Early Senate Drama
CBSNews.com producer David Miller looks at the early maneuvering by the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Biden, the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, garnered attention early in the day from the cable news networks with his comments in the Washington Post stating his belief that the White House sees the war in Iraq as a lost cause and plans on drawing out the conflict long enough to pawn it off on the next administration.
"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden told the Post. "They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up. I am not being facetious now. Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy — literally, not figuratively."
Then, later in the day — in fact, not long before he appeared on CNN's The Situation Room — Biden and Republican Sen. Richard Luger of Indiana announced the Foreign Relations Committee would hold a series of hearings on Iraq throughout this month and possibly into February, an agenda Biden had hinted at in the Post.
The highlight of that schedule is a hearing next Thursday on the administration's plan for Iraq featuring testimony from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The hearing will likely be Biden's first major showcase as chairman of the committee. Expect him to take advantage of that spotlight — he has never been known for being at a loss for words or going easy on the administration.
Of course, the whole exercise probably has a bit of self-promotion behind it. Biden is one of several Democrats trying to break into the top-tier of presidential hopefuls for 2008. He has repeatedly announced he plans to run, and has said he expects to form an exploratory committee later this month.