RIP Sen. Robert Byrd

[Point of Order]

Dead at 92 according to a NYT tweet.

Who will give all the freshman senators their Senate history lesson?

 

[The Big Ragu]

I guess heaven needed a new prince of pork.

 

[Boom_70]

“ I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds. ”

— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944

 

[Stitch]

Sen. Byrd got too much of a pass on his racism. Maybe the KKK will show up at the funeral.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Sen. Byrd got too much of a pass on his racism. Maybe the KKK will show up at the funeral.

I'm not sure Byrd was evil. I always saw him as a product of where he was at any given time. The guy was more of an opportunist than an ideologue. He was a member of the KKK, because in whatever coal-mining hell he came from, all the poor whites were members of the KKK. In more gentile Washington D.C., he changed his stripes to adapt to what was socially acceptable in those surroundings. I think we all do that to some extent.

I also always thought Byrd was more about the fight than the principle. Generally it came down to dollars and cents with him, or about party politics, not any sort of moral conviction. It's how he could oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and later become something of a civil rights advocate. He could be a staunch supporter of the Vietnam War but be one of the biggest critics of Iraq, because it was the war of another political party. He lived to wield power and make government relevant through the power of taxation, with him controlling as much of those billions of dollars as possible. He loved having the power of the purse, and in lots of ways our trillion dollar government can be attributed to Robert Byrd and what the Senate became over a few decades when he was in it.

All of that said, as a man, he was pretty remarkable. He was able to change his stripes, as people on here have pointed out, and somehow still convince people he was credible. He was also self educated and in a way his life is a vivid depiction of why the U.S. is generally regarded as being a place of opportunity -- Byrd went from being born to the worst poverty in West Virginia to the coal mines to the longest-ever tenured U.S. Senator and a guy we're talking about today. He was also the only U.S. Senator, I believe, to ever put himself through law school while he was in office, which is impressive.

He is probably the last of the old-school machine politicians. Maybe Boss Tweed, Huey Long and Byrd are having a drink somewhere right now. RIP.

 

[Azrael]

"Gentile"?

Genteel.

Unless you're trying to make some other point.

 

[The Big Ragu]

How about we just don't be the self-appointed moderator who pipes in on every thread with "No politics!"? Of course we keep getting some variation of that post from three or four of the same people who caused a politics board to be made verboten on here in the first place. We can't have politics on the board because some people can't behave like adults. If a thread on Robert Byrd -- the longest-tenured Senator ever -- dying, makes its way on here because it is news, his career in politics is going to enter into the discussion. My suggestion is that you deal with it, or don't post. If people want to derail the discussion and cause the thread to be locked, the ACTUAL moderators -- FHB, Moddy, Gutter, Playthrough, etc. -- will handle it. You can choose to participate on this board like an adult. Or you can choose to start yelling and cursing and lobbing insults, as some people do on threads they can't handle. Or you can choose to be the self-appointed moderator who yells "no politics!" because it's so damned clever. Your lecture of me, and your particular contribution to the thread was just noted. Thanks.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

For the record, Ragu's post was clearly started before I deleted a post. He just saw it before me and responded, and I definitely agree with him.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Sen. Byrd got too much of a pass on his racism. Maybe the KKK will show up at the funeral.

Yes, and they will.

 

[forever_town]

I wonder how his Senate seat will be filled...

 

[Drip]

Sen. Byrd got too much of a pass on his racism. Maybe the KKK will show up at the funeral.

I'm sure he'll be wearing white at his funeral.
RIP to a former Klansman.

 

[CR19]

I'm young, and I don't know a lot about Byrd's political record. For the time I actually paid attention to politics, I just knew he was a long-time senator from some state. However, I'm not sure how you can appreciate a guy's work after he took part in a radical group such as the KKK. I know that you can correct your mistakes later in life, but something like the KKK isn't an easily-correctable mark on your reputation.

 

[Dan Hickling]

I will always remember his impassioned speech against Bush's Iraq war ... It was 30 minutes of the most gripping oratory you'll ever hear ... and delivered at a time when most of the country and his Senate colleagues were drinking the Kool Aid ....

 

[Boom_70]

I will always remember his impassioned speech against Bush's Iraq war ... It was 30 minutes of the most gripping oratory you'll ever hear ... and delivered at a time when most of the country and his Senate colleagues were drinking the Kool Aid ....

Agreed Byrd was one of few who saw through the Bush / Cheney ginned up story on WMD's:

"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..."
- Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002

 

[Flying Headbutt]

Sigh. You're better than that. People said the earth was flat once upon a time. Then new facts emerged, and what they said once upon a time became outdated.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Sigh. You're better than that. People said the earth was flat once upon a time. Then new facts emerged, and what they said once upon a time became outdated.

"Sigh" is ****ing right!
The man WAS a member of the KKK - more than 60 years ago, before the age of 30.
And he has been apologizing for it since the 1950s. For ****'s sake - the guy has been a damned U.S. Senator longer than many of you have been alive. He never killed anybody (Ted Kennedy). He never lied under oath (Pres. Clinton). He never dodged military service (Pres. G. Bush II). And outside of his Klan membership (which occurred in his 20s!) Byrd has never been involved in a single scandal (sexual, criminal or otherwise), unlike sooo many of his Congressional counterparts, including John McCain.
He lived a good life and was a tremendous servant to the state of West By God and the country, but let's trot his KKK membership from the 1940s and (sigh) flog (again) him as a racist.
Got anything more recent?
Anything?
'Cause this is (really) old news - as is the fact Byrd has been apologizing for his membership and the beliefs associated with that membership - since the 50s.

In 1997, he told an interviewer he would encourage young people to become involved in politics, but to "Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don't get that albatross around your neck. Once you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena."[14] In his latest autobiography, Byrd explained that he was a member because he "was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision—a jejune and immature outlook—seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."[15] Byrd also said, in 2005,

“ I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened. ”
— Robert C. Byrd

 

[Boom_70]

In a March 4, 2001 interview with Tony Snow, Byrd said of race relations:
“ They're much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime... I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us... I just think we talk so much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that. There are white ******s. I've seen a lot of white ******s in my time, if you want to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much.

 

[Bamadog]

Well, his legacy will live on. It's like Spaceballs.
Robert Byrd, the highway
Robert Byrd, the senior center
Robert Byrd, the mining technology center
Robert Byrd, the overpass
Robert Byrd, the bridge
Robert Byrd, the university building

RIP, king o' pork.

 

[Boom_70]

Sigh. You're better than that. People said the earth was flat once upon a time. Then new facts emerged, and what they said once upon a time became outdated.

That is fine but it's also fair if looking back to view his entire body of work.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Which Dem did RCB endorse for president during the last election? Wanna guess?


How about RCB explaining why he was wrong in his beliefs opposing Civil Rights?