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Monday, Jan. 20, 2003

Taxpayers Fund Sen. 'KKK' Byrd's Power Fantasy

The allegedly Republican-controlled U.S. Senate is forcing taxpayers to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars to give America's most famous ex-Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd, the illusion that he is still Senate president pro tempore.

The chamber last week "bestowed upon Byrd, 85, the title of President Pro Tempore Emeritus and agreed to build him an office that will make him feel as if nothing has changed," Knight-Ridder Newspapers reported.

"Any day now, workmen will converge on a sunny dead-end corridor on the first floor of the U.S. Capitol and seal it off. They'll erect walls, install new wiring, and build a replica of the ornate office of the Senate President Pro Tempore."

The cost is secret, unmentioned in any appropriations document or internal Senate correspondence, but estimated in six figures, the news service reported.

The West Virginian, former Senate majority leader, minority leader and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, remains the Democrats' senior member on Appropriations, which doles out pork to the states.

"Frankly, it's not worth the trouble he can create if you don't give him deference," admitted Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.

"Frankly, it's not worth the trouble he can create if you don't give him deference," admitted Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.

Senator Lott is an expert at creating trouble. And he's not "worth it."