On Wednesday, the Senate honored Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) for being the longest serving member of Congress. Byrd was elected to Congress in 1952 and 6 years later, was elected to the Senate.
Byrd made the following remarks about his long tenure:
“I look forward to serving you for the next 56 years and 320 days,” Sen. Robert Byrd said in a statement marking the occasion. His only regret, Byrd said, was that his late wife, Erma, was not there with him.
“I know that she is looking down from the heavens smiling at me and saying congratulations, my dear Robert — but don’t let it go to your head,” Byrd said.
The 92 year old senator is known for his earmarks–he has brought home millions to his state, West Virginia, which has a long history of economic depression.
Senator Byrd was quite upset over the illness of Senator Ted Kennedy and his subsequent death. He was part of the large group who waited on the Capitol steps for the hearse bearing Kennedy’s casket to stop for a moment, so that staffers and other friends of the Lion of the Senate, could pay their respects. It was a warm afternoon and Senator Byrd had to be taken inside. He is not in good health himself.
Imagine, serving in Congress for almost 57 years.
can anyone say term limits…
so why am I in moderation this time?
Sorry to be disagreeable, but Robert Byrd should be condemned by the Senate not honored. He has never fully explained his role in the Klan and it is an embarrassment to the nation that the people of West Virginia have chosen him to represent them for so long. While he has toned down his rhetoric since becoming a member of Congress, his actions, including filibustering the 1964 Civil Rights Act, show his quality as a man.
The age of men like Robert Byrd is thankfully long gone, and we would be better off if men like him did not have leadership roles in this country. I can have sympathy for a hateful old man near death, but honoring him for his ‘service’ is too much for me.
There are probably others in the Senate that people feel should not be honored. Most of the people I know from West Virginia adore this man. He is a real hero to them.
Times have changed. People change. Values change. Byrd hasn’t had a lifetime of legislating oppression. I will applaud him just for endurance. (and it is probably time for him to enjoy a much deserved retirement)
I’m with you FA. Byrd has been and still is an embarassment to this country. This guy has squandered our wealth, repeatedly violated the constitutional separation of powers through micro-manangement appropriations and, in doing so, has fundementally made the the government less managable and less accountable. He is no Kennedy, who never found a social program he did not like. No, this guy is in it for the power –justified only by his own ego.
Ditto what Formerly Anonymous and PWC taxpayer said. Six lane West Virginia highways to nowhere while we’re clogged in No. Va.? My aunt and uncle have been married 60+ years. That doesn’t mean the last 40 were wonderful. Term limits.
I am fairly neutral on Senator Byrd because I don’t know much about him. However, he has dedicated his entire life to service. The people from West Virginia love him and feel he has done a great deal for his state. In West Virginia he is a much revered, much loved gentleman.
I am trying to figure out why WV should not have a decent road system and how that takes away from what we have here.
Decent road system is fine. Every state should have one. This was uber, like the connector road from 95 to 64, but with one-tenth the traffic. It was one of those pork things tacked on to a bill years ago, if memory serves me (memory incontinence is already setting in at my age).
That’s probably why everyone I know always opts to go through West Virginia when traveling to the midwest, Chicago, Indiana. If any state is going to get some pork, I suppose I would just as soon it go to West Vriginia. That state has so many economic problems that just seem unsolvable.
I don’t know, I have a soft place in my heart for the senior statesman. It nearly broke my heart when he cried over Ted Kennedy.
Soap box time. Robert Byrd was born in 1917. His mother died of the flu pandemic and he was given to his aunt and uncle who raised him down in southern West Virginia. He comes from very humble beginnings. Even though he was valedictorian of his class, he worked as a service station attendant and other fairly menial jobs.
The Klan thing doesn’t bother me. He has apologized many times over and said he was wrong. Do we all want to be held to the same standard? After saying you are sorry and you are wrong, there isn’t much else a person can do. And he changed.
As for the 1964 Civil Rights filibuster…does everyone understand that most all politicians of that day from the south were in that filibuster? If they hadn’t been involved in the filibuster they would have never been re-elected. It was a different time and people had different values and standards.
I believe the people I respect are the people who made the change when the time came to change. You cannot hate people for being in the world where they lived. Some stayed. Some stayed until the day they died. Others resisted change, and when they lost, they picked up their marbles and readjusted to a new world and a new way of doing things.
I believe that Robert Byrd is such a man. If I harbored ill feelings towards people who held political beliefs like Byrd, I would have no memories of anyone good from my childhood. I am not quite ready to do that. I am a Virginian we value our people and our traditions.
I’m sorry but in my book former Klansmen deserve as much sympathy and respect as former Nazi party members. Also, keep in mind that Robert Byrd wasn’t some rank and file member. He was a leader of the West Virginia Klan and was active in it within two years of running for Congress. (Exactly when he left the Klan is still a matter of debate as public records contradict Byrd’s version of events.)
I’m all for forgiveness but my forgiveness is limited to not prosecuting him for his crimes decades after the fact, not honoring him and electing him to a leadership position in the country. As you say, it was a different time and Byrd was not alone in holding evil views in his heard. But Byrd didn’t just have evil thoughts, he acted on them. And before we assume he has truly changed, lets get an accounting of what Robert Byrd did while he was in the Klan. Here are a couple of questions we could start with:
How many cross burnings did he participate in? How many lynchings did he authorize or participate in? Did he fire bomb any black churches? How many people were terrorized by him or under his orders?
I’m sorry if those questions sound inflamatory, but those are entirely legitimate questions to ask a former Klansman, particularly someone in a leadership role. That we can legitimately ask them of a United States Senator and the man who is 3rd in line to be President of the United States is an embarassment to the country, the Congress and to his party for putting him in a leadership position.
(And to be bipartisan for a moment, David Duke was a disgrace to his state and party as well, although Duke never held position in the US government, just state.)
That the people of West Virginia continued to send Byrd to Congress is something that I hope future generations will look back on with disgust and shame. Anyone who takes our America’s promise of equal treatment under law seriously should be ashamed that Robert Byrd was ever a member of Congress, let alone it’s longest serving Member.
Again, I’m sorry to be so cantankerous on this subject but the KKK is pure, unalloyed evil. It’s former members should forever be barred from leadership positions in this country not by law, but by the revulsion of the overwhelming majority of Americans who reject the Klan, it’s members and everything they stand for. To honor Byrd for anything without noting his past is akin to awarding Adolf Hilter an award for improving Germany’s autobahn network.
(And I apologize for invoking Godwin’s Law here, but the KKK’s ideology is virtually identical to that of the Nazis, so I feel the comparison is valid.)
FA, that is your right to feel that way. I am assuming from what you say that you are a lot younger than I am and also not a Virginian by birth.
The difference to me, in Duke and Byrd, is age. Duke is much younger than Byrd and grew up in an age where it was obviously wrong to belong to any organization like the Klan.
I would not be so generous to Byrd if I thought for a minute he did any of the things you listedL
Those activities are illegal. It is not illegal to belong to the KKK. Horribly distasteful, in my opinion, but not illegal. As for the N word which is what hung you up in moderation (having to do with WWII Germany) I am not sure some of those people had a choice as to what party they joined. Being an N in name doesn’t constitute evil either if you don’t have a choice. It is how you behave.
Don’t get me wrong, I am very sorry Byrd was in the KKK. It is a very bad organization that only grows worse as time passes. As long as he didn’t do those things you listed, I feel I have to look at his many apologies and change. He is a different generation that I am and people viewed things very differently.
I have spent a lifetime trying to sort out people’s racial feelings. Doing this has made me examine people who I cared a great deal for. It is very hard to explain.
I believe in forgiveness. I believe he has truly changed, he has openly apologized.
The first time I heard about Byrd was in the fall of 1973. We had just moved to Anchorage, Alaska, and for the first time a native Alaskan was running for Congress. His name was Willie Hensley. Senator Byrd was there for a fund raiser and he brought his fiddle. And, man, could he fiddle! Great fun!
I had no idea. I guess he comes from the right region to know how to fiddle.
Help this poor east coast girl out, Punchak. When you say ‘native Alaskan’ to you mean just a person born in Alaska or do you mean a Native Indian who was born in Alaska?
Not long ago, I saw a video clip of Senator Byrd at a Senate meeting of some sort, perhaps a televised C-SPAN committee meeting or something of that nature. In all honesty, that picture gave me the impression of an elderly man in a nursing home, left to sit quietly in a wheel chair in the commons area, with the television flickering nothing in particular, and everyone else busy with other chores or activities. With all due respect for past service, there does come a time when all of us should be willing to step down and hand the reins to younger men or women. I felt the same way for some time about Strom Thurmond. This country simply has too much critical business to leave it in the hands of anyone who is no longer fit enough physically and/or mentally to withstand a very heavy burden. Receive all honor for long and faithful service but step down when it becomes obvious that the time has come. Have confidence that the younger one’s can pick up your ball and run with it.
William L. Iggiagruk Hensley is half white, half Inupiat.
He was active during the time when the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was being written. Pres. Nixon signed it in 1971.
Wolverine, I agree. He has reached the milestone. Now it is time to retire. He has earned it.
Punchak, thanks for that information. Very interesting.