Free Republic

When the clock strikes midnight tonight, Sen. Robert Byrd will become the longest-serving member of Congress ever — a capstone on a remarkable career in which the adopted son of a coal miner propelled himself from poverty to the pinnacle of legislative power, where he could, did and still does send billions of federal dollars back across the Blue Ridge to help build his home state of West Virginia. Byrd’s stat sheet speaks for itself: • Served 20,774 days — or 56 years and 10½ months — in Congress • Attended 18,582 Senate roll call votes • Elected to Senate...

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) will return to Capitol Hill next week after being hospitalized because of severe back pains, his office announced Thursday. Byrd, 90, has been hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center since Tuesday after sustaining a back injury from a fall at his Virginia home on Monday night. X-rays showed that Byrd suffered no broken bones from his fall, according to the senator’s spokesman, Jesse Jacobs. Byrd will undergo physical therapy “to ensure he is steady on his feet when he returns to his Senate duties next week,” Jacobs said. Byrd is the longest-serving senator in U.S....

Senator Robert Byrd, 88, one of Congress's most eloquent and outspoken critics of the US military presence in Iraq, became the US Senate's longest-serving member. The frail octogenarian who hobbles through the corridors of the Senate with the aid of a cane in each hand was first elected to the legislature's upper chamber in 1958. Known for his florid oratory, in recent years he has given numerous speeches from the Senate floor against the upward spiraling cost of rebuilding Iraq and the US motives for invading that country. He has represented the eastern coal-mining state of West Virginia the Senate...

In a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, former Ku Klux Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd, pledged to put President Bush on trial in the Senate if the House impeaches him. Addressing the president in absentia, Sen. Byrd began by warning that Congress retains all its original powers under the Constitution. "You better read that again in the Constitution," Byrd said, declaring that the Senate's powers include "serving as a court of impeachment. "You better believe it, Mr. President," Byrd continued. "The Senate can send you home. You better believe that." The ex-Klansman then added: "If the House impeaches you,...

Picking a fight with a faith 1.3 billion strong If you wish to get along with a man, you do not insult his faith. And if you seek to persuade devout Muslims that al-Qaeda is our enemy, not Islam, you do not condone with silence insults to the faith of a billion people. Understanding this, President Bush ceased to call the war on terror a “crusade.” Visiting a mosque, he removed his shoes. He has hosted White House gatherings for the breaking of the fast at the end of Ramadan. He sent Karen Hughes to the State Department to improve...

The interview with the Senate leader had droned on for more than an hour and just about every topic had been asked and answered, cordially and completely. Except one, which seemed so obvious it surely had to be expected. So near the end, it, too, was asked. What happened next remains as vivid in the reporter's mind today as it was the day he wrote it in The Washington Post 24 years ago: "Suddenly (the Senate leader's) face freezes. The muscles on either side of his jaw harden to what must be the consistency of golf balls. His eyes are...

Sunday May 22, 2005 By LAWRENCE MESSINA Associated Press Writer SOPHIA, W.Va. (AP) Nationally, Robert C. Byrd may wear a Republican bulls-eye the senator atop the GOP's electoral hit list for 2006. But in Sophia, the town of 1,301 he left for Congress some 52 years ago, he is still very much the favorite son. ``He's always trying to help us out,'' said Shawn Stines, a 26-year-old mechanic, as he stuffed a dryer at the Sophia Laundromat. ``I like him. He's a good guy.'' Outside Priddy's Hardware Store, 64-year-old Frances Meredith is even more emphatic. ``I love him,'' Meredith said....

King of Pork Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) Ranking Member, U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee "They call me 'The Pork King,' they don't know how much I enjoy it." - Sen. Robert Byrd   In 2001, Senator Robert C. Byrd managed to claw $232 million in pork for West Virginia, or $128 for every single resident, using his privileged position as ranking chairman of the Appropriations Committee. After he secured $97 million in fiscal 1999, Byrd became the first person in CAGW's Congressional Pig Book history to obtain more than $1 billion in pork for his state. In honor of...

Teri Schiavo has been sentenced to death for her inability to care for herself. The basis of the decision to starve her out were here alleged words to her husband that, "should she ever be unable" to care for herself, she would wish to die. Well, those two granters of wishes, Michael Schiavo and Judge Grier, in their wisdom and benevolence have set about starving Teri in compliance with her alleged desires. Now, medical technology has developed rapidly in the past 50 years or so, but starvation has been around much longer than that. So I am wondering, why, a...

For those who may not have seen it, Mr. Smith (Goes to Washington) is the fictional story of one young Senator's crusade against forces of corruption, and his lengthy filibuster, his lengthy filibuster for the values he hold dear. My how things have changed. These days, Mr. Smith would be called an obstructionist. Rumor has it that there is a plot on foot to curtail the right of extended debate in this hollowed chamber. Not in accordance with its rules, mind you, but by fiat from the Chair. Fiat from the Chair. The so-called nuclear option. Hear me! The so-called...

Yes folks, I know it's a couple of hours away, but for you loyal C-Span listeners, the debate will be carried live on C-Span 2 today. Live streaming on C-Span 2's server for those of you with high bandwidth carriers. Box-o-Rox has asked for a full hour in which to call Dr. Rice a lying slut. Meantime, the senior Senator from the state of West Virginia has brought some friends of his down to testify to Rice's unfitness for her office: Other Dhimmis have asked for time to object to Dr. Rice as well. Meantime, I wonder if McCain...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Sen. Robert C. Byrd's autobiography will be released this summer, and West Virginia's old-school orator and senior statesman hopes his story will inspire others to consider public service. "Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields" chronicles the 87-year-old Democrat's life from his boyhood to his election in 2000, when he won an eighth term in the U.S. Senate. The 700-page tome will sell for $35 in hardback when it's released June 15, said Patrick Conner, director of the West Virginia University Press. ...But there have been missteps. In 2001, Byrd apologized for using a racial epithet...

<p>The top Senate Democrat yesterday defended a colleague's assertion that Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Klansman, would have been a great leader during the Civil War.</p> <p>Sen. Tom Daschle said there was "no parallel" between Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's praise of Mr. Byrd and Republican Sen. Trent Lott's praise of former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond.</p>

StopDemocrats.com is asking for Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) to Step Aside. The petition reads: Recent comments by Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) involving Senator Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential candidacy supporting segregation have created a controversy that may force the Senator to step aside as leader of the Senate Republicans. This petition asks that the same standards be applied to Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) ,who is the current President pro tempore of the US Senate, and demands that he resign from any leadership post in the 108th Congress for saying the following racist comments on National television 21 months ago. "My old...