Posted by
Bill Crawford on Thursday, July 01, 2010 9:37:07 PM
The last of the old school Southern Democrats has passed. I always used him as the last example of what happens to Democrats in government service. Republicans have much more of a propensity for living term limits, leaving office before they reach the point where assisted living is no longer an option. Democrats keep going until you have to get them to fog a mirror before you know they will help you with a needed floor vote.
I've been a candidate for public office, so I do not begrudge him his half century of public service, and all the sacrifices that had to go with it. But what he was has to be noted.
He was a moral relativist, who lived in a political party of moral relativists. That is why Trent Lott was dumped from a Senate leadership position by his own party after one stupid remark, and Byrd was allowed to go on forever with a life apologia after following his Ku Klux Klan history with a vociferous opposition to the Civil Rights law votes in 1964-65.
He was also a real Constitutional scholar- not a victim of the "charter of negative liberties" taught to Obama years later in the hallowed halls of the Ivy League. During the Clinton impeachment trial, he knew the real basis of Clinton's troubles: you can't go before a judge, swear an oath and then try and reset the rules of testimony engagement. That doesn't fly as a lawyer, much less as a sitting President. However, after taking the President to task for this, he happily went on to the politically expedient vote of innocence. That speaks of contradicting standards all by itself.
Byrd was also the king of earmarks and pork. There is reported to be over three billion dollars worth of things in West Virginia with his name over the doorway. He was the champion of a sport that is now killing us all, led now by a President who swears it off while he signs dumpster fulls of it into law- another trail marker of a moral relativist.
Byrd was such a part of the Senate furniture that I often witnessed some of my greatest C-Span amusements through him. He would ramble (sometimes in the most literal sense of the word) past his time limit, and the gavel would rarely come down on him. The floor would patiently wait for him to finish talking about his hound dogs, and then go back to the budget provision on the dais.
Yes, he died a dinosaur. But he was a big one in that world. May he rest in peace.
Follow up: At Byrd's funeral, Bill Clinton's eulogy did not ignore the KKK issue out of respect or politeness. A moral relativist sees no need to avoid the issue. A true Sixties child would see no problem in challenging the dignity of a funeral to complete a debate point unnecessarily. I can always count on a Clinton to make my case for me.