"He hit the ground running," says Vice President Joe Biden about his successor, Ted Kaufman. And Tom Carper, now the senior senator, uses the same words to describe his colleague. (Kaufman in turn says about Carper: He's like the energizer bunny.)
How could Kaufman not succeed with nearly two decades as Biden's chief of staff; as a university lecturer on Congress for more than 20 years; as someone who holds both engineering and business degrees; as a Delaware resident for more than 40 years, and as someone who in an interview makes clear he is a friendly, yet realistic, optimist?
The only mantle Kaufman could not inherit from Biden was the former senior senator's 36 years of experience, but Biden says Kaufman has quickly won the respect, collegiality and friendship of senators from both sides of the aisle. Indeed, Kaufman leaped over other freshman senators to become a member of the Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees, both of which Biden once headed.
In interviews last week, Biden and Carper gave Kaufman the highest grades for his service, not just from their own observations but because they hear similar reports from many senators, Democratic and Republican. Kaufman has already sponsored important legislation, made more than his share of speeches on the floor, was selected by Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island of the Senate Armed Services Committee to join him on a trip to Iraq last week -- in short, all the attributes of a senator who has many more than just three months as a United States senator. Kaufman, who marked his 70th birthday a month ago, says he will continue to try to have a positive impact on Delaware and the nation. Even though he's having a good and fruitful time, Kaufman remains committed to staying in office only until January 2011.
Carper points out Kaufman was appointed too late by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to attend Carper's school for freshman senators and their spouses, but Kaufman's years with Biden as official and unofficial right-hand man made the new senator quite capable of teaching his colleagues. After all, since 1991, Kaufman has been a senior lecturing fellow about Congress at the law school of Duke University, where he got a degree in mechanical engineering. Kaufman then received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090420/OPINION03/904200311/1004/OPINION
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
