Biden's Boast

The Washington Post reports that Biden did not play as big a role in resolving the Bosnian crisis as he claims.

But, despite the bravado, Biden was not a key player in the legislation that ultimately forced Bill Clinton to lift an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations on Bosnian Muslims fighting the Serbs, according to congressional officials involved in the issue and a review of Biden's speeches and voting record.

... "His views were consistent with what we were doing," said Stephen G. Rademaker, then a House Republican aide who initially drafted the legislation and brought it to Dole's attention. "But I never regarded him as a leader in the effort."

...As the incident with Milosevic shows, Biden is hardly shy about emphasizing his own role in world affairs. Biden's book portrays him frequently confronting Clinton and bucking him up on Bosnia when the president had doubts about his own policy. But the hard legislative work was left to others. Biden did take an early stab at prodding action, writing an amendment in 1992 -- opposed by George H.W. Bush's administration -- that authorized spending $50 million to arm the Bosnian Muslims. But the legislation that became known as the Dole-Lieberman bill was first crafted by House Republicans after Clinton took office, and Biden chose not to pick a fight with the new president even though other Democrats signed on to the measure.