The longest-serving Senator, Robert Byrd, passed away this morning. There have already been plenty of moving tributes to him in the mainstream media.
Over at Power Line, Scott Mirengoff has links to several of them. He also adds this, because the MSM seems to have selective amnesia about Byrd's career:
Byrd was old enough, for example, to have vowed memorably regarding the integration of the Armed Forces by President Truman that he would never 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."
Even after his resignation from the Klan, Byrd continued to hold it in high esteem, writing to the Klan's Imperial Wizard in 1946: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia."
And Byrd was old enough to have participated in filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as to have voted against it after cloture along with 18 other Democrats -- in the name of the Constitution, of course.
Democrats love to accuse Republicans of racism, but the KKK's membership was Democrats like Robert Byrd. Don't expect them to tell you that, though.
Byrd's passing leaves its mark on the succession to the presidency, should anything untoward happen to President Obama and Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton and Speaker of the House Pelosi all at once. After Pelosi, now, the presidency would go to Daniel Inouye (D-HI). I understand he's much more bland than Sen. Byrd.
I'm going to miss hearing Byrd's rants from the floor of the Senate, from stories about his childhood to mentions of his little dog, to declarations that the Republicans' position on something is, "Wrong. Wrong! WRONG!!!" The Senate will be less colorful without Robert Byrd.
As for the hereafter, I leave it up to God to decide where Byrd will go. God knows much better than I do about such things...
3 comments:
Nice post.
Senator Byrd has many, many places and projects named after him in West Virginia... I saw a couple on my way through last month.
Brought a lot of money home.
Still and all, this man was someone's father, brother, uncle. I try to remember that, even if our political views differed. I pray this man at one time did come to the Lord.
Once one dies, there are no second chances. And eternity is a long, long, forever long time.
Thiss is a great post
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