Sen. Robert Carlyle Byrd (November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010)
Greg at Rhymes with Right gets the headline exactly right: Kleagle Bob Byrd, The Guilty Conscience Of The Senate, Is Dead.
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) served in the US Senate longer than anybody before (and hopefully longer than anybody else ever will either) at 57 years in the Senate. He used all 57 of those years to steal from the nation’s tax payers to build his own legacy and personal wealth. If ever there were a case to be made for term limits, this is it. Sen. Byrd’s career should have ended 25-30 years ago.
I have nothing good to say about this man or his career in the Senate. Which does not mean that I take any type of pleasure in the news of his death, though. Despite him being an awful man, he had friends and family whom I’m sure loved him dearly and are mourning the loss of the man more so than the loss of a Senator.
Scott at Powerline and I agree on this:
Before his death early this morning at the age of 92, I placed the legendary West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd in the category of “only the wrong survive” along with Fidel Castro and Pete Seeger. I was not a fan.
[snip]
Robert Byrd was indeed a valuable link not only to the Senate’s past, but also to the Democratic Party’s history as the party of slavery, segregation, and opposition to equal treatment of blacks.
In case you’re wondering what happens to Byrd’s now-empty seat: Democrat Governor Joe Manchin will appoint someone to fill Byrd’s seat. This appointee will hold the seat through this November only, when a special election will be held to fill the final two years of the term (h/t to Doug Powers at MM’s place).
The reactions are leading the news over at Memeorandum today.
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Robbie, thanks for the link!.
But unfortunately, it may be that Gov. Manchin can manipulate the process in a manner not dissimilar to what Gov. Patterson did in NY with the Massa House seat — simply delay declaring the seat vacant until after Saturday, at which point he gets to appoint the successor for 2 1/2 years and the people of West Virginia have no say in who represents them in the Senate.
I don’t think it would pass muster if he tried to. As Ace points out:
Oh, and McCain beat Obama in 2008 in West Virginia by 13% of the vote in a state that has been trending GOP.
And yet, Robbie, that is EXACTLY what they are doing.
I’m hearing a shrill but very sexy Ann Marget singing…
You have a good ear.
to very loosely paraphrase something said elsenet by one of the book authors I read….’ain’t it ironic that on the day the supreme court upholds the right of a black man to defend himself, Senator Byrd, keagle of the KKK for many many moons..drops dead?’
Ironic indeed.
BTW, not only was he a Grand Kleagle, he was also an Exalted Cyclops.
Byrd during WW2….
“I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side … Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”
— Robert C. Byrd, 1944