As a member of the Soviet bloc until 1989, Romania is not known as the United States' closest ally. But its government now has pretty good access to Vice President Joe Biden.
A main reason: Biden's former chief counsel, Mark Gitenstein.
Gitenstein was confirmed in July as the U.S. ambassador to Romania. In an appearance Thursday in Bucharest, Biden spoke glowingly of their relationship and called Gitenstein “my best personal friend.” Gitenstein worked for Biden when Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and until July he was a partner in Mayer Brown’s D.C. office.
“He has my ear,” Biden told Romanian President Traian Băsescu, according to a White House transcript. “I know you’ve already figured that out, because I know you’ve gone to him and you know he immediately picks up the phone and calls me.”
Biden added, “I hope you won’t take advantage of my friendship with the ambassador too badly.”
The relationship between Biden and Gitenstein dates back 30 years, Biden said. Their families have “raised each other’s children,” and Biden’s grandchildren consider the Gitensteins to be “almost relatives,” the vice president said. (Some of Gitenstein’s ancestors, by the way, emigrated from Romania, according to testimony from his confirmation hearing.)
Biden and Gitenstein likely got in some buddy time this week, according to reports from the traveling press pool. Arriving from Warsaw on Wednesday night, Biden stayed at Gitenstein’s residence. At a separate appearance Thursday, Gitenstein introduced Biden for a speech at Bucharest’s Central University Library.
Later Thursday, Biden used Gitenstein’s residence to host back-to-back discussions with two opposition party leaders who are vying for the presidency in elections scheduled for next month. Then, Biden was off to Prague.
I vigorously disagree with commenter Richard Prior (funny) on just about all counts of his/her argument. Biden is a genius in foreign policy, and having seen him up close and in action can assure the poster that Joe has all the charisma and intelligence required for his job...in spades. An unusual foreign policy expert, and have heard on many occasions that foreign leaders like and respect Biden simply because he is straight with them. Honesty is a funny thing, many can smell it first hand. Nonetheless, Biden has earned his good reputation. His receptions in the Balkans, Georgia, Ukraine, were awesome, but receptions can be deceiving. Biden's presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Lebanon, etc., etc., are welcomed because of his years of work and service as top Democrat and Chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Traveling now as VPOTUS adds more oomph to our Administrations' message. Biden did an outstanding job on this trip as on all since VP. We're fortunate to have him. Biden does work; he doesn't need rock star status...he just needs to be effective. That he is. Thank you for a nice blog post.
Posted by: Stewart | October 25, 2009 at 07:02 AM
The author of this piece lives in cloud cuckoo land.
Bill Clinton received a warm welcome, whilst George Bush was loved by most.
Obama is positioning himself as a Chamberlain style appeaser to Putin's Russian Mafia Government (read Newsweek last week)and will quickly become reviled in the 2 largest nations of Central Europe - Poland & Romania.
Biden has little charisma, and would appear to be little more than a nonentity.
Madonna had a far more prestigious welcome to Bucharest than the USA VP.
Posted by: Richard Prior | October 23, 2009 at 05:08 PM