Biden bids farewell to Senate

Sen. Joe Biden prepared to leave the Senate for the vice
presidency Thursday, but only after delivering a 39-minute farewell address
that befitted his legendary prolixity.

The Delaware Democrat gave a lengthy speech that
referenced the first time he visited the Senate chamber as a 21-year-old
tourist — and was nearly arrested by a U.S. Capitol Police office for sitting
in the Senate president’s chair. When Biden returned years
later, after his election, the same policeman recognized and remembered
him.

{mosads}“He said, ‘Welcome to the floor legally,’ ” Biden
recalled. “And I think it brings my career full cycle to know that while I was
once detained for sitting in the presiding officer’s chair, I will now
occasionally be detained in the presiding officer’s chair as vice president.”

Biden went on to mention his friendship with prominent
Senate Republicans over the years, such as John Stennis (Miss.), Strom Thurmond
(S.C.) and Jesse Helms (N.C.).

Biden also made sure to include his trademark phrase.

“I may be resigning from the Senate today, but I will
always be ‘a Senate man,’ ” he said. “Except for the title ‘father,’ there is
no title, including vice president, that I am more proud to wear than that of
United States senator.”

Biden’s resignation becomes official at 5 p.m. Thursday.
He is being replaced by his longtime aide, Tim Kaufman, who was appointed by
Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) paid tribute
to Biden’s sensitive side, reminding listeners that Biden lost a wife and child
in a car accident shortly after his 1972 election, and later suffered a
near-fatal aneurysm in 1988.

When Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) was struck with a similar
malady in 2006, Reid said it was Biden who visited Johnson and helped him cope.

“Joe Biden visited him and his family and talked to him
about the fact that there will be times as he’s recovering that he may be
embarrassed by his inability to speak very well,” Reid said. “Joe Biden, one of
the great orators in the history of the country — no one would have ever known
that he had a problem very similar to what happened to Tim Johnson. He was such
a role model to build Tim’s ability to come back to the Senate.”