Joe Biden September 2001 : "America needs to show the Arab world that we're not bent on its destruction"

Still, some Democrats worry that Biden's flapping tongue could cause p.r. problems down the road. "There probably should be some small concern," says the Democratic strategist. Any wrongheaded declaration by Biden "would not be deliberate; it would not be that he stopped being a team player and decided to go out and conduct foreign policy on his own. It would be just that he was out there and talking."

At the Tuesday-morning meeting with committee staffers, Biden launches into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about what his committee should be doing, before he finally admits the obvious: "I'm groping here." Then he hits on an idea: America needs to show the Arab world that we're not bent on its destruction. "Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran," Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.

The staffers sit in silence. Finally somebody ventures a response: "I think they'd send it back." Then another aide speaks up delicately: "The thing I would worry about is that it would almost look like a publicity stunt." Still another reminds Biden that an Iranian delegation is in Moscow that very day to discuss a $300 million arms deal with Vladimir Putin that the United States has strongly condemned. But Joe Biden is barely listening anymore. He's already moved on to something else.

The #1 liberal in the senate on both foreign affairs, and economic issues, and paired to the #1 liberal overall. Both to the left of Bernie Sanders.

Foreign policy EXPERIENCE?

Of what kind?

STEVE CLEMONS: Before it was a fad, Joe Biden was a great ally for those who were worried against--worried about John Bolton. In early 2007, when President Bush rejected the Iraq Study Group report in--essentially in his State of the Union address, in his remarks about the Iraq Study Group report, Biden was the first to come out and ask, "Did I just hear Bush declare a covert war against Iran?" And he pounded the table and quizzed Condi Rice far before anyone else on this. On Iraq issues, and particularly Iran issues, he came out before many other senators and began to say, "I haven't authorized a resolution in this. I'm not behind that."

So, to some degree, what I like about Biden and I think makes him distinctive among many other Democrats is he's clearly in that middle area. He's not pacifist. He believes in the ability of a nation to deploy power to achieve its ends, but he's not somebody who's sitting around feeling like he's got a chip on his shoulder and has to use power and has to use conflict to define a presidency or define himself, where I think, you know, people like Evan Bayh may fit that category a bit more. And I think, in particular, with the contrast that Evan Bayh, I think, was nearly the choice, as much as a week ago, Biden, in contrast, looks like a very fresh and important choice, given what could have happened.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Zunes, you don't agree.

STEPHEN ZUNES: No. In fact, I see the selection of Biden as a stunning betrayal of the antiwar movement that enabled Obama to get the nomination in the first place. Throughout the primaries, Obama correctly pointed out that judgment is more important than experience, that Hillary Clinton, his rival, had given Bush this blank check to invade a country on the far side of the world that was no threat to us at the time in circumstances of his choosing, and Obama had the wisdom and courage to say, no, this isn't right, we shouldn't do this. And he was going to be using that line against McCain this fall. But in choosing Biden, who helped shepherd this unprecedented war resolution through the Senate, he's lost the edge of that argument. He's saying, well, I guess it's not that important, in fact, because I'm selecting as my vice president someone who went along with McCain and Bush, instead of me and the majority of congressional Democrats.

AMY GOODMAN: Steve Clemons?

STEVE CLEMONS: I would agree with Stephen, if the IRGC vote, the famous Kyl-Lieberman resolution that designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist act, if that vote hadn't happened, which Joe Biden fought strongly against it, and Hillary Clinton voted for that. That--unfortunately, we don't know about Barack Obama, because he missed that vote. But that vote was, I think, a far more defining vote about where people are today and how they see these things.

1. Ali Akbar Rafsanjani , Iranian president, widely heralded as a pragmatic moderate.

2. Ali Fallahijan , Minister of Intelligence and Security.

3. Ali Akbar Velayati , Foreign Minister.
   
   
4. Mohsen Rezai , commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
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5. Ahmad Vahidi , commander of the Qods Force.
   
   
6. Mohsen Rabbani , in 1994 Iranian cultural attaché in Buenos Aires.
   
   
7. Ahmad Reza Asghari , (also known as Mohsen Randjbaran ), third secretary of the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires .
   
   
8. Imad Moughnieh , head of Hezbollah's External Security Service in 1994, a position he holds to this day, as well as serving as Hassan Nasrallah's military deputy. NOW DEAD.