Joe Biden Page 6
Joe Biden would be the youngest member of the new Senate, and the sixth-youngest ever to serve in the Senate. And he looked even younger than he was. Joe joked that his colleagues would think he was a page, one of the boys who delivered mail around the Senate.
Senators’ offices were assigned according to rank, and Joe’s rank was right at the bottom. So he was assigned a little office on the sixth floor of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the farthest away from the Capitol. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia let Biden use some office space until he could move into his own humble quarters.
Neilia often came along to Washington with Joe to house-hunt. They planned to keep the North Star house, but they wanted to live right in Washington, where Joe would be working. They were still short on cash, but Neilia’s father offered to lend them the down payment. They found a house they liked, near a school they liked, and they made an offer.
That weekend Joe and Neilia finally took time to savor this point in their lives. They agreed that their beautiful house in Wilmington, in North Star, would be their real family home. They’d spend every weekend there, and they’d celebrate all the holidays and special occasions there, surrounded by family and friends.
On Monday morning, December 18, Joe took the Amtrak train to Washington. Neilia had decided not to go with him this time. She had some major Christmas shopping to do, and Christmas was only a week away. She packed the three children into the station wagon and went off to look for a Christmas tree. The following day, Neilia planned, she’d go to Washington with Joe and sign the papers on the house they were buying.
That afternoon, Joe was sitting with Valerie in his borrowed office in Washington when the phone rang. Valerie picked it up. It was Jimmy, calling from Wilmington. As Valerie listened, her face turned white.
Valerie hung up and tried to break the news to Joe gently. “There’s been a slight accident. Nothing to be worried about. But we ought to go home.”
Somehow Joe knew—from Val’s expression, or her tone of voice—what the news really was. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
They flew back to Wilmington and rushed to the hospital, where Joe learned the full story. After Neilia had driven off on her Christmas errands, her station wagon had collided with a tractor-trailer. Her car rolled into a ditch. She and Naomi, the baby, were killed. Beau’s leg and some other bones were broken, and Hunter had a cracked skull.
“I could not speak,” Joe wrote years later, “only felt this hollow core grow in my chest, like I was going to be sucked inside a black hole.”
The next several days he spent at the hospital, never leaving the boys. He was in a weird state, dozing off now and then and waking to a nightmare reality. Neilia, the love of his life, the partner of his dreams, was gone. The happy family they’d grown together was shattered: the baby dead, Beau in a full body cast, Hunter with a fractured skull and possibly brain-damaged. There was a part of Joe that wanted to die too—but then remembered that Beau and Hunter needed him more than ever.
What pulled Joe through the ordeal, he remembered later, was his family. Someone—Valerie, Jimmy, their mother—was always there to support him. As Joe’s vigil at the hospital dragged on, he began going out for nighttime walks around the city, trying to walk off his growing rage.
Jimmy went along to keep an eye on him, fearing that his brother was looking for a fight. And Joe would have been glad for an excuse to punch someone, as he admitted later. He was shocked at how angry he was, even angry at God. “I felt God had played a horrible trick on me.”
Now Joe Biden’s seat in the Senate, and all his plans for the great things he’d expected to achieve there, meant nothing to him. The only future he could imagine was one of taking care of his sons. He called Mike Mansfield, the majority leader of the Senate, and told him he was giving up his Senate seat. Biden had already told the governor of Delaware, who would appoint someone to fill in temporarily.
Young Senator Biden
In Joe Biden’s black mood after the accident, nothing mattered except four-year-old Beau and three-year-old Hunter. He didn’t want to go on living, but he would live for them. At least the boys were recovering well. The doctors assured Joe that Beau’s broken bones would heal, and Hunter’s brain had not been damaged.
At first Joe assumed that the best thing for his sons would be for him to stay home with them. But when he talked to his friends and family about the future, his mind began to change. There was his father’s advice from long ago, which had always served Joe well: “If you get knocked down, get up.”
Valerie, Joe’s first best friend and trusted advisor, argued that he didn’t have to choose between the Senate and his sons. She and her husband, Bruce, would move into the North Star house with Joe. She would quit her teaching job at Wilmington Friends School and take care of the boys full-time.
And Joe didn’t need to move to Washington, DC, as he and Neilia had planned. Washington was only a train ride away from Wilmington. Senator Biden could live at home and commute to work, while taking his boys to school every morning and tucking them into bed every night.
Val loved her nephews and wanted the best for them. But she also believed it would be best for her brother to plunge into the demanding work of the Senate. It would give him some sense of purpose, a way to recover from his crushing tragedy. And it would be good for Beau and Hunter to see their father following through on his commitment to the people of Delaware.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield would not give up on Joe, and he continued to call him every day. He was sympathetic with Biden’s loss, but he was determined to keep him in the Senate. He talked about the votes he was counting on Biden to support. He tempted Biden with the promise of a place on the Senate Democratic Steering Committee—an unusual favor for a freshman senator.
Finally, the wily Mansfield told Joe that by taking his seat in the Senate, he would be honoring Neilia’s memory. That was the clinching argument for Joe. Neilia had worked for this victory as hard as he had. She had believed in him and encouraged him, from that first day on the beach in Nassau. For Neilia’s sake, he could at least try.
* * *
By the beginning of 1973, Joe Biden had agreed to serve in the Senate for at least six months. But he refused to travel to Washington to be sworn into office in the Senate Chamber, as was customary. Hunter was back home, but Beau was still in the hospital, and Joe wouldn’t leave him. So Mike Mansfield sent the secretary of the Senate to the Wilmington General Hospital to administer the oath to Joe.
On January 5 a crowd of witnesses and TV crews watched the ceremony in the chapel of the hospital. Joseph and Jean Biden were there, as well as Neilia’s parents from upstate New York. Beau, his leg in a cast, was wheeled into the room. Hunter perched on his brother’s bed.
After taking his oath, Joe made a promise to his audience: If, after six months in the Senate, he felt that he couldn’t be a good father as well as a good senator, he would resign.
* * *
In the following weeks and months, Joe took up his new routine. Early every morning he’d get Beau and Hunter up. Driving the boys to school, Joe encouraged them to sing along with the radio.
Their favorite song, by Elton John, was “Crocodile Rock.” The three of them rode along, shouting at the top of their lungs, “ ‘But the biggest kick I ever got / Was doing a thing called the Crocodile Rock.’ ” After dropping Beau and Hunter off at school, Joe rode the Amtrak train from Wilmington to Washington.
He had explained to Beau and Hunter that they were allowed to call him at work anytime. And he instructed his staff in Washington to interrupt him if one of the boys called. He’d always take the call, no matter what vital Senate business he was in the middle of.
Joe also let Beau and Hunter come to work with him whenever they wanted, so some days the three of them rode the train to Washington. They could stay in his office playing quietly, or go to the Senate gym, or listen to hearings. Sometimes, during a staff meeting, one
of the boys would sit on his lap. They knew not to bother their father, and Joe’s office staff helped to look after the boys.
At the end of the Senate’s workday, other senators often went out for dinner together, or to one of the many parties and receptions in Washington. But Senator Biden hurried down Capitol Hill to Union Station and caught the train back to Wilmington. Usually he’d arrive home in time to put the boys to bed. Even when he arrived after bedtime, he’d always go kiss them good night.
Beau remembered, years afterward, how his father used to jump into bed with him and Hunter, hugging and kissing them. The young boys knew that Dad had an important job. But they also knew that they were more important to him than anything else in the world.
And Beau and Hunter were unusually close, even for brothers. Hunter would say later that his first memory was of waking up in a hospital bed after the tragic accident. Beau, in the bed next to him, turned to his younger brother and said, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
The US Senate
In the Senate, one of the two houses of Congress, each state is represented by two senators. This is different from the House of Representatives, where states are represented according to population. For instance, the tiny state of Delaware sends only one delegate to the House, while the large state of Texas sends thirty-six.
Besides working with the House of Representatives to develop and pass laws, the Senate has the power to “advise and consent” when the president appoints members of the Cabinet or justices to the Supreme Court. The president must also get the Senate’s approval for treaties with foreign countries.
The Democratic and the Republican Parties each elect their leaders in the Senate. The leader of the party in the majority has considerable power, including the power to bring bills up for debate—or not bring them up, which can kill a bill without even a vote. The majority leader also has the important right to speak first, before any other senator, to offer amendments, or motions to reconsider.
But the minority party has the right to filibuster a bill, to keep debate going in order to delay a vote. If they can keep talking long enough, they can sometimes prevent a bill from ever coming up for a vote. However, the majority can stop a filibuster through cloture. Cloture requires that a supermajority—or sixty out of the one hundred senators—vote to end the debate.
At the Capitol, several senators besides Mike Mansfield did their best to draw Joe Biden into the life of the Senate. Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, formerly President Lyndon Johnson’s vice president, had already called Joe many times while Beau and Hunter were in the hospital. Now Humphrey made a point of greeting Joe enthusiastically on the Senate floor. He often stopped by Joe’s office, although it was out of his way, to ask how he and his boys were doing.
Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, younger brother of former president John F. Kennedy, also dropped into Biden’s out-of-the-way office. He took Joe to the Senate gym and introduced him to famous senators in the steam baths.
In those days, the US Senate was in some ways like a men’s club. There were no women senators, since Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Maine had lost reelection in 1972, and only one African American, Republican Edward Brooke of Massachusetts. Among themselves, senators were generally friendly and civil, even with political enemies. Two senators with opposite political views might debate each other bitterly on the Senate floor but leave the chamber slapping each other on the back and joking.
From the beginning of his political career, Joe Biden had been open about his support for civil rights. Some of the Southern Democratic senators, on the other hand, were known as “Dixiecrats” for their defense of racial segregation. One of them was John Stennis of Mississippi.
Stennis had fought steadily against the civil rights movement during his long career in the Senate. However, he was perfectly courteous to the new senator from Delaware. He even made a point of congratulating Biden on his first speech in the Senate Chamber.
Senator James Eastland, also of Mississippi, was openly racist. He firmly believed that the white race was superior to the Black race, and that the races should be kept apart. However, Joe Biden thought he had something to learn from the older senator. After all, Eastland had served in Congress since 1929. And Joe had a talent for finding the issues that he agreed on with his political opponents, in order to work with them.
Besides, Joe liked Senator Eastland’s dry sense of humor. According to Eastland, the most significant change in the Senate, in his long career, was air-conditioning. He explained that in the old days, the Senate Chamber had skylights in the ceiling. So in the spring, the chamber would heat up like a greenhouse, and the Senate would adjourn for the summer. “Then we put in air conditionin’, stayed year round, and ruined America.”
* * *
In spite of friendly outreach from his colleagues, Joe had to force himself to plod through the days. He was determined to do his job in the Senate, but he took no joy in it. He existed in a dull, numb state, broken by stabs of unbearable pain. His purpose each day was only to get through it and go back home to Beau and Hunter.
Joe Biden’s first appearance on the floor of the Senate Chamber should have been a moment of high triumph. That morning, one of the Capitol policemen stepped forward, grinning, to congratulate him. “Senator Biden, do you remember me?” It was the same officer who, almost ten years before, had seized an unescorted college student named Joe and hauled him down to the basement for questioning. Now he told Biden, “I’m happy you’re back.”
Sadly, at this point Joe Biden could not be happy about much of anything. His chief of staff, Wes Barthelmes, became concerned that Joe was eating lunch by himself in his office every day. Barthelmes had to explain that it was part of Biden’s job to join his fellow senators for lunch. Lunch in the Senate wasn’t just a meal; it was a chance to get to know the people he had to work with. He needed to establish those personal relationships, sooner rather than later.
Normally, Joe Biden was a natural social animal. He loved meeting new people, getting to know them, making friends. And he understood perfectly well what his chief of staff was saying. But these days, he didn’t want to be around people who would either pity him or avoid him. He just wanted to stay in his office and spend his lunchtime calling home.
After a few weeks, Biden did allow Barthelmes to take him down to the dining room in the Dirksen building. There his chief of staff spotted Senator John McClellan of Arkansas, the chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee. Barthelmes pushed Biden to go over and introduce himself.
McClellan, like everyone else in the Senate, had heard about Joe’s tragic loss. But he didn’t either pity Joe or try to avoid him. “Oh, you’re the guy from Delaware? Lost your wife and kid, huh?”
Joe stood dumbstruck by the harsh words. The older senator added, “Only one thing to do. Bury yourself in work.”
As Joe found out, McClellan knew what he was talking about. Early in his political career, his wife had died of spinal meningitis. Several years later, a son had died of the same disease. And later, two more of his sons had died.
Joe Biden would never get to be close friends with the much older McClellan, but his blunt talk gave Joe a little perspective on his grief. And he learned that there were other senators struggling with personal tragedy. The wife of Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana was suffering from breast cancer, which would kill her several years later. Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri had lost his wife the year before.
* * *
Meanwhile, Majority Leader Mike Mansfield was still looking out for Joe Biden. He asked the young senator to come by his office once a week, to report on how he was settling into the Senate. Although Mansfield, as leader, was responsible for bringing freshman senators along, Biden knew he was getting special treatment. “He was taking my pulse,” Biden later said wryly, as if he were a patient in a hospital.
Senator Hubert Humphrey, also looking out for Biden, knew that Joe was especially interested in foreign rela
tions. Joe had hoped to be given a place on the prestigious Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but he was too new to the Senate for that.
However, there were other opportunities to travel abroad. Humphrey made sure that Biden was included in a delegation to a conference in Oxford, England. To top it off, Humphrey arranged for Joe’s brother Jimmy to fly over to join him, and then take Joe on a five-day European vacation.
Jimmy joked that he was a “Senate wife” for Joe. He often rode the commuter train to Washington with his brother, to keep him company for the day. On weekends, Joe’s friend Jack Owens would spend evenings with him, staying up late and talking. In Wilmington and in Washington, there was a strong network supporting Joe.
* * *
The first six months were up, and Joe Biden stayed in the Senate. He took on more responsibility for his party, especially campaigning for other candidates. Senators have six-year terms, but members of the House of Representatives have to run for reelection every two years.
So there were always a number of campaigns going on. There were always many candidates who needed help getting votes and raising money. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent Biden out on long speaking tours, covering the United States from Vermont to Hawaii.
In a way, it was a relief for Joe to travel. He hated to leave Beau and Hunter for these trips, but he could see that they were becoming more relaxed, more confident that he would always come back to them. And he was leaving them with a close and loving family. The boys’ aunt Valerie took care of them. Their uncle Frank was always around, and their Biden grandparents not far away.
As for himself, Joe Biden slept better when he was on the road. The North Star house, his and Neilia’s dream house, was now the house of lost dreams. He actually looked forward to trips so that he could get some rest. Also, it lifted his spirits to be helping other Democrats, speaking to audiences. He still had his gift of connecting with a crowd.