Posted on 06/28/2010 1:05:11 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
Sen. Robert Byrd may join Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy among historic figures who have lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda — an honor only bestowed upon 28 other Americans over the past 160 years.
Senate leaders are likely to make a request for Byrd to lie in state, aides said Monday, but they are still awaiting approval from Byrd’s family to go ahead with a formal resolution that would allow Byrd’s casket to rest under the dome for a public viewing.
With a career that spanned nearly 58 years and ranked him as the longest-serving member in congressional history, Byrd has likely earned the consideration.
In 2006, Gerald Ford was the most recent political figure to lie in state in the Capitol, and he was preceded by Ronald Reagan, whose casket was visited by thousands over three days in June 2004. The caskets are draped with an American flag, and rest upon the same wooden catafalque — a raised platform — constructed for Lincoln’s state funeral.
Presidents James Garfield, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and were also honored in the political hallowed space.
In 1865, Henry Clay was the first to be honored in the Rotunda after serving five consecutive terms in the House, including service as Speaker.
Other big names bestowed the state honor include Spanish-American War hero George Dewey and architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant.
Three non-political figures have lain in honor, which is different from laying in state: civil rights activist Rosa Parks and the U.S. Capitol Police officers, Jacob Joseph Chestnut and John Michael Gibson, who were killed during an attack on the Capitol in 1998.
Typically, a concurrent resolution from both the Senate and the House must be passed granting permission for the Rotunda space to be used, but the process is usually given top priority, according to the Office of the House Historian.
Less than four days after Reagan died on June 5, 2004, both the Senate and House cleared a resolution, and the President was already lying in state.
The House is expected to introduce a separate resolution honoring Byrd’s service in Congress and flags at both the Capitol and White House flew at half mast today.
In the past, Congress has sometimes granted the honor without issuing a resolution, with authority being granted solely by the House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader. The option is usually used when Congress is out of session or unavailable to vote on the use of the rotunda.
“...Byrd may lie in state...”
At least that’s consistent...he LIED in the SENATE for all those years too...
Well why would simply being dead stop him from lying, he'll probably continue voting too.
“How come the Kleagle gets to lie in state and Republicans get dumped for congratulating old Jessie Helms???
The double standard again.”
What are you talking about.../massive sarc
“Well why would simply being dead stop him from lying, he’ll probably continue voting too.”
It’s the DemocRAT way.
Why not he lied every where else.
I’ll pray for his soul.
But that’s it.
His actions hurt a LOT of innocent American people.
And for myself - Yet another goal met: I outlived another POS Dem.
Was that mean? Was that harsh? Do I care?
Good. I’ll know where to go to take a leak on him.
although if i had to pee, i think ole kleagles dirt sheets would prolly soak it up well...
I didn’t realize so few had lain in state at the capitol. I am sure WV people will want the attention.
But it’s what the people of WV, itself an illegal state, want.
But it’s what the people of WV want, and they usually get their way. Even their state is an illegal breakway from VA.
As for the honor of lying in state...you are correct; it IS a descration, and it is no surprise to me that these useless POS would throw one more thing in the faces of the American people.
No tears from me. He will not bemissed, but his absence will be celebrated.
LOL
Barbar... Zzzzz, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, zzzz, zzzzzzzzz...
...ah er ah, barbaric I tell ya..., zzz, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
I grew up one mile from George Washington Carver’s childhood home a few miles west of Diamond Grove, Missouri.
Early in my life I understood the inhumanity of man.
As a adult, Byrd joined a group of people who were focused on “Niggers” (their favorite title, not mine) and keeping them in check.
Let’s recall that until Nixon, the South was a solid Democrat region. So, that the party of what? Essentially it was the political party of the KKK.
Look at the attempt to block Black children from the White Southern schools. George Wallace, Orvil Faubus,... these guys were lifetime Democrats.
These days, the Democrats act as if they were the champions of civil rights. LOL, not hardly.
So when I see a guy like Byrd serving in the U. S. Senate, it’s like a bur under my saddle. It just grates me severely.
The crusty old jackass is gone. The only sure-fire way known to Western man to get rid of a loyal member of the KKK by choice, has finally done him in.
A pox on us all for watching this play out to this conclusion.
This bastard should have never gotten a seat in the first place.
“..This bastard should have never gotten a seat in the first place...”
Lots of bastards in those seats, brother. And not a damn thing you or I could have done about it.
I think we make the mistake of assuming that most folks are still “Americans”. For a lot of people in this country, they’re “American” in name only - and only in the sense of “What’s In This For Me”. They think no further than what is in front of their faces, nothing beyond their own existence.
Those are the A**holes who voted people like Byrd and other trash of his ilk into office. They are NOT our countrymen, nor are they our fellow citizens.
They are part of the larger problem that we face in rebuilding our country.
Oh, PLEASE do this Democrats. Please!
You and I share those thoughts. I don’t disagree at all.
Where I’m coming from is that as a party we have allowed the Democrats to devolve to the point that we now have to deal with the unthinkable.
Why weren’t we screaming bloody murder every step of the way up until now?
In the case of this disgusting lout, why didn’t we out him for what he was and literally beat the Democrat party to death with it. We should have made it cost the Democrats so much that they couldn’t stand to have a KKK member in their ranks.
The Democrats moved on to “CLAIM” to be the civil rights protagonists. And you know what, we actually conceded even on that.
Our party is disgusting. It has been for a long long time.
We have caved on so many points, we just stand for nothing. And here is a guy with his past, being considered to lay in state in the national rotunda.
How the hell did our party ever get to this point?
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