92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) died earlier this morning. First elected in 1958, Sen. Byrd was the longest serving U.S. Senator and Member of Congress in history. He is also the author of five books, including a series on the history of the Senate.
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) will appoint a replacement for Sen. Byrd.
In depressed W.Va. coal town, recipients of pork largesse mourn Byrd
WILLIAMSON, W.VA. — There is no bronze statue of the great senator here. No historical plaque bearing his name. Here, in the secluded heart of West Virginia’s coal country, the only monument to Robert C. Byrd lies on a creaky bookshelf, deep inside the Mingo County Clerk’s Office.
Stacked in no particular order are white plastic election books whose green-edged pages of vote tallies tell the story of one man’s lifelong dominance of West Virginia politics. In this conservative county of 28,000 people, where voters backed Republican John McCain over President Obama, Byrd, a Democrat, held the state in an impressive grip.
“There will never be nobody as good as Senator Byrd,” Mingo County commissioner David Baisden said as he drove his Jeep up a mountain road to the coal mine where he works as a part-time dispatcher. “He was an icon. They’d almost have to shut the mines down if he was coming because people would come to see Senator Byrd.”
Across West Virginia, Byrd solidified his political support not only by natural charisma — he was known to campaign with a fiddle — but also by bringing a bonanza of federal spending projects to his impoverished state. Long known as a champion of pork, Byrd in 51 years in the Senate (and decades on the Appropriations Committee, which he once chaired) funneled billions of dollars to West Virginia.
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Tags: Congress, Democrat, Media, News Item, Robert Byrd
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