Sheets says: "White Power!"
Posted on 04/03/2005 3:04:42 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON, April 2 - After 46 years in the United States Senate - including a 12-year stint as Democratic leader - Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia sees himself as its protector and defender, a guardian of its history and traditions.
A co-author of a four-volume tome of Senate history, Mr. Byrd, 87, comes to work each day with a tiny leather-bound copy of the Constitution in his left breast pocket. "I've forgotten more about the rules and procedures," Mr. Byrd said in an interview this week, "than most senators will ever know."
Now Mr. Byrd's reputation as an authority on all things senatorial is under attack. Lawmakers return to Washington on Monday after a two-week recess, and the Senate is headed for a procedural showdown over a Republican-led drive to end the minority Democrats' use of the filibuster in blocking President Bush's judicial nominees.
Mr. Byrd, the senior senator from West Virginia, is front and center in that fight, carrying the banner for his party and at the same time drawing the ire of conservatives outraged by his vocal defense of the filibuster.
Republicans hope to end judicial filibusters by changing Senate rules to prevent them - a move so explosive it has been dubbed "the nuclear option." Mr. Byrd, invoking Senate tradition and his beloved Constitution, is railing against it, drawing charges of hypocrisy from Republicans who say that when he was leader, he initiated some artful rules changes of his own.
"Such a sweet old man," Senator Rick Santorum said sardonically in an interview. Mr. Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican who ranks third in his party's leadership, went on: "Facts are facts, and the fact is Senator Byrd has singularly used this tactic more than any other leader in the United States Senate. To come in and feign outrage over a technique of which he was the master is even a little much for senators to swallow."
The fight has made Mr. Byrd, currently the longest-serving member of the Senate, an unlikely cult hero among liberals and an object of derision among conservatives in the twilight of his political career. He is up for re-election in 2006, and though he has not yet formally said whether he will run ("I'm inclined to," is as far as he will go), Republicans are already working to unseat him.
Christian conservatives and right-wing bloggers are unearthing his past as a one-time member of the Ku Klux Klan who filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ("I've said time and time again that I was wrong about that and I apologize," Mr. Byrd said.) The National Republican Senatorial Committee is sending out a stream of "Byrd watching" news releases. "Robert Byrd Flies Off the Deep End," declared one. "Robert's Rules of Order: Do as I Say, Not as I Did," blared another. And Republicans are decrying a recent speech by Mr. Byrd, in which he invoked Hitler to assail the nuclear option.
"One more speech like that and we'll have more than enough votes" to eliminate the filibuster, said Senator Trent Lott, the former Republican leader. "We ought to call this the Byrd rule change."
Mr. Byrd began brushing up on the Senate's rules decades ago, when some of his colleagues were barely out of diapers. He was encouraged, he said, by his mentor, Senator Richard B. Russell Jr. of Georgia. "He said, 'Don't just study the rules, study the precedents,' " Mr. Byrd recalled.
So Mr. Byrd did - a move that came in handy in 1977 when as Democratic leader, he helped close a loophole that had allowed Republicans effectively to filibuster legislation by offering a stream of amendments. Republicans say Mr. Byrd used procedures to limit debate on three other occasions, though he says he never once "deprived the minority" of "the right to freedom of speech."
While Republicans are holding Mr. Byrd as an emblem for inconsistency, Democrats are rallying around him. "He's the Senate's encyclopedia," said Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, called Mr. Byrd "a legend."
Indeed, when Mr. Byrd takes the Senate floor, voice quavering, finger wagging, words like "escutcheon" dripping from his lips, the chamber steps back in time. He quotes Popeye and Plato with equal ease.
Democrats are also discovering Mr. Byrd's defense of the filibuster is a useful fund-raising tool. Last week, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent out an e-mail appeal from Mr. Byrd in which he warned that "an ill wind is blowing across this country" and urged potential donors to download their own "personal Constitution by clicking here."
The battle over judges has been good for Mr. Byrd's political coffers as well. The political action arm of the liberal advocacy group MoveOn .org, whose members fondly recall the senator's blistering critique of the war in Iraq, raised more than $800,000 over the Internet last week for Mr. Byrd's re-election. The fund-raiser came on the heels of a MoveOn rally several weeks ago, where Mr. Byrd delivered a hellfire-and-brimstone speech that was part religious revival, part civics lesson.
"These instant constitutional experts want to warp, want to bend, if you will, the Senate's constitutional purpose with a witch's brew of half truths, twisted logic and vicious attacks on freedom of speech," the senator thundered, wagging his finger and waving his copy of the Constitution. "Why? Because they don't like the rules! They want to change the rules so they can pack the courts!"
The crowd swooned like schoolgirls catching their first glimpse of the Beatles, and the senator seemed to relish every minute. But political analysts say getting the rock-star reception from the MoveOn set could backfire for Mr. Byrd in West Virginia, where President Bush won last November's election by 13 percentage points.
At home, Mr. Byrd is sometimes called "the prince of pork," for the millions of dollars in federal aid he has brought back for public works projects, many of which bear his name. He has represented the state in Washington for 52 years, having served 6 years in the House before the Senate. Republicans do not have a candidate to run against him, though they are courting Representative Shelley Moore Capito.
That would be quite a match-up, said Robert Rupp, a professor of political science and history at West Virginia Wesleyan College, noting that Mr. Byrd has not had a competitive race since 1958.
"What we have here is not a question of an old politician fading or fighting for his life," Professor Rupp said. "What we really have here is an old politician who is getting a revival, a new image, in what will be his last political campaign. So the question then becomes: what will the state owe an icon?"
With his white hair, his polished wooden cane and hands that shake from what aides say is a benign tremor, Mr. Byrd cuts a seemingly frail figure in the Capitol, and some wonder if he would be up for a grueling campaign. His wife of nearly 68 years, Erma, has been ill, and he said she is very much on his mind. Yet as he sat in his chandeliered Capitol office last week, his cane resting by his side, Mr. Byrd seemed energized, casting thunderbolts like Zeus from the mountaintop.
"How sad," Mr. Byrd declared, lowering his eyes and dragging out his words for dramatic effect, "will be the legacy of those senators who vote to assassinate freedom of speech in the Senate of the United States. What a blotch upon the escutcheon of the great basic liberty of the people. How sad."
And here, the senior senator from West Virginia grew silent for a moment before issuing his final warning: "And mark my words, people will know who wielded the dagger."
Can we expect a nice glowing article from the Slimes regarding Rep. Tom Tancredo, a hardfighting man of principles who stood up to the President of the US without any hesitation on issues where he believes the Pres. is wrong.
He's a pretty interesting character.
Sheets says: "White Power!"
Diapers? This senile old *explitive deleted* was elected to the Senate 2 months before I was born, and was a member of the House before that! I think he should be TREATED like a diaper, and for the same reasons.....
He might be wearing DEPENDS.
A "Massa" in the Senate's Way..."
Comes in handy while ACTUALLY filibustering.....
Unfortunately, I agree that the tactics the dems are using will prolly work---
Between the Clintoons and the dems activites in congress, who says "crime" doesn't pay?
Just like when Manuel Miranda found those dem e-mails detailing how they were gonna keep Bush's nominees from getting elected, and in the mean time, affecting the Affirmative action law.
The dems were the ones being unethical and prolly illegal, BUT the reps took the blame for FINDING the e-mails...
I also don't trust Frist and the others like Specter and Hatch to force the constitutional option.
Santorum is one of the good guys. I was very upset when he let his arm be twisted and came out for Specter, but that's about the only blot on his escutcheon, and I hope conservative voters won't hold it against him.
ATTN JULIAN BOND: June 6, 2001 --- KKK Byrd Is 3 Heartbeats from the Presidency
USA TODAY STORY archives | 12-16-02 | dfu
Posted on 12/16/2002 11:20:48 PM PST by doug from upland
FROM USA TODAY -- 6/6/01
By voice vote, the Senate then elected Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the senior Senate Democrat, as president pro tempore, replacing Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. That is a constitutional and mostly ceremonial post that is also third in line of succession to the presidency.
Funny. I thought it was the job of so-called "unbiased" news sources like the New York Times to unearth stuff like this, not "Christian conservatives and (pejorative implied by the NYT) right-wing bloggers...
Oh!, So the NY Slimes (The Old Grey Whore) does another "Puff Piece" on Bubba..Bobby Sheets Bryd...I wonder how many lynching took place, in the south while "Sheets/Grand Keagle" Bryd has been in Congress?...Maybe the Southern Law Center, Intelligence Project should share their files w/ the NY Slimes, the KKK couldn't have hoped for a more "helpful force" in advancing their RACISM/NAZISM views/agenda in America, than the Marxist/Liberals in our Modern Society.
I agree - I think Rick is very sharp. If Rick makes a good showing in the judicial stuff - it will be a sort of redemption for him and come election time I think he will do quite well.
Rush has been saying for months that if some Repub will just stand up and take on the dems over this judicial mess - not just in the senate regarding Bush's nominees .. but reigning in the out of control courts - that person will be a genuine hero to repubs all over America.
Powerline
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2005_04.php#010054
Only the wrong survive
The New York Times features a predictably fawning profile of former Ku Klux Klan Kleagle and current West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd: "A master of Senate's ways is still parrying in his twilight." By contrast with its coverage of the Pope's death, the Times had no problem finding quotes from supporters of Senator Byrd before press time.
Robert Byrd is indeed a valuable link not only to the Senate's past, but also to the Democratic Party's history as the party of slavery, segregation, and opposition to equal treatment of blacks. Times reporter Sheryl Stolberg obviously loves Byrd's cornpone constitutional shtick in favor of filibustering a Republican president's judicial appointees. It's a shame that Stolberg exerted no effort to put Byrd's shtick in the context it merits.
Byrd is old enough, for example, to have vowed memorably regarding the integration of the Armed Forces by President Truman that he would never fight "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."
Even after his resignation from the Klan, Byrd continued to hold it in high esteem, writing to the Klan's Imperial Wizard in 1946: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia."
And Byrd is old enough to have participated in filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as to have voted against it after cloture along with 18 other Democrats -- in the name of the Constitution, of course. Funny Stolberg didn't invite Byrd to take a walk down memory lane on that subject. It would have been highly illuminating. (Thanks to Deroy Murdock's excellent NRO column: "Dems need a houseclean.")
More recently, Byrd put his eloquent voice to use in an interview with Tony Snow on Fox News Sunday. Here Byrd harked back to the days of old, but with a twist, observing that "there are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time." Walter Williams mordantly wondered "whether he was talking about whites who act like blacks."
In the Times article Byrd cites the late Georgia Senator Richard Russell as his mentor and quotes the advice Russell gave him regarding the ways of the Senate. Russell was a wise man in many ways, but he was also one of the signers of the infamous 1956 Southern Manifesto opposing Brown v. Board of Education -- in the name of the Constitution, of course.
Also signing the Southern Manifesto was the late Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina. Like Byrd, Ervin was resurrected as a heroic cornpone constitutionalist in the eyes of the elite media. Ervin was born again during his chairmanship of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973. As with Senator Byrd today, all was forgiven.
The Times profile of Byrd is accompanied by the photo above by Doug Mills with the caption: "Senator Robert C. Byrd, after speaking at a MoveOn.org rally last month in Washington, defending the use of the filibuster to block judicial nominees." Only a fellow as supremely lacking in self-awareness as Senator Byrd can miss the inadvertent allusion to the black power salute of the late 1960's in Byrd's gesture, or to the "right on" salute of the radical left of the same period, or other more remote historical precedents that Senator Byrd himself loves to invoke against his Republican opponents.
Posted by The Big Trunk at 11:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
That is an anti-slavery provision.
"Mr. Byrd, 87, comes to work each day with a tiny leather-bound copy of the Constitution in his left breast pocket"
That's nice. Too bad the old bast**d has apparently never read it.
A great argument for term limits.
heh heh
New tagline thanks to this article. If only I could have 10 more spaces..........
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