Senator Byrd has died...

The state should be renamed "West Byrdginia!"

I don't wish ill on anyone and I am sorry that he has passed, however, I can say with all honesty, I am glad to see him gone from the Senate.

He called himself a defender of the US Constitution, and would wave his dog eared of the US Constitution around to prove it. His votes and the issues he supported said otherwise. His little Constitution book was nothing but a stage prop to intice the gallible.

I had very little respect for the man. When he dedicated his vote for the healthcare bill to Teddy Kennedy, instead of voting for the welfare and good of West Virginia and witht he wishes of West Virginians, what little respect I had left for the man was gone.

Cato

I will not speak ill of the dead. I think he believed he was doing the right thing...

I pray that God blesses Byrd's family with peace.

I pray that God blesses the United States, even though we do not deserve it.

Byrd seemed to often be about 20 years behind himself.

In the 1940s he was an organizer for the Ku Klux Klan. By the 1960s he was recanting of that as but a "youthful indiscretion".

In the 1960s he opposed civil rights legislation. By the 1980s he was saying that his vote against the Civil Rights Act was "the worst" vote he had ever made.

In the 1980s and 1990s Byrd was a staunch coal industry apologist and defender. By 2010 he was insisting that the coal industry had a duty to be a responsible steward of the environment and to protect the human communities in the coal extraction areas.

A political cynic might suggest that Senator Byrd was simply reading the political tea leaves of the current decades. But who would be so cynical?

ziggy wrote:

A political cynic might suggest that Senator Byrd was simply reading the political tea leaves of the current decades. But who would be so cynical?

Me

He lived a full life and accomplished a lot. I frequently disagreed with him, but always believed Senator Byrd sincere in his desire to do good for WV.

The King of Pork is dead, ..... long live the new King whoever it might be.

Did Byrd change WVa?

Well, ya couldn't prove it by me.

Politicians taking credit for "funded projects" deemed necessary by different Federal Government Agencies is an old PR trick employed by incumbent Politicians.

West Virginia was about the last State in the Nation to get a few decent highways and Interstates, thanks to Eisenhower and the Federal DOT.

Least you forget, the Rt. 33 upgrade to 4-lanes, between Weston and the Virginia line has been "under construction" since about 1964 when they built the first section between Weston and Buckhannon. That makes it 46 years in construction and it is still not completed.

Prisons were built in WV because developers wanted the 2,300-acre Lorton Penitentiary complex that was situate in the DC/Fairfax County, Virginia area.

New Federal Courthouses and Office Buildings with Bob Byrd's name on them really have no long term benefits for the populace.

Relocating the FBI Fingerprinting complex to the Clarksburg area was a matter of necessity for the FBI due to its necessary expansion and lack of affordable real estate in the DC metroplex

I knew one Politician who had a "hot-line" to the State DOH so she could find out 2 or 3 months ahead of time which roads and/or bridges in the area were scheduled to be replaced, renovated, re-surfaced or whatever ..... and she would then call or contact everyone that lived along side and/or traveled that road and tell them something to the effect of: .... "Now I just wanted to tell you that I worked really hard at getting the State to fix your road up and they will be starting to work on it in a couple weeks".

She never lost an Election.

.

Which reminds me of another Political Story with a good ending.

Back about 88’ when I was on the Town Council there was a one-lane bridge right beside the Kwik Pick which crossed the Little Kanawha and was the only access to and from the Elementary School. Well now, the State declared it dangerous and closed it to School Busses, etc.

So, all the School Busses would drive up to the end of the bridge, unload the kids, who would walk across, then the bus would cross, load the kids back up and transport them the remaining 400+- yard to the school. Then repeat the procedure when school was out. Or maybe they walked all the way to the school and all the way back, I forget.

Now for more than 2 years bout everything was done to get the State to replace that bridge but to no avail. Then one day AJ Manchin made one of his “regular stops” at the Kwik Pick where he would hang out at the front entrance for 45 minutes or so, talking to everyone coming or going and giving the kids a quarter or so to buy themselves a popcicle or whatever. And that day someone says to him, “AJ, we need that bridge replaced, would you get that done for us”? And AJ says, “Why sure enough, I’ll do that for you”.

Well now, that conversation was soon forgotten and about 5 weeks later I went to the Kwik Pick for cigs and beer, probably, and there sat 2 or 3 State Road trucks and some men working like beavers. Well now, being a Town Official I’se just moseyed my arse right over there and ask the man who looked to be in charge, “Just what are you all doing here”, to which he replied, “We are getting ready to replace this bridge, what does it look like were doing”.

T’was then I told him that “I didn’t know the State had decided to replace our bridge, when did that happen”, to which he replied, “I didn’t know it either, when it happened or who instigated it, but whoever it was they had a lot of pull. All I know is that I got a call yesterday to get my arse up here and get started on it”.

T’was right then I knew who the guilty party was that was responsible for getting us a new bridge. And AJ didn't even represent Braxton County.

SamCogar wrote:
Did Byrd change WVa?

Yea, he made it even more dependant on government. In the Cumberland Paper yesterday, the City Council folks in Keyser, were lamenting the lose of both Byrd and Mollohan. They were afraid they were going to loose their funding for various projects. So far as I'm concerned that is a sad commentary on just how far we've come int he dependance cycle.

Maybe Mollohan will be back. Manchin will be looking for a known political quantity who cannot win in 2012...

I don't know, you think after the voters rejected him Joe will appoint him? I keep thinking he's going to appoint the Mrs. Sort of like a seat warmer.

I think the fact the voters rejected him makes him a likely seat warmer. He'd be toxic in 2012. But, you're right: Joe is looking to do the "right thing" and remain governor, biding his time until 2012.

Can Shelley beat him?

No.

story inspired by Senator Byrd's untimely death:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-passionate-defender-of-what-he-imagines-c,2849/

I loved this quote:

"Dad's great, but listening to all that talk radio has put some weird ideas into his head," said daughter Samantha, a freshman at Reed College in Portland, OR. "He believes the Constitution allows the government to torture people and ban gay marriage, yet he doesn't even know that it guarantees universal health care.

I didn't think so. Perhaps we ought to just begin calling him Senator.

Ya gotta love the Onion.