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

NewsMax.com ^ | 1/20/03 | Carl Limbacher

[Jean S]

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.

[newgeezer]

"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.

Thus, since it's chaired by the easily-blackmailed Trent "Skeletons In My Closet" Lott, we find the Dems are free to run roughshod all over the Rules Cmte.

Beam me up, Mr. Scott.

[FairWitness]

I was hoping this was a joke, but I don't see any "humor" tag on it.

[GreenHornet]

After enduring the Democrat's latest demonstration of their practice of "Racial McCarthyism" during the Trent Lott circus, you would think that the Republicans would show a little backbone, and speak out against this travesty. This is the perfect opportunity to expose the hypocrisy of the Democrats on the issue of race, and illustrate the way they play Black Americans (and all Americans) for fools. Instead, they go along with it because "it's too much trouble" to speak out against Klansman Byrd.

Will somebody please tell the Republicans that THEY won the election, and THEY now control the Seante?

[CaptRon]

That's you're problem, Trent. It was never worth the trouble, was it?

[mountaineer]

Read Lott's glowing words about Sen. Grand Kleagle here. They're both monumental embarrassments.

[GraniteStateConservative]

I thought for sure this was from the Onion. It's so over-the-top ridiculous.

Holy crap is this sad.

[mountaineer]

Hey, did you know his real name isn't even Robert C. Byrd?

Byrd's early life history is almost unbelievable. Born Cornelius Sale in North Carolina, his birth mother died in the influenza epidemic of World War I. Sent to West Virginia to live with an aunt and uncle, he was reared in the hard scrabble coal camps in the midst of the Depression, and his name was changed to the moniker now affixed on a hundred buildings and highways. source.

He's my senator (sadly) and I didn't know it!

[mountaineer]

Byrd already has his monument in the form of a bigger-than-life statue in the Capitol rotunda in Charleston, W.Va. Have I mentioned what an embarrassment he is?

[BillyBoy]

What the hell?! The old racist goat wants taxpayers to FUND a replica of Ted Steven's Pro-Temp position so Byrd can feel better about himself! OUTRAGEOUS! No doubt the media will hide this little item from the public eye.

[Paladin2b]

Something about this story is fishy. Why would there be any need to build a new replica office for Byrd's new position? It should already be in existence. When the traitor Jeffords crossed the aisle, Byrd automatically became the PPT of the Senate. But so as not to hurt Strom's feelings, a special Senate bill (yes, they interrupted work for this) named Thurmond as "President Pro Tempore Emeritus" and gave him all sorts of perks, which I assume also included the replica office. I think Byrd is a hypocritical old buzzard, but we shouldn't cast stones when the GOP (under "roll me please" Lott) did the same only a year before.

[newgeezer]

I thought for sure this was from the Onion. It's so over-the-top ridiculous.

I had the same thought! I'm still not 100% convinced. I'd like to see the alleged Knight-Ridder story. This sounds too much like something JohnHuang2 wrote. ;-)

[mountaineer]

It's all too true:

Out-of-power senator getting new title, digs to help soften the blow
By James Kuhnhenn
KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE

WASHINGTON - 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.

Then, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., will be able to call it his.

The cost of his replica office - estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars - is a secret.

It's not described in any appropriation document or internal Senate correspondence about the plan, congressional officials said on condition that they not be identified.

All this for a senator who, by all outward appearances, has lost power, not gained it.

Byrd used to be the president pro tempore of the Senate, a largely ceremonial job that places its occupant fourth in the presidential line of succession. He no longer is.

He used to be chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. He no longer is.

He also was a member of the Senate majority. But the November elections relegated him to the minority.

Still, Byrd, the self-taught son of a coal miner who became a senator 44 years ago, retains all the trappings of power. The Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday 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.

"Frankly, it's not worth the trouble he can create if you don't give him deference," said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, by way of explaining the extraordinary courtesies to Byrd.

Byrd is considered the master protector of the Senate's constitutional rights. He knows its procedures better than anyone and can slow down debate with long florid speeches that invoke Greek philosophers, Roman generals and the Founding Fathers. He also remains the Democrats' senior Appropriations Committee member, able to determine what states get in federal largesse - a power not lost on his colleagues. The attention he receives says a lot about how graciously the Senate operates.

"Both parties have always honored seniority," said assistant Senate historian Don Ritchie. "There is a sense of the Senate as an institution that prevails over partisanship."

The corridor to be closed off to the public for the new office is immediately adjacent to Byrd's current Capitol office. It is known as the Zodiac Corridor, a reference to the astrological signs painted on wall panels in 1860 by Italian artist Constantino Brumidi, whose frescoes adorn much of the Capitol.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/4975580.htm

[GraniteStateConservative]

Giving him a dumb title costs taxpayers not one red cent. Building him an opulent office does. The Dems didn't give Thurmond a new office.

[newgeezer]

Thanks.

Limbaugh, Hannity, Reagan, O'Reilly et. al. should be ALL OVER this! (Ehh, what's a few hundred thousand bucks among hypocrites? Nobody will miss it...)

[sheik yerbouty]

Byrd is not just one of "the boyz in the hoods", he is the spitting(or barfing) image of Jubilation T. Cornpone!

[F.J. Mitchell]

The US Senate-the weakest link of government. Vanity corrupts and absolute vanity produces history's most sickening display of narcissism.

[F.J. Mitchell]

An out house-a one hole outhouse, should be brought in from way back in the mountains of WVa, and without any alteration whatsoever be assigned to BIGot Byrd for his office-that is better than he deserves.

[Xthe17th]

When I left, I had the volumes that he had done on the history of the Senate and the Roman Empire

Well that about sums it up. I read the whole thing and the hypocrites went on and on about James Madison and the founders and the senate being the "anchor of the republic" and the need to heed history yaddayaddayadda, but not one word about the abominable 17th amendment which has ruined it!

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

You know what GWB has done things like this over and over again he gives them enough rope to hang themselves and they end up doing exactly that !

The demoncrats are still hanging. and most likely will be after 2004.