Free Republic

The Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riots and then was promoted has a lengthy internal affairs and disciplinary record that includes firearm-related incidents, a sweeping congressional investigation has found. The issues in Captain Michael Byrd's background included a failed shotgun qualification test, a failed FBI background check for a weapon's purchase, a 33-day suspension for a lost weapon and referral to Maryland state prosecutors for firing his gun at a stolen car fleeing his neighborhood, according to congressional and police documents obtained by Just the News. Byrd’s record was uncovered during a larger...

GOP Jewish Group Hits Sen. Robert Byrd for Filibuster RemarksBy Alan Fram Associated Press Writer Published: Mar 2, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - A Jewish Republican group accused Sen. Robert Byrd on Wednesday of making an "inappropriate and reprehensible" comparison between Adolf Hitler's Nazis and a Senate GOP plan to block Democrats from filibustering. Byrd spokesman Tom Gavin denied that Byrd, D-W.Va., had compared Republicans to Hitler. He said that instead, the reference to Nazis in a Senate speech on Tuesday was meant to underscore that the past should not be ignored. "Terrible chapters of history ought never be repeated," Gavin...

from the September 22, 2004 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0922/p03s01-uspo.html Congress off track, a Senate sage warnsInterview: On Iraq, one senator is as critical of his colleagues as he is of Bush.By Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON - When Robert Byrd holds forth, usually alone, on the floor of the US Senate, all that's missing is the toga. The eight-term Democrat from West Virginia is 21 months from passing the late Strom Thurmond as the longest serving US senator in history. But for all the bruising battles behind him, but he's not marking time....

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/blog-cb.php Byrd-Brain: John Kerry will soon be put on the spot over coal, which he has long opposed, hurting his election prospects in several coal-producing states. Senators John McCain (R-Ariz) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) are threatening to resurrect their anti-coal global warming bill in the next few weeks. Despite being soundly defeated last year, McCain, as he did with campaign finance reform, has vowed to take repeated votes on the bill until he wins. Most stunning for energy observers is that Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.), who voted against McCain-Lieberman last year, is now contemplating supporting it. The reason? Byrd...

GOP field shifts further to right in U.S. Senate race By John Kennedy Tallahassee Bureau Chief Posted August 20 2003 TALLAHASSEE · State Sen. Daniel Webster's entry into the U.S. Senate race may push the Republican field looking to replace Democrat Bob Graham even further to the right and into some risky political territory. Some analysts say the rhetoric likely to emerge in the GOP primary could leave the party's eventual nominee badly bloodied and unable to court middle-of-the-road Floridians needed to win next year's general election.

It's been almost three weeks since Sen. Robert Byrd, Rep. Henry Waxman and Rep. John Conyers protested the relatively modest expense (estimated at about $1 million) associated with the landing by President Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln to greet returning American troops. All three Democrats complained about a "waste" of taxpayers' money and how, if the event was necessary at all, it could have been accomplished at much lower cost. Normally such concern for wasting our money would be cause for praise, coming as it did from three of the biggest spendthrifts in Congress. But, as so often happens...

POTOMAC JUNCTION: Byrd brain wounds Democrats 2003-05-15 By Robert L. Haught WASHINGTON -- If Sen. Robert C. Byrd finds a pair of crosses burning on his lawn he might have a momentary nostalgic memory of his days in the Ku Klux Klan. But such an event, if it were to occur, more likely would be race- related only as it applies to the 2004 race for president. The Democrats who are running no doubt would like to send a graphic message accusing Byrd of a double cross. The West Virginia Democrat did his party and its candidates a great disservice...

Born in 1917 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, I was left a virtual orphan by the death of my mother when I was only one year old. Brought to West Virginia by my aunt and uncle to be reared as their own, I grew up in various communities in the bituminous coalfields, mastering life's early lessons and learning its duties as a miner's son, and graduating as valedictorian of my high school class in the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Unable at the time to afford college tuition, I sought employment wherever I found an opportunity --...