Free Republic

There’s been a lot written over the past 12 days about the death of Robert Byrd, the so-called “last lion of the Senate.” But the West Virginia senator was no lion despite all the accolades that have been heaped on him since his death. He was a pig. In fact, when it came to grabbing as much government booty as he could, the distinguished senator was the greediest pig of all. Fox News commentator Fred Barnes put it well when he said, “[Byrd] epitomized what most members of Congress try to do: maximize the flow of Federal funds to their...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia's attorney general says Gov. Joe Manchin can put the late Robert C. Byrd's Senate seat on the ballot this November. Manchin requested a legal opinion from Attorney General Darrell McGraw, who issued it Thursday.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III said Wednesday he would strongly consider running in a special election to replace the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a vote he would like to see occur in November. Speaking with reporters, the Democratic governor said he will seek an opinion from the state attorney general to clarify what needs to happen for an election to take place in November. He also again ruled out appointing himself to the post, but said he had several "high-caliber" candidates in mind for what would be a temporary assignment.

Byrd to be buried at Arlington cemeteryBy ASSOCIATED PRESS Updated: 12:08 p.m. on Tuesday, July 6, 2010 ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Family, friends and employees paid last respects Tuesday to Sen. Robert C. Byrd. His casket was carried into Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington, Va., by a military honor guard, and a line formed for the late morning service in this Washington-area suburb. A single red rose, a spray of white ones and the twang of a bluegrass banjo were in the midst as mourners gathered inside a church. The 92-year-old Mr. Byrd, who died last week, was to be...

Christian Adams and Bill Clinton. Who would have thought a heretofore unknown career Justice Department lawyer and the famously garrulous former President could combine to turn the spotlight on the centuries old -- if never formally acknowledged -- alliance between progressives and racism? President Clinton first. In winging along in his eulogy for the late West Virginia U.S. Senator Robert Byrd, former President Bill Clinton decided (impulsively?) to address the much commented upon knowledge that Senator Byrd spent part of his early career as an "Exalted Cyclops" of the Ku Klux Klan. Blurted Clinton of that which must not be...

West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D) is calling on Gov. Joe Manchin (D) and the state Legislature to decide in a special session whether West Virginia law allows for the special election to succeed the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D) to take place earlier than November 2012. Tennant announced in a video message that while she personally supports holding a special election earlier than 2012, no election can take place before then unless the state Legislature or the Supreme Court acts. "I personally would support any attempt by the Legislature to change the current law," Tennant said. "If...

Presidents and leaders of Congress on Friday paid tribute to Sen. Robert C. Byrd, whom they said revered the U.S. Constitution, cherished the U.S. Senate, but most of all, loved his home state of West Virginia.

It is a good rule of thumb not to speak ill of the dead. But what to do when a man is celebrated beyond the limits of decorum or common sense? Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of the Senate in American history, died Monday. It was truly a remarkable career. But what's more remarkable is how he has been lionized by the champions of liberalism. On Thursday, Byrd's colleagues took the unusual step of honoring him with a special service on the Senate floor, where he would lay in repose -- with some irony -- on the Lincoln Catafalque, the...

Bill Clinton's comments today at the Robert Byrd funeral take the cake. In one swift moment, Clinton manages to defend Byrd by condemning the entire state of West Virginia - "He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected," former President Bill Clinton said of Sen. Robert Byrd. "And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done come and he spent the rest of his life making it up....

Clinton says Byrd joined KKK to help him get elected By Eric Zimmermann - 07/02/10 02:58 PM ET Former President Bill Clinton explained the late Sen. Robert Byrd's (D-W.V.) membership in the Ku Klux Klan Friday by claiming Byrd was simply trying to get elected. Speaking at Byrd's funeral in Charleston today, Clinton seemed to criticize newspaper eulogies that dwelled on Byrd's association with the Klan. "They mention that he once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, and what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means," Clinton said. "He was a country boy from the...

U.S. President Barack Obama attends the memorial service for U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd on the steps of the state capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, July 2, 2010. From L-R are: West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III, Obama, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton

Sen. Robert Byrd has returned to the to the chamber where he served more than a half-century for one final visit. A hearse bearing the remains of the late West Virginia Democrat, who served in Congress longer than anyone else in the nation's history, arrived this morning in front of the long marble stairway leading to the Senate chamber. Byrd's body will remain in the Senate chamber today for colleagues and the public to pay respects. The last time the Senate chamber served such a purpose was for North Dakota Republican William Langer in 1959, the year Byrd entered the...

About 10,000 men and women have served in the United States Congress. Robert C. Byrd, who died Monday at age 92, served longer than all the rest - -more than 57 years, with six in the House and 51 in the Senate. In 1917, the year he was born, the United States had 103 million people and the nation had just entered World War I. The year he died, the United States had 310 million people, with military personnel in more than 100 countries around the world. Byrd's life and career tell us many things about our country -- some...

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin doesn't expect to start searching for a successor to U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd until after the longest-serving senator in history is laid to rest next week. Manchin says he's instead focused on comforting Byrd's family and staff, and preparing the West Virginia memorial scheduled for Friday for the iconic figure who died Monday at 92 after years of frail health.

A man of the Senate. I am sure that Robert Byrd, who died last night, would want people to remember that about him. And amidst all the remembrances of his life--from his many fans and his many critics--it’s important to remember what the word “Senator” meant to Byrd. Byrd was a throwback: A throwback to the Constitution. To him, it mattered a lot that the powers of Congress are listed first in the Constitution, in Article One, while the powers of the president are listed second, in Article Two. For Byrd, that ordering of power was sacred and permanent--as sacred...

Following the death of Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), the most senior member of the Senate, will be sworn in as president pro-tempore of the Senate, placing him third in the line of succession to become president. Inouye will be formally sworn in once the chamber opens for business Monday, at 2 p.m. EDT, in a service just steps away from the long-time desk of Inouye's close friend, Byrd, who died at 3 a.m. Monday. Staff have already draped a black mohair cloth over Byrd's desk, placing white roses atop it, a standard symbol of mourning when...

R.I.P.: The passing of the longest-serving senator gives mainstream media another chance to rewrite history. Will he be touted as a constitutional scholar or a free-spending former Klansman who fought civil rights? That Robert Byrd left his mark would be an understatement. Our prayers are with his family and the people of West Virginia. He was both the dean of the Senate and the prince of pork. He knew the history of his chamber better than anybody, having authored a four-volume history of the upper chamber, and the Constitution better than most. He also, quite shamelessly, brought home so much...

West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D) announced this afternoon that a special election to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D) will be held in 2012, not this fall as some had speculated. Calling the state election code an "interesting" document, Tennant said that because the filing deadline for this election had long passed that the "next" election for a special to be held was not November 2010 but November 2012. Democrats had predicted Tennant's decision, insisting the law was clear and citing a 1994 case decided by the state Supreme Court that affirmed the idea of a...

As the encomia mount like rotting, fly-buzzed piles of the pork-barrel spending he so systematically shoveled back to his West Virginia home, let's not forget the late Sen. Robert Byrd's most undeniable legacy: Undermining belief in politicians as little more than self-serving glad-handers on the hunt for more and more taxpayer money for their constituents.