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Robert Byrd is dead.
RIP, although I disagree with you on just about everything...
Era ends as Byrd, longest-serving US lawmaker, dies
WASHINGTON — Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, history's longest-serving member of Congress, died Monday, aged 92, closing a tumultuous political chapter and raising doubts over swift passage of a huge Wall Street reform bill.
Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan member, later filibustered civil rights legislation, then renounced his past and championed equality. He served 57 years in Washington and lived to see America's first black president.
When he got to town as a member of the House of Representatives in January 1953, Harry S. Truman was finishing his presidency and civil rights battles. The Kennedy assassinations and the Vietnam War were yet to come.
He would go on to serve with 12 presidents.
On Monday, colleagues eulogized Byrd's longevity, devotion to the Senate, mastery of policy and loyalty to the poverty-blighted West Virginians who sent him back to Washington for six decades.
Byrd's desk in the Senate chamber, where he appeared in later years in a wheelchair, was draped with black mourning cloth.
But despite the solemnity of Byrd's passing, political maneuvering quickly began, as given the divided mathematics of the Senate his death could delay passage of President Barack Obama's sweeping finance reform bill.
West Virginia's Democratic governor can appoint a replacement, but it is unclear whether a new senator could be in place before Congress's July 4 recess begins this week.
So Democratic leaders may have to look elsewhere for the crucial 60th vote needed to pass the Wall Street bill, a key Obama priority, before a week-long recess, which could fray momentum for quickly passing the measure.
The White House had hoped the House and Senate would vote on a final joint bill early this week. But that timing now seems uncertain.
The situation is not without irony, since Byrd was a jealous defender of the Senate's right to delay, deliberate over and filibuster top presidential priorities and the power of Congress as a co-equal branch of government.
Obama led tributes to Byrd, whom he consulted as a freshman senator for Illinois, when he opened his uncompleted term in 2005.
"The people of West Virginia have lost a true champion, the United States Senate has lost a venerable institution, and America has lost a voice of principle and reason with the passing of Robert C. Byrd," Obama said.
"He had the courage to stand firm in his principles, but also the courage to change over time."
Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said Byrd's mind "was among the greatest the world has ever seen."
"In his tenure he saw partisanship and bipartisanship, war and peace, recession and recovery. His perspective and legacy are invaluable to the way we carry ourselves as United States senators."
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell praised Byrd's "devotion to the US Constitution" and "deep learning of history."
In later years, Byrd, his hand shaking, frail and sometimes cantankerous, almost became a personification of the Senate itself.
"He was not just its longest serving member, he was its heart and soul," Hillary Clinton said.
Byrd wept openly on the Senate floor, wailing when his late friend senator Edward Kennedy, another icon of the chamber, was diagnosed with cancer: "Ted, Ted, my dear friend, I love you and miss you."
The West Virginian, a colorful gentleman from a bygone age, punctuated stem-winding speeches with memorized quotes from the US Constitution, a copy of which he carried in his pocket, the Bible, Shakespeare and ancient history.
Few Senators have wielded power as effectively as Byrd. Colleagues feared and revered his expertise on procedures of the Senate, to which he was elected in 1958, and his ability to funnel money to his home state was legendary.
The political change wrought during his time in Washington reflected a tumultuous American age and was mirrored in Byrd's own political evolution.
His first exposure to politics came with the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, which was to taint his early career. In the Senate in 1964, he filibustered landmark civil rights legislation, siding with Southern states rights senators.
But he later expressed regret and emerged as a champion of civil rights. In the last presidential election of his lifetime, he was an enthusiastic supporter of Obama.
Byrd, died peacefully at Inova Fairfax Hospital after being admitted late last week with heat exhaustion and severe dehydration.
WASHINGTON — Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, history's longest-serving member of Congress, died Monday, aged 92, closing a tumultuous political chapter and raising doubts over swift passage of a huge Wall Street reform bill.
Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan member, later filibustered civil rights legislation, then renounced his past and championed equality. He served 57 years in Washington and lived to see America's first black president.
When he got to town as a member of the House of Representatives in January 1953, Harry S. Truman was finishing his presidency and civil rights battles. The Kennedy assassinations and the Vietnam War were yet to come.
He would go on to serve with 12 presidents.
On Monday, colleagues eulogized Byrd's longevity, devotion to the Senate, mastery of policy and loyalty to the poverty-blighted West Virginians who sent him back to Washington for six decades.
Byrd's desk in the Senate chamber, where he appeared in later years in a wheelchair, was draped with black mourning cloth.
But despite the solemnity of Byrd's passing, political maneuvering quickly began, as given the divided mathematics of the Senate his death could delay passage of President Barack Obama's sweeping finance reform bill.
West Virginia's Democratic governor can appoint a replacement, but it is unclear whether a new senator could be in place before Congress's July 4 recess begins this week.
So Democratic leaders may have to look elsewhere for the crucial 60th vote needed to pass the Wall Street bill, a key Obama priority, before a week-long recess, which could fray momentum for quickly passing the measure.
The White House had hoped the House and Senate would vote on a final joint bill early this week. But that timing now seems uncertain.
The situation is not without irony, since Byrd was a jealous defender of the Senate's right to delay, deliberate over and filibuster top presidential priorities and the power of Congress as a co-equal branch of government.
Obama led tributes to Byrd, whom he consulted as a freshman senator for Illinois, when he opened his uncompleted term in 2005.
"The people of West Virginia have lost a true champion, the United States Senate has lost a venerable institution, and America has lost a voice of principle and reason with the passing of Robert C. Byrd," Obama said.
"He had the courage to stand firm in his principles, but also the courage to change over time."
Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said Byrd's mind "was among the greatest the world has ever seen."
"In his tenure he saw partisanship and bipartisanship, war and peace, recession and recovery. His perspective and legacy are invaluable to the way we carry ourselves as United States senators."
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell praised Byrd's "devotion to the US Constitution" and "deep learning of history."
In later years, Byrd, his hand shaking, frail and sometimes cantankerous, almost became a personification of the Senate itself.
"He was not just its longest serving member, he was its heart and soul," Hillary Clinton said.
Byrd wept openly on the Senate floor, wailing when his late friend senator Edward Kennedy, another icon of the chamber, was diagnosed with cancer: "Ted, Ted, my dear friend, I love you and miss you."
The West Virginian, a colorful gentleman from a bygone age, punctuated stem-winding speeches with memorized quotes from the US Constitution, a copy of which he carried in his pocket, the Bible, Shakespeare and ancient history.
Few Senators have wielded power as effectively as Byrd. Colleagues feared and revered his expertise on procedures of the Senate, to which he was elected in 1958, and his ability to funnel money to his home state was legendary.
The political change wrought during his time in Washington reflected a tumultuous American age and was mirrored in Byrd's own political evolution.
His first exposure to politics came with the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, which was to taint his early career. In the Senate in 1964, he filibustered landmark civil rights legislation, siding with Southern states rights senators.
But he later expressed regret and emerged as a champion of civil rights. In the last presidential election of his lifetime, he was an enthusiastic supporter of Obama.
Byrd, died peacefully at Inova Fairfax Hospital after being admitted late last week with heat exhaustion and severe dehydration.
RIP, although I disagree with you on just about everything...
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