His decision ends days of unease for colleagues left in limbo about their leadership roles. That committee will exercise jurisdiction over President Bush's judicial nominations, including any Supreme Court vacancies. I've got the best of both worlds in terms of my intellectual and my political interests in foreign policy and the criminal justice issues.
Nobody wants to see the judiciary lurch to the far right or the far left.
Biden's decision ends not only the uncertainty about Foreign Relations and Judiciary but the leadership of other committees that would have been affected by a Biden switch to Judiciary, which he chaired from 1987-1995. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who faces what is expected to be a tough re-election battle next year, is assured of becoming chairman of the Agriculture Committee, no longer worried that Leahy might take the job if he was pushed out of Judiciary. And Sen. Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, next in line to become Foreign Relations chairman had Biden opted for Judiciary, will become Banking Committee chairman. There has been speculation that Biden might run for president in 2004, and he admitted that being Judiciary Committee chairman, especially when handling a Supreme Court nomination, would bring more public attention than foreign affairs. Biden knows about that spotlight from his experience overseeing the rejected Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork, defeated first in committee and then on the Senate floor, and the successful high court nominations of Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.