i don't understand the criticism of appointing ted kaufman to fill biden's seat. the only really coherent statement of objection is here but i guess i just disagree with nate silver on this one. if your goal is to have a place-holding senator for the two years until a special election is held, then it seems to me that a high-ranking aid to the outgoing senator is a good choice. kaufman knows how to run biden's senate office, he's been the one running it for years.
so what if he isn't "prominent" (whatever that means) or if he didn't have a wiki page before the appointment was announced? governor minner wasn't trying to appoint someone who was famous, she was trying to appoint someone who would make a good senator for the next two years.
and yes, kaufman is probably just keeping the seat warm so beau biden can run for it when he gets back from iraq. but so what? beau still has to run for election. he'll have all the advantages of the biden name in delaware, but he would have that with or without the kaufman appointment. and the important thing is that delaware voters would be free to reject him if they thought he wouldn't make a good senator.
