democrats, as 48% view him favorably, but also unusually unpopular with Republicans, just 61% of whom view him positively. It’s unusual for the gap in favorability for a politician between the two parties to be so small.

Poll has a MOE of 4.1% . Crosstabs (pdf) here.

Carper on Hardball

This is from a show on 11/25 and Chuck Todd interviews him:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

A couple of things:
1. Pour Beau Biden — Carper also announces Beau running for the Senate and says he’ll vote for him. Have you ever seen serial announcements for candidate who insists he is thinking?

2. Carper seems to be speaking out of all sides of his mouth on the Public Option, but we should know that the Public Option in the Senate bill is significantly weaker than the House Bill already, and opt-ins, opt-outs, triggers and whathaveyou are not in the service of making this better.

3. It is way worse to hear Carper actually say on TV that there are real concerns about deficit impacts for a bill that is paid for. I hope his staff and the staff of the Finance Committee are conspiring for the mother of all paybacks.

Biden Leads Castle In A Just-Released Poll

Whoa, big news! All-but-announced Senate candidate Beau Biden leads Mike Castle in a new poll by 5%. This is bad news for Mike Castle:

In a hypothetical match-up of the candidates, Democrat Beau Biden leads GOP challenger and Delaware Congressman Mike Castle by a margin of 45 to 40 percent; 8% are undecided and 6% say would vote for another candidate. This 5-point lead for Biden, which is statistically significant because it is outside the poll’s 3.36% margin of error, marks the first time in publicly-released surveys that Biden has held the lead. It also represents a significant shift in support for Biden compared to our April survey which showed Castle with a 21-point lead, mainly due to Biden’s increased support with critical independent voters which make up nearly 1 in 4 voters in Delaware. A second explanation for the shift away from Castle in the current poll may be a result of negative publicity he received in the state after casting a “no” vote for President Obama’s health care reform bill in the U.S. Congress. The current poll was conducted 11/10 – 11/15, the week immediately following the weekend when the U.S. House of Representatives voted on this landmark legislation.

As we expected, Democrats are coming home. Castle had some bad publicity with his health care reform vote.

Beau Biden – The Long Tease

Those of us who were hoping for a big announcement from Beau Biden at last night’s Jefferson Jackson dinner walked away disappointed. The conditions were perfect for an announcement – the party base was there, huge media coverage and a former president spoke. Still, no announcement.

Let’s look at the evidence:
Menendez from the DSCC said that Biden’s running.
Polls show the race with Castle is practically tied.
Biden has done some media interviews, perhaps reluctantly.
Last night, Markell said Biden is running.
Last night, Clinton said Biden is running.
Last night Beau Biden did not say he is running.
Several knowledgeable sources thought Markell and Clinton were getting ahead of themselves and that we wouldn’t hear an announcement until next year.

So, is he or isn’t he running for Senate? What do you think?

Charlie Won’t Run

I was looking at my email the other day and a web ad appeared on the page for the Delaware GOP.  I know they get charged if I click on it and I wanted to see what they are up to, so I clicked.  It took me to their Stop the Biden Dynasty page, where they are trying to keep Beau from winning a Senate seat he hasn’t even announced that he is going to seek.

Vice President Joe Biden is trying to create another Democratic political dynasty in American politics. His son, Beau Biden, is preparing to run for the United States Senate seat his father held for more than 30 years. Help the Delaware Republican Party stop Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and their liberal allies! Donate now to help elect a Republican to the United States Senate and stop Beau and Joe Biden!

Someone needs to have their exclamation point removed from their keyboard!  But it got me to thinking about dynasties in Delaware politics.  One of them is the duPont family dynasty with Uncle Pete and Charlie Copeland.  Is a dynasty of the duPont family cool, but for the Biden family not cool?  It seems to me that the GOP has essentially told Charlie not to run for the House seat, because they don’t want to undermine their main argument against Beau.  That would be as dumb as if John McCain were to undermine his experience argument against Candidate Obama by nominating a moron to be his running mate.  OK, bad example…