So, the Obama camp has decided on a VP candidate, Joe Biden. So who is this guy and is he a good match for Obama?
Senator Joe Biden started his career back in 1971 on the Wilmington, Deleware County Council. A mere two years later, he ran for Senator and has been in the Senate ever since. He has served under 7 presidents during his career in the senate. He has also run for president twice, once in 1988, and once earlier this year, 2008. In both cases, he withdrew from the race. Biden has been a key member of both the Judiciary and the Foreign Relations committees.
On the Judiciary committee, he worked to pass laws such as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (VCCLEA), the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act (RAVE), and wrote the laws that established the post of Drug Czar.
The VCCLEA provids for additional police officers, funding for prisons, and funding for prevention. It also includes a ban on assault weapons, adds additional crimes that could be punished with the death penalty and removes the ability for inmates to apply for educational grants.
VAWA provides funding to help investigation and prosecution of violent acts against women. It also allows law enforcement to detain the accused longer before trial, and allowed victims to seek restitution if the crime went unprosecuted. The latter part of the VAWA, dealing with restitution, was deemed unconstitutional in 2000.
The RAVE act is an anti-drug act, seeking to stop the use of drugs such as Ecstasy and date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol. Essentially, the law provided guidelines for prosecution of individuals who profit from making premises available for drug use.
Finally, the post of Drug Czar was created in 1988. The term “Drug Czar” refers to the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The ONDCP is responsible for establishing drug policies within the United States, and overseeing the anti-drugs efforts.
In the area of Foreign Relations, Biden has been a strong supporter of stopping hostilities in the Balkans. He also stated that Saddam Hussein was a threat to national security and that he needed to be dealt with immediately. He went on to support the use of military force on Iraq, effectively supporting the start of the Iraq war. He did, however, support a resolution to use diplomacy first. That resolution was rejected by the Bush Administration.
Biden has supported copyright law preventing individuals from recording and playing back Internet and Satellite Radio. He also supported a bill that would make it a felony to “trick” a device into playing “unauthorized” music, or running programs that were not “approved” for it. He has shown himself to be a strong supporter of DRM and copyright in general, siding with the RIAA and MPAA.
When it comes to privacy, Biden has proven that he is more interested in preventing it rather than protecting it. In the 1990’s, a series of bills, sponsored by Biden, aimed to restrict encryption and add a “back door” into secure communications equipment. These two bills, the Comprehensive Counter-Terrorism Act, and the Violent Crime Control Act, spurred Phil Zimmerman into action and he created a program called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) to allow secure, military grade encryption for email communications.
Biden was also instrumental in passing the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in 1994. CALEA requires that telephone companies, and more recently, Internet Service Providers, install remote wiretapping capabilities into the telecommunications equipment. While warrants are still required for wire tapping, this made the process much easier as law enforcement no longer needed direct access to the phone equipment to tap a line. And, as we’ve seen more recently, this allowed for easy warrant-less wiretapping as well.
With respect to terrorism, Biden introduced the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act in 1995. This act expanded FISA, allowing “secret” evidence to be used in court, and defined the crime of terrorism. As per section 202 of the act,
`(v) TERRORISM DEFINED- As used in this Act, the term `terrorism’ means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets.’
While the Omnibus act was never enacted into law, it was the predecessor to the Patriot act, which was drafted and passed into law in 2001. Biden voted for the Patriot act in 2001, and for the renewal of the Patriot act in 2006.
Biden’s views seem to change, somewhat, in 2007. With the presidential race looming, and his hat already tossed into the ring, Biden changed his tune. He attacked the president’s warrantless wiretapping program, and asked for the resignation of the Attorney General. More recently, he voted against the FISA bill which contained provisions allowing for telecom immunity.
I find it odd that Obama would choose such a person as a running mate. While Biden definitely has more foreign relations experience, the rest of his career seems to fly in the face of what Obama stands for. Obama blasts old-school politics, but then picks up a 30+ year veteran. Obama supports civil liberties, and was trained as a civil liberties lawyer, but Biden seems to have no interest in civil liberties.
And so I find myself at an impasse. I am not a fan of McCain, nor his new attack dog. But, voting for Obama means voting for Biden. And while I appreciate Biden’s candidness, I am not a fan of his policy. I’ve all but lost faith in the system… If the choice comes down to the lesser of two evils, then the system has truly failed.