| | Biden paid over $20,000 for teaching half a class
 Correction: Sen. Biden teaches a class in the fall and spring semester. He committed to teaching at least half of the classes, but often teaches more, according to a university official.
RAW STORY relied on Roll Call for the information in the article; Roll Call did not include the fact that the class meets in both the fall and spring semesters. The article below has been corrected.
Sen. Joe Biden received a $20,500 "teaching stipend" from Widener University in Pennsylvania for a course he is only required to show up for half the time. The course meets in the fall and spring semesters, so his teaching comprises at least the equivalent of one full time course.
While not unprecedented, the amount is at the high end for members of Congress who teach courses.
The University also uses a lobbying firm which includes a long-time Biden ally and is a subsidiary of a law firm where Biden's son is a partner. Biden spokesman David Wade told Roll Call that the suggestion that the senator is in any way involved in obtaining Congressional earmarks for the university is "as kooky as it is conspiratorial."
Roll Call posted the job salary Tuesday.
Biden has been an adjunct faculty member at the Widener School of Law since 1991 and teaches a seminar called "Selected Topics in Constitutional Law." He originally taught the course alone, but when he told the university in 2003 that he no longer had sufficient time, it was arranged for him to share teaching duties with a Widener professor, who handles administrative duties and grades the students' papers. Biden promised he would be present for at least half the classes to give lectures and lead discussions, and he "remains heavily involved in designing the course syllabus and choosing topics for discussion." He is expected to take a leave of absence this fall.
The full Roll Call article can be read here. Excerpts follow.
Biden’s academic employer is also a supplicant before Congress. The university has employed lobbyists since 2001 to seek federal appropriations earmarks and has succeeded on several occasions. According to a White House earmark database, Widener received two earmarks in the 2005 appropriations cycle, one for just less than $1 million for a clinical psychology program and another for $99,000 for technology infrastructure upgrades at the law school’s Harrisburg campus.
In the first half of 2008, Widener has paid $40,000 to the National Group, a lobbying firm that includes William Oldaker, a longtime political ally of Biden’s. Oldaker has been active in several Biden campaigns and also represented the Senator in his 1989 appeal to the Federal Election Commission to allow him to accept Widener’s teaching job. Roll Call reported at the time that Biden asked the FEC to declare his teaching income a “stipend” instead of “honoraria,” which faced stricter limits.
The National Group is the lobbying arm of the law/lobbying firm of Oldaker, Biden & Belair, the second name belonging to Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son. Hunter Biden, a registered lobbyist, does not represent Widener and has not been listed as a National Group lobbyist since 2006.
Wade flatly dismissed any connection between Biden, Widener and Oldaker.
“This scurrilous allegation from the bowels of the RNC is as kooky as it is conspiratorial,” he wrote in an e-mail to Roll Call. “Joe Biden started teaching Constitutional law in 1991 while he was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ten years before Oldaker Biden was even founded ... Sen. Biden does not request earmarks for Widener. Hunter Biden does not represent Widener, and Widener has received earmarks from the Pennsylvania congressional delegation. Widener is represented by the National Group, which has no ties with Hunter Biden.”
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