test_pdf.pdf

KEYNOTE
SPEAKER
JOHN ISAACS [President of the Council for a Livable World and ACA Board Member]:
Today I’m fortunate to introduce to you someone who is a U.S. senator but is not running
for president of the United States. (Laughter.) Fortunately, because today he’d be running off to
Missouri or Arizona, or South Carolina, or perhaps even Delaware—there are some activities
going on the next week there. And fortunate, also, because no matter who is elected president
in November—and this university and this organization are non-partisan, and I’m sure you
have no views on who should be president—Senator Joseph Biden will be in a key position in
the U.S. Senate to provide critical leadership on arms control, nonproliferation, and other
national security issues being discussed today, and of course, issues so dear to the heart of
Paul Warnke.
One thing we can all be sure of is that no matter who is president in 2005, Senator Biden
will not be bashful about putting forward his views on national security issues, and indeed,
he should not be bashful. This country needs advocates like Senator Joseph Biden pushing,
prodding, educating, and even lobbying the president and his national security team.
Now not many of you will remember, but Senator Biden has been in Washington for quite
a while. He was elected at the very young age of 29 to the U.S. Senate from the New Castle
County Council, Delaware. That’s an early start. He has risen in the last 30 years to be both the
top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as well as on the Judiciary Subcommittee
on Crime, which mean Senator Biden is a key player in Washington, not just on national
security issues, but many issues facing the Judiciary Committee, including Supreme Court
nominations, constitutional law, and many other subjects.
Senator Biden has been centrally involved in so many of the issues that the people in this
room have been working on over the last years—the SALT treaties, START, the Chemical
Weapons Convention, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty—and he has been a very effective
advocate on all these issues.
I will end this introduction where I began. We are very fortunate to have Senator Biden
here today and to have him here in Washington in January to continue working effectively on
all our issues. Thank you.
(Applause.)
Senator Joseph Biden
SENATOR JOSEPH BIDEN (D-DE): Thank you all very much. I’m honored to be here.
By the way, the way you rise in Washington is survive. It has nothing to do with merit, as
I’m sure you all know. And secondly, with regard to the candidates, both parties running for
president of the United States, I’m authorized to speak for all of them, so if you have any
questions…(laughter).
When I got to the United States Senate, if you wished to play a role in American foreign
policy, there was only one avenue. You had to master arms control issues. Whether you were
for or against—I’ve been for—you had to master it. There was no other way for a young senator
to even get in the game.
I want to thank John again for the introduction. I would not be a United States senator
were it not for John and an outfit called the Council for a Livable World. There was a guy
named Al Gore, Sr., and his wife, who back in those days helped start this organization. I was
a 28-year-old kid, announced for the United States Senate, met with former Senator and Mrs.
Gore, and of the $287,000 I raised in my campaign, the Council for a Livable World, by individual
checks, raised $89,000 of those dollars, which I was very proud to accept then and
[now] one of the “interest groups” that I’ve been most proud to be associated with. I apologize
for ruining your reputation. (Laughter.)
And I also want to thank Daryl Kimball and the Arms Control Association for allowing
41
41