Posted on 06/28/2010 1:05:11 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
Sen. Robert Byrd may join Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy among historic figures who have lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda an honor only bestowed upon 28 other Americans over the past 160 years.
Senate leaders are likely to make a request for Byrd to lie in state, aides said Monday, but they are still awaiting approval from Byrds family to go ahead with a formal resolution that would allow Byrds casket to rest under the dome for a public viewing.
With a career that spanned nearly 58 years and ranked him as the longest-serving member in congressional history, Byrd has likely earned the consideration.
In 2006, Gerald Ford was the most recent political figure to lie in state in the Capitol, and he was preceded by Ronald Reagan, whose casket was visited by thousands over three days in June 2004. The caskets are draped with an American flag, and rest upon the same wooden catafalque a raised platform constructed for Lincolns state funeral.
Presidents James Garfield, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and were also honored in the political hallowed space.
In 1865, Henry Clay was the first to be honored in the Rotunda after serving five consecutive terms in the House, including service as Speaker.
Other big names bestowed the state honor include Spanish-American War hero George Dewey and architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant.
Three non-political figures have lain in honor, which is different from laying in state: civil rights activist Rosa Parks and the U.S. Capitol Police officers, Jacob Joseph Chestnut and John Michael Gibson, who were killed during an attack on the Capitol in 1998.
Typically, a concurrent resolution from both the Senate and the House must be passed granting permission for the Rotunda space to be used, but the process is usually given top priority, according to the Office of the House Historian.
Less than four days after Reagan died on June 5, 2004, both the Senate and House cleared a resolution, and the President was already lying in state.
The House is expected to introduce a separate resolution honoring Byrds service in Congress and flags at both the Capitol and White House flew at half mast today.
In the past, Congress has sometimes granted the honor without issuing a resolution, with authority being granted solely by the House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader. The option is usually used when Congress is out of session or unavailable to vote on the use of the rotunda.
“...How the hell did our party ever get to this point?..”
By cowardice. By forgetting that they’re AMERICAN MEN first, and politicians second.
By substituting compromise for principle.
Sadly, I agree.
” Why werent we screaming bloody murder every step of the way up until now? “
How many times have I posted “ The Republicans in the House & Senate should have been screaming bloody murder “ in the past 8 months?
The Repubs could have stopped Obamacare if they had fought hard, but they didn’t even bother to put up an argument.
” How the hell did our party ever get to this point? “
I could write a book about THIS.
Suffice it to say that morality and ethics were tossed aside in favor of “ whats in it for me? “ Anyone over the age of 50 and is a real conservative knows this. It began in the late 60’s. It was amplified in the 80’s, and the final nadir was in the early 2000’s. We have become an amoral, unethical society. Maybe one third to one half of the American people are honorable. When I was a youngster, it was easily three fourths honorable.
Causes?
1) Public schools
2) Pop culture
3) No longer a Christian nation
4) Hate like hell to say this 30 years of uninterrupted
prosperity without a real war.
I am not sure what you are getting at here. Obama had a 60-40 vote majority in the senate, 40/435 in the house and it still took him over a year to pass a Health Reform bill with NO RINO support and with high public disapproval and protests. House Liberals had to swallow the Senate bill which they HATE because it will force rates up and has a mandate for them to buy from private profit companies (yes Virgina, there will be uninsured as rates go up.) . Most people hate it and even the liberal base is demoralized over it. There is little more that could have been done here.
Look back at the power the 2008 election gave him in congress and our expectations of what he would do with it. Republicans stood up to him, maybe not out of true principle, but they did.
Boehner on social security reform/cuts has got me upset. Why is this the first thing to cut? Why is he still leader?
When the Dems decided to “deem” the Obama care bill through, the Republicans should have got up and left the chamber.
The only way to get to the people is media coverage, and you dont get it without drama. Then they could tell America that legislative fraud was taking place.
The Republican Senators walked out on the Dems about 20 years ago, and it was all over the news for 48 hours.
They proposed deeming but then decided it would backfire after the issue made the news and Republicans played it up. House democrats held a separate vote on the Senate HR bill, prior to the budget reconciliation changes. Then the first Senate bill got signed by Obama while the Senate worked on reconciliation changes of the second bill the house passed. Due to a change not allowed under those rules the house had to do a third vote on the reconciliation bill and then Obama signed that.
So there was no deeming. They used reconciliation to increase spending and taxes in the signed bill, purpose was to buy the house democrats votes on the bill they hated.
” So there was no deeming. They used reconciliation to increase spending and taxes in the signed bill, purpose was to buy the house democrats votes on the bill they hated. “
I know what it was. You don’t use “reconciliation” on a trillion dollar bill.
They should have walked out, and stayed out. Half the damn country doesn’t know what was pulled. They would have, but there were no balls.
Then you sure as hell oughta be watching THIS closely.
This is the most cheering news of the day. The only sad thing is that the GOP had no hand in it. (Breitbart: watch your back.)
Thanks, I read it all!
” Byrd may lie in state “
WHY NOT? HE HAS CERTAINLY LIED EVERYWHERE ELSE!
Sulla, like I said earlier upthread:
We are where we are because of cowardice, pure and simple.
If you’re waiting for the GOP to grow a pair, forget it. If we take back the House and the Senate in November, we’ll be lucky to stave off any more bad legislation unless we get some folks with balls to get in the FACES of the Dems on EVERY issue.
And I mean EVERY issue - like they’ve done to to us. Argue EVERYTHING to a standstill - the smallest detail, the most minor of bills. Give them NOTHING. Stand up, turn our BACKS to the Dems while they rant and rave and expose themselves for the stupid socialist trash that they are.
Kagan is the PERFECT flashpoint.
Walk out on her. BORK her. CLARENCE THOMAS her.
But no, oh no, OUR side has to be “civil”...they have to show politesse and be polite, and roll over like little puppy dogs and p*ss all over their bellies in fear whenever they remotely think they might “offend” the Dems.
Well, I say F*CK being polite. We are at WAR with these people and their subversive ideology.
The difference is, the Dems KNOW it, and the GOP either pretends it ain’t so, is part of it, or it totally ignorant and clueless. I haven’t figured out which yet. Evidently, neither have THEY.
If this Kagan assclown gets on the SCOTUS, we will be dealing with her bad decision-making for YEARS to come. Like Ginsburg...another useless tw*t who isn’t fit to judge a horse race; or the “Wise Latina” douchebag.
No, THIS is the point where the GOP should start saying “No further. Right here, Right Now.”
When I see the GOP do THAT, maybe then I’ll have some faith in the system. As of right now, I have NONE. Zero. They’re gutless cowards until provien otherwise, and one has to wonder what the Dems have over them that causes them to be such political p*ssies.
Someone on our side stands up and calls them out, then a day later apologizes - APOLOGIZES!! - for it. What the HELL is that? Where the hell are the MEN? Emasculated? De-testicularized? Our ancestors are spitting on us right now.
Every inch of ground we give up will take MILES to recover for our future generations - IF we have a country left to give them.
Personally, I’d like to see the guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan run and get into office; they KNOW what’s been done to them (and us) and are probably more than willing to shove everything up the Dems’ collective asses.
Failing that...well, you know the score.
/rant OFF
ping to #151
That is one beautiful rant.
” Theyre gutless cowards until proven otherwise, and one has to wonder what the Dems have over them that causes them to be such political p*ssies. “
It is not the Dems, the Republicans are WHORES who have been bought by special interests.
I think one of your other speculations is closer. ...the GOP either pretends [or] is part of it...
I think it isn't hard to comprehend what this seeming cowardice means by offering the following testimony for analytic review:
The most terrifying fire one will ever witness out of a GOP senator comes in his response to a conservative who requests "Stand fast for conservative principles."In that instance, it is crystal clear that no Democratic Senator comes close to matching a wobbly Republican for viciousness.
So how come the right side is losing?
APPLAUSE...APPLAUSE. That MARVELOUS rant needs to be repeated ..OFTEN and without a word left out!! Thank you!!
Have you seen this vimeo? Day 70 Still Leaking.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12933322
BRUTAL!
But who among the entrenched GOP can’t stand behind this? Hammer them! No let up!
IThe problem is not that Republicans didnt oppose it. That was easy because it was unpopular and all Rs had to do is pick at certain parts to be in with voters.
The problem is that now that its law, Rs still wont take positions on it, except maybe to say two words “repeal it” without discussing what ‘it’ is. What parts will they repeal?? They wont say. They are still playing ‘no’ on a bill already law. The mandate is the only specific part they talk about repealing (unpopular naturally) but getting rid of that mandate alone fixes nothing. Premiums will just go up faster, more companies will stop insuring.
It IS cowardice, pure and simple.
“The most terrifying fire one will ever witness out of a GOP senator comes in his response to a conservative who requests “Stand fast for conservative principles.”
In that instance, it is crystal clear that no Democratic Senator comes close to matching a wobbly Republican for viciousness.”
If that is so, then that cretin is NOT a “republican”. That cretin is a useless coward and tool who deserves public contempt, public scorn, and public repudiation, followed by quick ejection from office at the earliest opportunity.
And if this is so, then they are as despicable as the Dems are, to my mind; EVEN MORE SO, because they callously take us and our votes for granted, and then piss down our backs and call it rain, and then roll over on their backs like cheap French whores consorting with the German invaders.
I’m an American, NOT a Republican, NOT a Democrat, NOT a Libertarian, NOT ANYTHING BUT an AMERICAN first. I happen to vote Republican at the moment, because in the political reality that we currently live in, it is currently the best way to try and stop the communist dems from demolishing the country (and I say “currently”). Some out here have differences of opinion on that, but hey, that’s part of being an AMERICAN - We’re in the SAME fighting hole together, and I have their six, as they have mine.
I am for the individual right of EVERY AMERICAN to be left the hell alone, to live out their lives in as unfettered, unregulated, unmolested, uncontested, liberty, wealth and freedom as God intended and in whatever manner as their own unique talents can take them, either up or down, as long as no harm is done to someone elses’ likewise rights in the pursuit of those goals. With that right of Citizenship comes duty, obligation, and responsibility;
The DUTY is to preserve those freedoms for those coming along behind us...by electing intelligent, lawmakers who understand the Constitution’s uniqueness in history...
The OBLIGATION is to preserve that liberty that was handed down to us by infinitely better men and women than ourselves...at infinitely greater cost and expense in blood and life...by not letting their sacrifices go unremembered and un-honored...
The RESPONSIBILITY is to DEFEND it, by any means necessary, should it come down to that. We either do it, or we’ll wind up leaving it to our children to do it, and THAT is despicable by anyone’s measure of a man.
If that makes me a Conservative, so be it. If that makes me a “Classical Liberal” (*whatever the hell THAT is), so be it. If that makes me a Libertarian, or a Paleo-con, or a Neo-con, or anything else, so be it. I will call ANY man brother and ANY woman sister who believes in these AMERICAN principles and is willing to stand up for them. We’ll probably get to make that choice very, very soon, as things continued to unwind they seem to be.
If the two “state-sanctioned” political parties can’t get behind the rights of the individual to be left the hell alone, then it’s time to neuter them.
How? I don’t have that answer. The Tea Party? Possibly. Infiltrate BOTH parties and rip out the Liberals at the root? Probably.
I only know that I am beyond pissed, beyond furious. And I want my country back.
If I ever write an autobiography, it will be entitled
“Bile Rising”.
/second rant off...
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