Joe Biden Beatrice Gormley (classic children's novels txt) 📖

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