Posted on 06/11/2005 9:03:19 PM PDT by SmithL
Readers know where I stand on Bob Byrd. I greeted with glee the independent poll that showed his vulnerability.
But vulnerable ain't dead.
The same poll that showed Shelley Moore Capito within three points of beating him also showed that 62 percent of voters view Byrd favorably.
Byrd has been elected to federal office 11 out of 11 times. In May, he showed he could do it again.
He began the month as the champion of the filibuster. By month's end, he was Monte Hall of "Let's Make A Deal" fame.
Do not take lightly a man who is willing to sell positions with the ease of trading pork bellies on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
For next year's campaign, Byrd repackaged himself as the Soul of the Senate. Jay Nordlinger of the National Review takes exception.
"The Senate -- and Congress generally -- could use a crusty old constitutionalist, who embodies a kind of institutional history. Problem is, Byrd is an utter partisan hack. His devotion is to Democratic aims, not to democratic ones -- not to the constitutional pro-cess," Nordlinger wrote last week.
Byrd is tougher than rhino hide. His election to Congress in 1952 shows what any challenger faces.
Congressman E.H. Hedrick decided to run for governor that year. Byrd ran for Hedrick's congressional seat.
Just before the May primary, the newspapers reported that Byrd had been a kleagle -- a recruiter -- for the Ku Klux Klan while working as a welder in the shipyards during World War II.
Byrd deftly defused that as a youthful indiscretion.
He won the primary, and in a district where Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 60,000 voters, the Nov. 4 election was a mere formality.
But that October, his letter to an imperial wizard in 1946 emerged.
"The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia," Byrd said in his letter.
That created a firestorm. Gov. Okey Patteson hurried home from a hunting trip in North Carolina. He summoned Byrd to his office in the Capitol. He asked Byrd to withdraw from the ticket.
Yea, right. That was going to happen.
Byrd took out ads that portrayed him as a victim of a smear campaign. Democrats held their noses and voted for him. He won by 21,000 votes. Close, but a cigar.
As Harry Hoffmann of the Gazette observed in a column, the thinking was, "Well, at least Byrd will vote for the Democratic program in Congress and we can take care of getting us a new congressman in the 1954 primary."
Best-laid plans. The klan issue faded with each subsequent election. In 1982, Republicans tried to replace him with Congressman Cleve Benedict by waving the tattered sheet. Byrd trampled him by 30 points.
Not everyone can forgive and forget. In 2003, Colbert King of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. His entry included a column on guys at a fictitious barbershop discussing Byrd.
"At a public hearing this week, said Mr. Jackson, Byrd lectured the Bush administration on the difficulties of rooting out terrorists. Mr. Jackson added softly, ‘He should know'."
King pointed out that when Byrd wrote that letter in 1946, six blacks were lynched in America. Byrd was elected to the Legislature that year.
King also pointed out that Byrd tried to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That was also the year that Byrd was first re-elected to the Senate.
In a perfect world, he would never have been elected to Congress.
He has been there 52 years and counting. Like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, Byrd rose from the ashes of crosses burned to come to within a few heartbeats of the presidency a few years ago.
Beating him will take more than crying kleagle.
Don Surber may be reached at donsurber@dailymail.com.
It may not be easy, but I think it may be possible, if we put in the effort.
Why not? He doesn't run very fast.
I am from West-by-God-Virginia and I want him gone. I hate seeing everything in the state with his name on it.
Robert Byrd: The greatest thing since sliced bread!
...and voting.
It may not be easy, but I think it may be possible, if we put in the effort.
__________________________________________________________
Exactly, it was not easy to beat Dacshel. The GOP had to beat him twice to get rid of him. Every incubent can be tough.
But it is possible. Especially when the Senator is out of step with his state.
It may not be easy, but it sure will be a good thing.
Just get a big stick...
Hiram Lewis can beat Byrd.
Congresswoman Capito falls somewhere between Olympia Snowe and Mike DeWine on the political spectrum, and any conservative that is being sucked in by her needs to rethink their position pronto. The last thing we need is one more squish in the Senate.
She says she's not running, and we can hope that's true. But if it isn't, we need to end her career in the primary.
Have they tried beating the rheumy-eyed old fart with a burning cross?
Cover them with sheets.
Oh, I don't know. You just get a big old stick and have somebody else hold him down....
When the keagle is thrown out on his pointy head, this will be yet another election where the ratmedia will dust off their " where did we go wrong on this one" stories. The ratmedia is wrong so often that they have no credibility.
Watch for the kiss of death for the keagle when larry sabato says he can't be beaten. It will be all over then.
One other thing: The voters have NOT be forgiving the keagles klan ties since 1952. This is a naive statement. The voters AGREED with the keagles klan ties up to now. Message to dumb-ass ratmedia : Check the election results for 2000 and 2004. West Virginia is trending Republican and Republicans aren't the klan's party. The klan was ALL rat top to bottom, confederate flag on government buildings and all.
KKK Byrd will need to disclose how many lynchings and crossburnings he participated in as a Klansman.
He will also need to disclose how many lynchings and crossburnings his KKK recruits participated in.
Don't say that. Often democrats get stronger after they die like Mel Carnihan won a senate seat after he died.
Author is scared sh-tless.
Charleston gets tons of money from DC, and the funds have been drying up as of late.
If he's gone, there will no longer be blank checks from Sheets Byrd.
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