The supposed heir apparent to Joe Biden's Senate seat, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, has pulled his name from consideration for the soon-to-be-open seat, according to Chris Cillizza.
This actually may not come as that big a surprise, as Beau Biden will be deploying to Iraq for a year as a military lawyer and will not be available to serve in the Senate during that time. Importantly, the younger Biden did not rule out running for the seat in the 2010 special election, when he would be done with his military obligation.
So, this really doesn't alter the conundrum that we talked about last week facing incoming governor Jack Markell (or outgoing governor Ruth Ann Minner, depending on the order in which the handovers happen): does Lt. Governor (and gubernatorial primary loser) John Carney get the nod, with the expectation of a permanent post, or does an elder statesman placeholder get the seat for two years, followed by Beau Biden (or a battle royale between Biden and Carney)?
