The World according to Sen. Byrd.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-07-22 03:10pm

from the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, reprinting from the LA Times:

Wake-up call
Byrd wants to be remembered as the Paul Revere of the Senate

Los Angeles Times
Thursday July 22, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Robert Byrd, the 87-year-old Democrat from West Virginia, has been called the conscience of the Senate. He's also been called the Senate scold, its unofficial historian and the guardian of the Senate's constitutionally mandated powers of the purse.

Now, author of a new book lambasting President Bush for the war in Iraq, Byrd wants to be known as the Paul Revere of his time. "Paul Revere woke up Concord," Byrd said in an interview last week in his high-ceilinged office on the first floor of the Capitol. "I hope I can wake up some people in this country and that I would lend strength to those in the Congress today and in the future who may have to make a similar decision to go to war."

Byrd is an unlikely hero of the antiwar movement. Raised in the hardscrabble poverty of coal mine country in West Virginia during the Depression, he could not afford to go to college. A gas station attendant and a welder, he joined the Ku Klux Klan during his first run for the state Legislature because he thought it would earn him votes. He quickly renounced his membership and spent 10 years getting his law degree at night while serving as a U.S. senator. He speaks in the oratory of a self-made man -- flowery phrases, references to Thucydides and Cicero, hardly the stuff of modern TV sound bites.

But he is also passionate about the war in Iraq and knowledgeable about the Senate psyche. So when he rose on Feb. 12, 2003, to speak against the Bush administration's request for congressional authorization, his words ricocheted around the world. He chided his colleagues for standing "passively mute . . . paralyzed by our own uncertainty, seemingly stunned by the sheer turmoil of events." He attacked the idea of pre-emptive war, calling Iraq "the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time . . . in contravention of international law."

His speech struck a chord, or maybe it filled a need. Whatever the cause, Byrd's clarion call against the war was reprinted in several languages, showcased on many news Web sites.

Suddenly, this lion in winter who confessed that he had been wrong to support the Vietnam War, this man of rage who accused the Bush administration of arrogant disregard for the public will, this senior senator who carried a worn copy of the Constitution in his breast pocket at all times, was a favorite of young war protesters. And now, as the presidential campaign heats up, he has written a book he hopes will topple a "power-grabbing administration, a bunch of super hawks who took George W. Bush prisoner."

"Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency" is being published Monday to coincide with the start of the Democratic National Convention. Norton Books has booked Byrd on NBC's "Meet the Press," NPR's "Fresh Air" and CNN's "Larry King Live." There are planned speeches to promote the book in New York, where Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., will introduce him, and in Boston, where Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., will do the honors.

Asked if he hopes to equal the 1.2-million-book sales posted so far by former President Clinton, Byrd demurs. "I don't have any such thoughts as that but I'm doing my little part," he said.

His "little part" is mostly to rail against the administration for taking the country "into a war that should never have been fought," and for ramming through "gargantuan tax cuts that are back loaded and will come due between 2007 and 2011 when Mr. Bush will be back on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, off the political stage."

He apologizes for "letting my voice rise." Then he launches into another tirade. "My blood boils," he said. "If this doesn't make your hair stand on end, I don't know what will." Reading a passage from Bob Woodward's recent book, Byrd quotes Bush as saying, " ‘I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation.' "

Byrd bristles. "Such hubris," he said. "Unmitigated arrogance. He's talking about the people here. That one little paragraph explains better than I could ever explain the contempt this man shows for the sovereignty of the people of this country."

Byrd arrived on Capitol Hill when President Truman was still in office. He has seen his share of history and plenty of presidents. "I have never seen an administration so discourteous, so arrogant toward the legislative branch as this one is," he said. "I've been here 51 years, so why shouldn't I speak out?"

Age confers advantages. He is not afraid that the White House might attack him.

"West Virginia believes in God Almighty, Sears Roebuck, Carter's Little Liver Pills and Robert C. Byrd," is his oft-repeated phrase, which he trotted out on his most recent election, in 2000, when he won every county in the state and all but seven of the state's 1,970 precincts.

And well it might. As first chairman and now ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Byrd has steered more than $1 billion in highway funds and federal agency funding to his state.

"I think I'm doing the country a favor by speaking out," he said. "For too long the people have been silent. For too long the members of Congress have been silent. They're timid, they're afraid of being called unpatriotic. I am not afraid."

He insists that his growling enmity toward the Bush administration is not entirely partisan. He said he got on "swimmingly" with President Nixon and other Republicans. In fact, he said, he was "the last man out of Vietnam, as it were. I supported Johnson, I supported Nixon. But we were misled, as the Senate was misled in this case."

This raging bull of an aging Byrd has surfaced before. In 2002, he berated then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill for his wealth, prompting O'Neill to protest that he had been born in a house without electricity or running water, to which Byrd replied that his conditions as a child were equally impoverished. Critics assailed Byrd for sanctimony.

Asked about the exchange, Byrd said, "I don't look back. There's no reason to look back." Accusing Bush of worsening the partisan divide in Washington, Byrd is asked whether he too is guilty of contributing to the polarization and noise that has come to characterize U.S. politics. "I am doing what I want to do," he said. "I've made 69 speeches to date on Iraq. I did everything I could do. If I could do more, I would do more."

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2004-07-22 03:20pm

That is one amazing senator you have there... wrong on a few issues IMHO, but at least he actually does believe in what he for for. Seems honest.

" ‘I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation.' "

This fucking scares me

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-07-22 03:25pm

Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2004-07-22 03:30pm

A gas station attendant and a welder, he joined the Ku Klux Klan during his first run for the state Legislature because he thought it would earn him votes. He quickly renounced his membership and spent 10 years getting his law degree at night while serving as a U.S. senator.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot!
Since when is twenty years "Quicky Quiting" ?!?!?!
Also reports are he was the freken head of his local chaptor!

This is the same man who described poor whites as "White Niggers" on Foxnews that that many years ago!

LMSx · Post by **LMSx** » 2004-07-22 03:41pm

Mr Bean wrote:
A gas station attendant and a welder, he joined the Ku Klux Klan during his first run for the state Legislature because he thought it would earn him votes. He quickly renounced his membership and spent 10 years getting his law degree at night while serving as a U.S. senator.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot!
Since when is twenty years "Quicky Quiting" ?!?!?!
Also reports are he was the freken head of his local chaptor!

This is the same man who described poor whites as "White Niggers" on Foxnews that that many years ago!

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, what's your source?

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-07-22 04:15pm

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Robert Byrd, the 87-year-old Democrat from West Virginia, has been called the conscience of the Senate. He's also been called the Senate scold, its unofficial historian and the guardian of the Senate's constitutionally mandated powers of the purse.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

OMFG, that brought a tear to my eye!

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2004-07-22 04:35pm

Joe wrote:
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Robert Byrd, the 87-year-old Democrat from West Virginia, has been called the conscience of the Senate. He's also been called the Senate scold, its unofficial historian and the guardian of the Senate's constitutionally mandated powers of the purse.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

OMFG, that brought a tear to my eye!

Doesnt... wait.... the house holds the purse strings... I missed that part...

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-07-22 04:40pm

Mr Bean wrote:This is the same man who described poor whites as "White Niggers" on Foxnews that that many years ago!

Actually, many people speak of "White Niggers" without you noticing - they just abbreviate the term to "Wiggers".

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-07-22 04:59pm

Peregrin Toker wrote:
Mr Bean wrote:This is the same man who described poor whites as "White Niggers" on Foxnews that that many years ago!
Actually, many people speak of "White Niggers" without you noticing - they just abbreviate the term to "Wiggers".

Or just plain ol' White Trash.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-07-22 07:03pm

Mr Bean wrote:
A gas station attendant and a welder, he joined the Ku Klux Klan during his first run for the state Legislature because he thought it would earn him votes. He quickly renounced his membership and spent 10 years getting his law degree at night while serving as a U.S. senator.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot!
Since when is twenty years "Quicky Quiting" ?!?!?!
Also reports are he was the freken head of his local chaptor!

Reports of him leading the chapter are false.
However, in the area he was from, it's the truth that being a Clan member got him lots of votes. Southern WV is very prejudiced even today, with one of the White Supremacy leaders is living and writing his so-called newspaper from a farm down there.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2004-07-22 08:17pm

Reports of him leading the chapter are false.

Damn, that will teach me to double check my sources via google a little more closely next time

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2004-07-23 01:34am

Well, whatever Byrd did in his past, he seems like a good person now, so i can assume he changed his mind. Or, better yet though unliely, he realy never was a White supremacist and just was pretending to so he could get votes. Weirder things have happened, it wouldnt be a shock, but it just seems less likely than he just wised up and changed his ways.

Anyway, he seems like he's changed since then.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-07-26 08:49am

Hell Even George Wallace can change their minds about race. We just haven't seen David Duke, or some others do that yet...

besides It's not like we haven't had president's in the past who hid their white sheets in the closet, hell we even had one run as a KKK canidate.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-07-26 10:46am

18-Till-I-Die wrote:Well, whatever Byrd did in his past, he seems like a good person now, so i can assume he changed his mind. Or, better yet though unliely, he realy never was a White supremacist and just was pretending to so he could get votes. Weirder things have happened, it wouldnt be a shock, but it just seems less likely than he just wised up and changed his ways.

Anyway, he seems like he's changed since then.

You think its better to have a politician garner votes by pretending to be racist?

*not saying Byrd is or isn't, just commenting on '18 here*

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-07-26 12:43pm

Unless Byrd has changed his stance on atheism, and the seperation of church and state, the guy's still an asshole.

Can it be that we, too, are ready to embrace the foul concepts of atheism? Somebody is tampering with America's soul, I leave it to you who that somebody is.
-- Robert Byrd, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's verdict in Engle v. Vitale (barring school-sponsored prayer)

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-07-26 12:56pm

Ugh. Sounds like so close to being a decent guy, too, and then that sudden /right/-turn.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-07-26 03:05pm

White Haven wrote:Ugh. Sounds like so close to being a decent guy, too, and then that sudden /right/-turn.

Byrd has always been a conservative, for the most part. It's what WVians expect from him.

As well as the occassional govt. handout

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-07-26 03:14pm

You can be a conservative without spouting christian-right party lines, or that's my belief anyways. What I wouldn't give for a meaningful third party so I can give both of the big boys the finger.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-07-26 06:27pm

LadyTevar wrote:
White Haven wrote:Ugh. Sounds like so close to being a decent guy, too, and then that sudden /right/-turn.
Byrd has always been a conservative, for the most part. It's what WVians expect from him.

As well as the occassional govt. handout

i don't know why he hates Bush so much, they are so alike. Both religious freaks who piss away money like it's going out of style.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2004-07-26 08:29pm

Whatever his faults, Byrd is not a warmonger like Bush. So Byrd pandered to bigots many years ago. Bush went on a pilgrimage to Bob Jones University (a white supremacist diploma mill) four years ago.

Byrd didn't take part in any lynchings or church-bombings, so the whole KKK thing is just a pathetic smear by those who can't argue with his points today. It would be like someone arguing against the Iraq war on the grounds that Bush and Cheney are convicted drunk drivers. It might be good for a few laughs, but is a way of pussying out of argument.[/b]

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-07-26 11:46pm

Byrd is still a Christian fundamentalist conservative who thinks we should be governed by the Bible, so it doesn't really matter to me if he isn't a warmonger.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-07-27 03:25am

LadyTevar wrote: Byrd has always been a conservative, for the most part. It's what WVians expect from him.

As well as the occassional govt. handout

Occassional government handout!

. Byrd .

Good one.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2004-07-27 05:11am

Knife wrote:
18-Till-I-Die wrote:Well, whatever Byrd did in his past, he seems like a good person now, so i can assume he changed his mind. Or, better yet though unliely, he realy never was a White supremacist and just was pretending to so he could get votes. Weirder things have happened, it wouldnt be a shock, but it just seems less likely than he just wised up and changed his ways.

Anyway, he seems like he's changed since then.
You think its better to have a politician garner votes by pretending to be racist?

*not saying Byrd is or isn't, just commenting on '18 here*

I think it's better than being one, yeah. It would, at least, mean he never actualy held those beleifs at all, and was just fucking over the racists with their own rhetoric. Not exactly honorable, no, but better than actually beleiving it, IMO.

DPDarkPrimus--From what i can tell, he may or may not be exactly a fundamentalist. One quote isnt enough to convince me of that. And Elfdart is right, whetever the case he isnt sending legions of Americans to die in the desert, so that rght there puts him head and shoulders above Shrub in my book. But to each their own, i can understand why it would seem inflamitory, though not exactly fundy talk yet, in my opinion.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2004-07-27 05:13am

NOT THAT I AGREE WITH BYRD'S STATEMENT...

just to be clear.