Senator Robert Byrd' is dead after 56+ in Congress.
Robert Byrd, the senior senator from West Virginia, whom admirers praised for his historical knowledge, mastery of procedural rules, and outspokenness. The Senate's senior Democrat referred to as the "conscience of the Senate."
But, before we all wax poetic about the long distinguished career of this man let's take a closer look....
Senator Byrd, showed his true colors when, at the age of 83, he was asked, by then Fox News Sunday morning talk show host Tony Snow, about the state of race relations in America, he warned, "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much." .
Robert Byrd was a member of the nation's most notorious hate group, the KKK. And he was not just a passive member. According to news accounts and biographical information, Sen. Byrd was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head. He said he joined because it "offered excitement" and because the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values."
He allegedly ended his ties with the group in 1943. He may have stopped paying dues, but he continued to pay homage to the KKK. Republicans in West Virginia discovered a letter Sen. Byrd had written to the Imperial Wizard of the KKK three years after he says he abandoned the group. He wrote: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."
Robert Byrd later filibustered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act -- supported by a majority of, Republicans -- for more than 14 hours. He also opposed the nominations of the Supreme Court's two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas. He even accused Justice Thomas of "injecting racism" into the Senate hearings.
Meanwhile, author Graham Smith discovered another letter Sen. Byrd wrote after he quit the KKK, this time attacking desegregation of the armed forces.
Byrd vowed never to fight "with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."
The ‘CONSCIENCE OF THE SENATE” who opposed civil rights and black justices" was given a pass on this because he was a Democrat. The Maxine Waters, Jesse Jacksons, and Al Sharptons of our world who see racism in every corner of American life would have been howling continually over Sen. Byrd's fulminations if he had been a Republican.
Senator Robert Byrd was THE KING when it came to bringing home the pork. This was his top priority and it had not changed in a half-century. He shoveled it non-stop into his home state of West Virginia.
Conveniently he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee a post that gave him the most satisfaction with its power of the purse — a post he gave up only last year as his health declined.
Byrd once promised to be West Virginia's billion-dollar industry," and he kept his word.
West Virginia is liberally sprinkled with…. the Robert C. Byrd Bridge, the Robert C. Byrd High School and the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies, where academics can research how Congress came to give West Virginia six technology centers, two community centers, about two dozen additional projects named for Robert C. Byrd. Also there are the Robert C. Byrd Highway, the Robert C. Byrd Appalachian Highway System, the Robert C. Byrd Expressway, Robert C. Byrd Freeway, and the Robert C. Byrd Drive.
In his memoirs Byrd lists hundreds of his earmarks in detail, along with stories of moving Navy and Coast Guard offices to his landlocked state. Oh…. he moved the Bureau of the Public Debt to West Virginia, too.
Byrd was named "West Virginian of the 20th Century,"
But even after Byrd's half-century of pork shoveling — new prisons, new labs, new subsidies for fish farms, dairies and steelmakers — West Virginia is still an impoverished state, ranked 49th in per-capita gross state product
The culture of porkbarrel spending that he exemplified in the history of West Virginia should persuade all of us that there are better ways to achieve prosperity than becoming a "ward of the federal government" dependent on career politicians like Senator Byrd.
In speaking about the dangers of power, James Madison warned, "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
Americans have been subjected to a gradual takeover by our legislators. Allowing our so-called "representatives" to stay and stay and stay and stay and stay only increases their sense of entitlement and decreases our liberty.
Bread and circuses ….
Good bye Senator Byrd….
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