Robert Byrd: A Man of Change
The United States Senate, the people of West Virginia, and the entire country lost a great leader this week, with the death of Senator Robert Byrd.
He was a legendary figure. A true son of West Virginia. Grew up in poverty. An orphan who never went to college, but earned a law degree through night courses. Played the fiddle while campaigning for political office, and went on to become the longest-serving member of Congress in history.
And, he literally grew while in office. From a segregationist and former KKK member, to a proud liberal and supporter of civil rights. From a booster of the War in Vietnam to one of the most outspoken critics of the War in Iraq.
As if on cue, right-wing talkers accused Democrats of hypocrisy for praising Robert Byrd, after having dumped on Trent Lott for his racist statements.
Nonsense. There’s a big difference between a young man who joined the Klan in 1942 – and later profusely apologized for it. And a Senate leader who says, in 2002, we’d all be better off if segregationist Strom Thurmond had been elected president.
Robert Byrd. With his friend Teddy Kennedy, another giant gone from the U.S. Senate.
That’s my parting shot for today.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 8:42 am and is filed under BILL BLOG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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I find your description of Mr. Robert Byrd a little misleading. First of all I am what you liberals consider a downtrodden minority, nothing could be further from the truth. You claim that Mr. Byrd commited his transgressions while still a young man, I beg to differ. He recurited 150 new KKK members during the 1940s, he was born in 1917, you do the math. He filibustered the Civil Rights Amendment of 1964, again, you do the math. Was he young and foolish or was he, or did he continue to be, (after all he needed the votes), just an outright racist?