As all know by now, the “Dean” of the Senate and the longest serving Senator in our history, has passed away. Senator Robert Byrd D-WV, died early this morning. We extend deep thanks to his family for sharing Senator Byrd with our country for nearly 6 decades.
Thank you.
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4 responses to “Thank you.”
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Wonkette’s entertaining Children’s Treasury of Robert Byrd vid clips (mostly fiddling):
http://wonkette.com/416320/a-childrens-treasury-of-robert-byrd-videoJMP
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Longer but still interesting Obit here via the Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062801241.html?hpid=topnewsJMP
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Thanks for the notice Catherine, Much has been made of Byrd’s early association with the KKK, for which he often & patiently apologized as a ‘mistake’, as was his opposition to the landmark Civil Rights Bills in the 1960’s. He learned & grew in both understanding & stature from both errors. We can easily compare his long political tenure with yet another Southerner with a similar monumental career from a slightly earlier period, Senator & then Justice Hugo Black, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Black, who had a much longer & closer association with the KKK vigilante group, but was FDR’s 1st choice for a seat on the USSC. Then? He was also known as the ‘relative’ liberal of the lot. That’s how stacked the odds were against the New Deal back then. JMP
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I think his legacy is all the more because of the admitted mistakes he made in his past… it takes a real quality person to admit some crucial wrongs they’ve made and attempt to right them.
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