Robert Carlyle Byrd, the longest-serving member of Congress in United States history, who spent much of his career as a conservative Democrat and ended it by fiercely opposing the war in Iraq and questioning the state's powerful coal industry, died Monday. He was 92.Showing the press's penchant for confusing terms, the linked news article refers to Mr. Byrd as a "conservative Democrat". Conservative in what way? What in the name of Zeus is "conservative" about a Senate appropriations chairman who has more than 30 public works projects named after him? Think I'm kidding? This page contains a list of some of the "public" projects/buildings/roads created in the name of Robert C. Byrd. Citizens Against Government Waste has dubbed him the "King of Pork". He also voted for ObamaCare. That's hardly "conservative", wouldn't you agree?
Mr. Byrd lived a Teflon life, thanks mostly to a lapdog media that takes great care not to be too hard on folk with a "D" after their name. Byrd was a bigot; his membership in the Klan and his reference to some despicable people as "white niggers" are case in point. Yet Trent Lott was forced to resign the Senate for one flippant gaffe, while Byrd was sheltered.
Politicians like Robert Byrd are precisely what's wrong in Washington. He was more concerned with "bringing home the bacon" to West Virginia than he was with the well being of the nation or with his Constitutional duty to protect the freedoms of US citizens.
AMF, normally "adios, my friend" has a different MF in this case. We'll call it the Robert C. Byrd Memorial Sendoff.
