The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 12

A12 THE NEWS JOURNAL MONDAY, AUG. 25, 2008 DECISION 2008 www.delawareonline.com No names surface as possible Biden successors in Senate xl Wr Jr 1 1 1 4 Tfc "Thatwouldbe Johns responsibility not mine. The next governor's responsibility, that is." Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who caught herself while talking about naming someone to Sen. Joe Biden's seat if he is elected vice president tional Guard unit, a deployment that is to start in October.

Minner said Delaware has never had a woman in Congress and this might be a good time to consider that. She said she has not yet thought about what names she might consider if the decision falls to her. The two-year term would give any appointee a running start on the 2010 race, or it could be used as a placeholder if someone were willing to hold it until another candidate is ready. U.S. Sen.

Tom Carper offered no suggestions and no scenarios, saying it was too early. "I'm sure Gov. Minner is not going to call and ask for my suggestions," he said. "And we're getting ahead of ourselves here. First, Barack and Joe have to win." Contact Beth Milter at 324-2784 or bmillerdelawareonline.com.

Markell and Carney focus on Dover job By BETH MILLER The News Journal If a short list of names is under construction in case the U.S. Senate seat of Democrat Joe Biden becomes vacant, no one was saying so this weekend. The only thing that seems virtually certain is that it would be a Democrat. Biden's re-election campaign still is alive, but it was bumped instantly to the back burner Saturday when Illinois Sen. Barack Obama chose the six-term senior senator from Delaware as his running mate in the presidential race.

Delaware election law allows Biden to stay on the ballot for both slots. He will face Republican Christine O'Donnell in the November Senate election, a race that Biden is widely expected to win. If the Obama-Biden ticket wins the White House, and Biden wins the Senate election, an interim senator would be appointed by the governor. Which governor makes the appointment outgoing incumbent Ruth Ann Minner or the winner of the 2008 general election -would depend on when Biden resigned his Senate seat. If Biden resigns before Minner leaves office Jan.

20 inauguration day she would appoint his successor, who would serve until the next general election in 2010. If he waits until he is sworn in as vice president to resign the Senate post, the appointment would be made by the new governor. "That would be John's responsibility not mine," Minner said. Then, realizing that her statement assumed that Lt. Gov.

John Carney Jr. would be the next governor, she corrected herself. "The next governor's responsibility, that is." Not that the Democratic Party would leave that vacancy unfilled if a Republican retired Superior Court Judge Bill Lee or Hockessin pilot Mike Protack won the governor's race. Assuming Obama and Biden win, Minner would still have time to make the appointment in the event of a Lee victory. Carney, a former Biden staffer, is finishing his second term as lieutenant governor while locked in a fierce gubernatorial primary race against three-term State Treasurer Jack Markell.

Some have suggested that appointing one of them to the Senate could end the hand-wringing decision many Democrats face as they choose between the two popular candidates. The News JournalFRED COMEGYS Attorney General Beau Biden walks with his son Hunter, 2, after church Sunday. Some observers expect Biden to seek his father's Senate seat if it is vacated, but Biden will soon be serving in Iraq with his National Guard unit didates for the U.S. Senate. "No to Washington," Carney said.

"I'm running for Dover." "I want to be governor," Markell said. "I'm really excited about running for governor, and I want to do everything I can to be sure Joe Biden is elected vice president." Some expect Biden's son Beau, in his first term as Delaware's attorney general, to seek his father's office in Washington. But the younger Biden has been alerted for duty in Iraq with his Delaware Army Na- "Markell could drop out of the race, Minner could appoint him and that would solve that whole thing," said Walt Bryan, a longtime party worker. "But that's not going to happen." Both gubernatorial candidates agreed. They are not can if" Biden: Record shows longtime support of women's rights i SEND US YOUR JOE BIDEN STORY He's not just a "Regular Joe," he's our "Regular Joe." If you lived in Delaware long enough, chances are pretty good that you've run into Sen.

Joe Biden (and it's always Joe, never Joseph). Look, the guy's hardly a wallflower. Maybe at An-gelo's Luncheonette in Wilmington's Forty Acres? On your way into a movie at the Brandywine Town Center? Picking up coffee at BrewHaHa! in Trolley Square? At Mass at St Joseph on the Brandy-wine Catholic Church? Send your favorite Biden stories to Assistant Metro Editor Tim Konski at tkonskidelawareonline.com. 1 7 FROM PAGE Al Wiedwald said she had always been a strong Biden supporter, and viewed his record on women's issues as a plus nationally. Biden sponsored the Violence Against Women Act in the 1990s, a measure that provided a framework for future national and state laws that criminalized some attacks on women and helped communities coordinate programs to protect and help victims.

He expanded the law's scope while renewing it in 2000 and 2005, targeting human trafficking and adding protections for children who testify in domestic violence cases. Karen Valentine, a superdelegate to the Democratic convention who had been pledged to Clinton, said the addition of Biden to the Obama ticket should help gain the support of former Clinton voters. "Senator Biden added leaves me no choice but to support the ticket. It is not an option anymore," she said by phone from Denver. "I think he Biden will get Hillary supporters because of his background with women's issues.

It will help with women." She said she has heard nothing but positive things so far about Biden joining the Obama ticket. "I think he will be a huge asset," Valentine said. Leslie Goldstein, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware, said Biden also deserves credit for supporting reproductive choice for women. His views on civil rights and the rights of women have become part of the national scene since the mid-1980s, Goldstein said, when he led a critical Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that eventually blocked the Reagan administration's Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork. Wiedwald also said that she expects Clinton to play "a valuable role" in the next administration.

1 1. -Jfc fHi unir irMiirntnim-TrinTiimiiMir rniniiitmrir iinnJ 'I The News JournalFRED COMEGYS Sen. Joe Biden chats with fellow parishioners Sunday after Mass as he holds granddaughter Natalie, 4. Parishioners not surprised to see Biden at usual Mass Obama's campaign. "He's at least a three-prong plus to the campaign," Goldstein said.

"He's one of the old wise men on foreign policy. He has a very strong record on issues, and he's the kind of tough, straight-talking campaigner who appeals to working-class voters." Rashid Malik, a Republican of Pakistani heritage and political science professor at Florida University in Tallahassee, said on Sunday that Obama's complicated ethnic background is a mixed blessing, troubling to voters obsessed with race, but refreshing to those in other countries. "Obama, in himself, is a very international man," Malik said. "That won't be reassuring to some, but then again Biden is a grass-roots American with a very objective outlook." 'Not the same as Hillary' Goldstein said she remains slightly nervous about voter reaction to Biden. Some could see in the senior senator a shadow of Vice President Dick Cheney, chosen by the Bush campaign to help shore up concerns about the former Texas governor's lack of experience in foreign affairs.

"If they see Obama as relying on Biden, it might make them a little bit nervous because they see it didn't work out so well with Bush," Goldstein said. Race also remains a source of nervousness, Winant said. "It's a much bigger question, in a lot of ways, than gender. I think that Obama would be ahead in the polls by astonishing numbers if it were not for race." In Kansas, Patrick said that Natalie Biden appears to be fascinated by the Secret Service agent following her grandfather as they leave their Greenville church. Parishioners said they were excited that a member of their church will be running for vice Senator spends rest of day on speech for convention By GINGER GIBSON The News Journal After attending church Sunday morning in Greenville, Sen.

Joe Biden spent his first full day as Sen. Barack Obama's choice for vice president closeted in his home, preparing the speech he will deliver at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday. Outside the Biden home the crowd thinned to a small handful of reporters. Secret Service agents set up orange cones and plastic mesh fencing to keep them at bay. In his only public appearance, Biden attended 9 a.m.

Mass at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church. His motorcade of SUVs and police cars drove directly home after leaving the church. Campaign spokesman David Wade fv Rebman joked. He said one barrier between Biden and Catholic voters is the senator's pro-choice stance.

"We're in dialogue about that," Rebman said. He also said he joked with Biden about his status as an alumnus of Arch-mere Academy. "I would have preferred a Salesianum graduate be first," said Rebman, who graduated from Archmere rival Salesianum School. Chat with old friend Donald Feeney, 61, of Wilmington, smiled at Biden as he walked down the aisle and chatted with him after the service. Feeney said Biden apologized for the cameras and press standing outside.

They joked that the press was there to see a visiting priest, the Rev. Joseph Sun-daram from southern India, who spoke to the congregation. Feeney said. When Sundaram spoke during the homily about problems facing residents of southern India, he appealed to Biden to remember their problems in his new role. Feeney said he wasn't starstruck to Biden's long record in support of women's rights and protection would carry a lot of weight, helping to offset some of what she said was blatantly sexist and biased treatment of Hillary Clinton during the primary.

"I think you can waste your time being sore at society in general for gender bias, and I am blaming society for it because that's how people have been raised," Patrick said. "Not voting for Obama isn't the answer, because that's putting McCain one vote closer." Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell Biden as a "balance' The anger of some Clinton supporters stems from the belief that their candidate suffered from unfair coverage in the primaries. "It's complete speculation as to why Obama beat Hillary. In some ways, she didn't know how to campaign against him.

In other ways, there was tremendous, anti-woman, basically sexist treatment of Hillary in the media," said Howard Winant, a University of California, Santa Barbara sociology professor and author of a book on race and politics. Aminifu R. Harvey a professor of social work and black studies at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, said that Biden represented a far safer choice for Obama than Clinton would have. The nation, Harvey said, is not yet ready for a presidential ticket comprising a black man and a woman. "That would have been moving too fast, especially for older voters," Harvey said.

"When I talk to people, a lot of them, especially Caucasian voters, feel that race is right below the surface for some people, even for some who have come out ostensibly for Obama and Biden. when they go in the voting booth? I think Biden helps balance that out." Goldstein said that Clinton supporters defy quick description. "I think they're a diverse array of people, some of them more stubborn than others. Some of them may have very strong racial feelings and some of them are already openly behind Obama," Goldstein said. "If they simply cared about having a woman in the White House, they're going to have to wait a while," Goldstein said.

"Voting for McCain isn't going to help them. There's just no logic for a Hillary supporter to vote for McCain." Goldstein said Biden had proven "enormously popular" during talks to her own university classes. She see Biden in church; the pair met when they decorated for Archmere's prom in 1987. Feeney's daughter Karen attended school with Beau Biden and their parents oversaw the decorations. Feeney said he learned a lot about Biden decorating the building, especially when they returned after a day's work hanging drapes to learn the decorations had all fallen down.

He said Biden was undeterred, working to redecorate the facility in time for the prom. Ann Marie Johnson-Ianni, 50, and her daughter Lauren Ianni, 18, said they were excited to hear that a member of their parish will be on the national ticket. "Delaware politics has always been local," Johnson-Ianni said. "I suspect he'E make a great effort to keep his roots here." Ianni is headed to Harvard to start ujlu iiiuu to utsl an au-sentee ballot for the Obama-Biden ticket. Marybeth Celello, 60, and her daughter Alison, 16, both of Wilmington, said they were excited to hear about Biden's selection, but not surprised to see him in church.

"He's been a regular so long. He's part of the parish community," Marybeth Celello said. Alison said that while she won't be able to vote for Obama and Biden, she joined the student organization at her school, Archmere, supporting Biden. Secret Service swept the church Saturday night for an hour, Rebman said, and were at the building early this morning blocking off part of the parking lot and monitoring the area. Contact Ginger Gibson at 678-4274 orgigibsondelawareonline.com said Biden spent the day with his family and working on his convention speech.

Biden was accompanied at the services by his wife, son Beau Biden and grandchildren, along with about 100 members of the small parish. The Rev. Joseph Rebman pointed out Biden's family in the back of the congregation, congratulating him on his selection and asking the parish to pray for him. Biden was mentioned several times during the Mass, including the sermon and the prayers of the people, when guidance was requested for the candidate. When Biden was pointed out during Mass, he dropped his head and shook it at the attention, making the sien of the cross when prayers were requested in his name.

And while the flurry of cameras greeting him as he entered the small church building and the Secret Service agents sitting behind him were unusual, some elements remained the same: he attended at his customary time, sat in the back of the church and mixed with fellow parishioners outside afterward, shaking hands and giving hugs. Members of the parish said they weren't surprised to see him at Mass since he's a regular. But some said they were momentarily shocked by the row of cameras outside, and a few objected to the presence of the reporters, photographers and videographers. Rebman said he doesn't know what impact Biden's religion will have on Catholic voters. "There are Republican said Sunday that Biripn' piihlir record as a supporter of women's issues would help Obama, to a point.

But Clinton's enthusiastic support ofObamaiskey. "The only person who's going to bring those voters back is Hillary Clinton," Rendell said. "We're excited Democrats. Probably not as excited as if it would have been ObamaClinton. But people are pretty excited about Joe." Rendell said people at the the Pennsylvania delegation's hotel were waiting to buy Obama souvenirs until they had Biden on them.

"It's not the same as Hillary, but Joe goes a long way towards energizing the party," he said. Staff reporter Sean O' Sullivan contributed to this story. Contact Jeff Montgomery at 678-4277 a or fmontgomerydelawareonline.com. CORRECTIONS BIDEN DETAILS INCORRECT: Sen. Joe Biden was first elected as a U.S.

senator in 1972 when he was 29. The year and his age were incorrect in a front-page story Sunday. To comment about the accuracy, fairness or adequacy of news coverage, call Assisloril Managing Editor Jill Fredel at 324-2859 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

From southern Delaware and other states, call (800) 235-9100. For questions about newspaper delivery, call (800) 801-3322. Send e-mail to publiceditordelawareonline.com. predicted that he would bring strength and consolation to.