Tales from the Trail

Beau Biden, son of the vice president, says he is considering running for his dad’s Senate seat but hasn’t made a decision yet.

“I’ve been away from my family for a year, first things first,” Biden said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” after returning from Iraq with the Army National Guard. “There’s time to make that decision.”

“Look, am I considering it? Absolutely. Absolutely,” Biden, who is Delaware’s attorney general, said. “But I’ll be making the decision in due course.”

President Barack Obama is still likely weeks away from a decision on a new Afghanistan strategy.

A BBC report last night created a bit of a stir in saying that the Obama administration had told the British government that it would soon announce a troop increase that “could exceed 40,000.”

Republican Mike Castle ended months of speculation on Tuesday by saying he will run to fill U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s unexpired Senate term from Delaware.

The announcement raised again the questions: Will Biden’s son, Beau, run for it, too? And if so, when will Beau announce?

Beau Biden recently returned from a nearly year-long deployment in Iraq as a member of the Delaware National Guard. He is back at his job as Delaware’s elected attorney general.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden expects that his oldest son Beau, who has been on a tour of Iraq with his Army National Guard unit, will be in Washington for Inauguration Day next Tuesday.

“God wiling and the creek not rise, as my grandfather would say, yes, I hope he’s here on inauguration. He has leave on Inauguration Day,” Biden said Friday outside the Senate, where he had just attended the swearing-in of his successor as senator from Delaware.

“I expect him (Beau) to be with me from early in the morning till late that night. I know he goes back shortly thereafter to Iraq,” Biden told reporters, adding that he was “looking forward” to seeing his son.

WASHINGTON – Democrats came up just short of a winning a filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the 100-member Senate in last November’s election.  But they may do it in next year’s contest — thanks largely to a rising number of Senate Republicans calling it quits.

George Voinovich – a highly respected, two-term moderate — on Monday became the fourth Senate Republican to announce he won’t seek reelection in 2010.

Voinovich’s decision followed earlier such announcements by Republican Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Mel Martinez of Florida and Kit Bond of Missouri.