Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton said farewell to the Senate on Thursday as they prepared to become far more powerful U.S. officials in the incoming Obama administration. Biden will be sworn in Tuesday as the U.S. vice president, while Clinton is expected to win full Senate confirmation as secretary of state next week. Both sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year, and both have been important leaders in the Senate. Biden represented Delaware in the Senate for 36 years. Since becoming a senator at the age of 30, he gained seniority to preside over some of recent history's most volatile Senate debates, including the 1991 controversy over Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court nomination and the 2002 debate over whether to invade Iraq. Biden is not actually leaving the Senate. As U.S. vice president, he will be president of the Senate, available to break tie votes. “I may be resigning from the Senate today,” Biden said in a 39-minute speech, “but I'll always be a Senate man.” Clinton won a New York state Senate seat in 2000 as her husband was leaving the White House. Her name and the belief that she might be the next Democratic presidential candidate gave her influence that few new Senators receive. Clinton, whose nomination as secretary of state was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations committee earlier on Thursday, said, “This could be one of the golden eras of the history of the Senate” if lawmakers join together to meet economic and national security challenges.
