A parallel that has been used is Strom's last campaign in '96, which was tougher but he still won 53-44.
I'd like to see judges emerge as an issue as well.
It's unfortunate we can't slam Byrd harder. Lewis the candidate perhaps cannot, but how can we take some other kind of approach that posits the question, "Why on earth is the state of West Virginia the only one in the country that in the 21st Century still sends a man to Congress who was not only a member of, but actively recruited for, and endorsed, a White Supremacist/Terrorist organization ?"
It no longer matters what Byrd has "done", but that people like Byrd have no business in any elective body, that he is a part of this country's hateful past. Does anyone around here believe that if Strom Thurmond had belonged to the KKK that he would've survived 39 years as a Republican in the U.S. Senate ? It's just amazing what the 'Rats (and their media cohorts) will tolerate within their party, from outright criminals, to America-haters, to raving anti-Semites, to Black hatemongers and racists, to a White ex-Klansman. Unbelievable.