Robert Bryd Dead

[lupinus]

Watching FoxNews and they just splashed a breaking news alert stating Robert Byrd has died after being hospitalized.

No links yet but FoxNews, MSNBC, and CNN are all reporting it with bulletins on their websites and TV.

ETA- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37959947/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

[KD5NRH]

Robert Bryd Dead

Dead is one thing, but misspelled is just adding insult to injury.   

[Monkeyleg]

Great. Now there's going to be 200 more structures in West Virginia named after him.

[Sergeant Bob]

I shall never fight in the armed forces 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.    ”
     
— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944

When running for the United States House of Representatives in 1952, he announced "After about a year, I became disinterested, quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization. During the nine years that have followed, I have never been interested in the Klan." He said he had joined the Klan because he felt it offered excitement and was anti-communist.[8] However, in 1946 or 1947 he wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard stating, "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 nation.

I hope he can rest in peace.

[HankB]

Let's all watch to see how many black politicians (including BHO) say nice things about this former Klansman . . . 

[gunsmith]

sigh, I hope some folks saw that. will repost L8er

[makattak]

Great. Now there's going to be 200 more structures in West Virginia named after him.

There are 200 places in West Virginia not already named after him? 

[Scout26]

Once again I shall rely on that truly great American observer, Mark Twain to express my feelings:

I've never killed a man, but I've read many an obituary with a great deal of satisfaction.

[Scout26]

Already posted in Politcs....

[Ben]

Topics Merged.

[Jamisjockey]

Its sad that we have to say this everytime someone we don't like passes.
Grave dancing is below the APS standard and will not be tolerated.
There is an obvious and distinct difference between discussing why someone who's considered great really wasn't that great, and urinating on thier headstone. 

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

Great. Now there's going to be 200 more structures in West Virginia named after him.

They'll probably rename the state. 

[Sergeant Bob]

Its sad that we have to say this everytime someone we don't like passes.
Grave dancing is below the APS standard and will not be tolerated.
There is an obvious and distinct difference between discussing why someone who's considered great really wasn't that great, and urinating on thier headstone. 

Yeah, well, he urinated on the Constitution for his entire life, so if someone urinates on his grave it shouldn't be a shock to anyone.

[roo_ster]

Byrd did some good:


http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/28/lets-not-forget-sen-byrds-nega

As the encomia mount like rotting, fly-buzzed piles of the pork-barrel spending he so systematically shoveled back to his West Virginia home, let's not forget the late Sen. Robert Byrd's most undeniable legacy: Undermining belief in politicians as little more than self-serving glad-handers on the hunt for more and more taxpayer money for their constituents.
...
But it's Byrd's status as the Babe Ruth of pork-barrel spending and taxpayer-funded narcissism that is his real legacy and the one we should never forget or forgive. Here lies a man who pushed his home state to build a statue of him in defiance of a rule that such honorees be dead for 50 years.
...
Characters like Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Penn.), another recently deceased pork-barrel prodigy, and Byrd might have been larger than life but they worked to corrode any integrity voters and critics of government might find in legislators. We're grown-ups here in America and we're supposed to be able to take care of ourselves with a minimum of paternalistic help. For the times and places and people who really do need outside help, it fouls the nest when it is administered by folks such as Byrd because it becomes impossible to know if this is a legitimate exercise of state power and assistance or just one more bank job pulled under the cover of often-impenetrable Latinate rhetoric.

In an age of untrammeled government spending and power grabs (an era that started long before the current administration) and with folks like Byrd, Ted Kennedy, and Ted Stevens either dead or otherwise out of office, it's worth remembering we need less characters in Congress and more character in legislators who go about faithfully executing the duties of a limited-government system.

[mtnbkr]

Yeah, well, he urinated on the Constitution for his entire life, so if someone urinates on his grave it shouldn't be a shock to anyone.

Not shocking, but still just as classless.  Let's not go there.

Chris

[Jamisjockey]

Yeah, well, he urinated on the Constitution for his entire life, so if someone urinates on his grave it shouldn't be a shock to anyone.

And if that's the sort of discourse you'd like to participate in, I'm sure there are plenty of boards where its acceptable.








As to the passing of Byrd,
I wonder how this will affect his seat? Does anyone know how WV picks a successor?

[makattak]

And if that's the sort of discourse you'd like to participate in, I'm sure there are plenty of boards where its acceptable.








As to the passing of Byrd,
I wonder how this will affect his seat? Does anyone know how WV picks a successor?

Interim appointment until an election can be held in the fall.

[Perd Hapley]

Grave dancing is below the APS standard and will not be tolerated.
There is an obvious and distinct difference between discussing why someone who's considered great really wasn't that great, and urinating on thier headstone. 

I don't know.  If someone is talented enough to urinate on a headstone while dancing on the grave, is it right for such talent to go to waste? 

[roo_ster]

As to the passing of Byrd,
I wonder how this will affect his seat? Does anyone know how WV picks a successor?

Instead of determining who will be able to fill his shoes, the find the closest fit to Bobby's favorite casual wear?

[Lennyjoe]

Let him who is without sin cast the first stone

The man is gone.  Let his past dealings rest with him. 

Prayers to his family for their loss.

[seeker_two]

Prayers and condolences for his family.....


....and the lowest I'll go is to say that I'm glad he's no longer serving in the Senate....

[Jamisjockey]

Some of you guys should be ashamed of yourselves.