The WaPo has an extremely long obit:
Robert C. Byrd, 92, a conservative West Virginia Democrat who became the longest-serving member of Congress in history and used his masterful knowledge of the institution to shape the federal budget, protect the procedural rules of the Senate and, above all else, tend to the interests of his state, died at 3 a.m. Monday at Inova Fairfax Hospital, his office said.
I honestly have no idea how good the chances are of a Democrat replacing him. One of the weird thing about West Virginia is that Rockefeller and Byrd loomed so large that there sort of seems to be a vacuum of politicians of any stature on either side of the aisle at the state level. I’d imagine that if Gov. Manchin ran, he would have a very good chance of replacing him, because he is quite popular and connected and seems to fit in with the sensibilities of WV voters. The state has been trending Republican for a while, so I’m sure with the absence of a strong Democratic candidate, no matter who the Republicans run, it would be a toss-up.
I actually wouldn’t be surprised to see Mac Warner, the man who lost to McKinley in the Republican race to unseat Mollohan, try to run for the seat. Likewise, I can see Capito deciding it is time to move up. We’ll see. I just don’t know how this will play out.
This is also the first time in my life that Robert Byrd was not one of my Senators.
Kryptik
Man. Literally the end of an era.
And the more cynical side of me chimes in telling me that WV is lost to Democrats for the near and long-term future on all levels at this point. :/
Thomas
Well crap. Its always tragic when someone passes away, but Byrd had a long and productive life. I know he had been in declining health for sometime so you have to believe he’s in a better place now and is at rest.
But, as others will say, on a political level this virtually guarantees one more Gopper in the Senate next time. Just curious, are there any Repubs that have been there forever in otherwise blue seats?
Btw, I’m not saying I hope they die but I’m just curious.
Mudge
It’s Mac Warner. Apparently if Gov. Manchin appoints someone before Saturday, a special election will be held this November, otherwise the apointed one will serve until 2012. Not sure which is better for him, run in November while he is “hot” or wait until 2012. If he appoints a filler quickly, I predict Manchin/Capito in November. She’s the Republicans best candidate and they cannot afford to lose the seat.
Harry Kawasaki
I doubt we’d ever see a Capito/Manchin race. Not only are their families close friends, they are so close in ideology that there wouldn’t be much of a difference. They would get together in the fomerly smoke-filled room to hash out who was running for which office.
My money says Capito will gov and Manchin will take senate.
wvng
Manchin and Capito may be close politically, but Manchin would have voted for health care, for fiscal stimulus, for financial regulation reform – and Capito never will,
Chat Noir
This is from the NY Times:
I thought it was touching last Dec. 24 when the Senate voted on the health care reform bill. Byrd cast his “yea” vote for his friend, Ted Kennedy. Very classy.
Harry Kawasaki
@wvng: If Manchin had been elected to the senate in 2006, his votes on those issues could’ve gone either way. If you think he won’t be a Blue Dog, you are mistaken.
JScott
Manchin should step into Byrd’s seat. A near future election could be a toss up; things could settle better in Manchin’s favor if an election could be avoided until 2012.
I hadn’t thought about Capito as eventual Governor, a job her father had. Senate could be reaching too high for Capito. A term or two on Kanawha Boulevard wouldn’t do Capito any harm.
West Virginia Republicans don’t show me much, even though that is the most of my background. (I closed the checkbook on the Republicans in 1996, and I haven’t had much of a particular affiliation since. A Libertarian registration keeps the political junk mail and robocalls to a welcome minimum.)
KCinDC
@JScott, don’t you think appointing himself to the seat would be a political problem? People are already riled up about the arrogance of politicians.
New Yorker
Yet another arrogant elitist liberal from the Manhattan and Georgetown cocktail-party crowd.
cleek
i always thought it odd that Dems seemed to count on Byrd staying alive when making their majority/minority predictions for 2010/12. any fool could see he wasn’t long for this world…
JScott
@KCinDC I don’t have a problem with it. My memory isn’t what it used to be on any particulars, but it can hardly be unprecedented. People will find any provocation if they have a notion to be riled up. Manchin is a good choice for Byrd’s seat even if he happens to be the person who has to make the choice.
KCinDC
@JScott, it’s not unprecedented, but it usually doesn’t work out well.
catclub
@JScott:
Indeed, it would be nice if Manchin did this for Democrats.
He just has to pretend that Byrd is not dead for a week,
which I think is disgusting.
When Haley Barbour pretended that no special election was necessary for the Mississippi Senate seat, were you happy with that decision, too.
Both of them would be powerful governors ignoring the clear law.
Just re-read. My comment has to do with delaying the election until 2012 by pretending the seat is not vacant until July 3.
Not with Manchin appointing himself. I would have no problem with appointing self and then running in special this November.
Napoleon
@cleek:
Well, it isn’t exactly polite to say out loud “except for Byrd who should be dead by then”.
Svensker
Here’s a link to one of Byrd’s great speeches before the Iraq war. With Byrd’s death the IQ of the Senate just went down about 50%.
catclub
@Svensker:
Nope, Franken replaced Coleman. Big plus to senate IQ
Hunter Gathers
Sully turns up the class
Oily Taint
Why are you linking to WaPo? They shouldn’t get the traffic. There are plenty of reputable sites to link to; WaPo should never again be linked or cited, except for ridicule. They are utterly shameless.
KCinDC
I’d like to see a federal law prohibiting naming buildings, highways, bridges, or anything else built with government funds after sitting politicians. Better yet, living politicians. Or maybe politicians who haven’t been dead for at least 10 or 20 years.
Svensker
@Hunter Gathers:
That one caused me to fire off an angry letter to Sully. Jeebus. You’d think that with the shit stains all over his own shoes he’d have a bit of humility in assessing other peoples’ character flaws. He’s such a big Christian, perhaps he should reread Jesus on the stoning of the wanton woman, and put down those rocks he’s flinging.
Hunter Gathers
@Svensker:
He’ll probably bust out an argument using The Bell Curve as a defense. Fucking wanker.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Svensker: The web is going to be an uglier than usual place today, Dick Cheney is out of the hospital, so I will reverse myself for the cause of respecting the undead and wish him a long and miserable life.
Bite knuckles.
KCinDC
@Hunter Gathers, what a surprise that Andrew Sullivan doesn’t give Byrd any credit for opposing the invasion of Iraq.
Staging a Comeback
@Napoleon:
Or Daniel Inhouye.
Waynski
@Hunter Gathers: Sully’s over the top and certainly premature, but the guy did get an ear mark for a coast guard station in a land locked state. That said, I liked the old geezer.
Staging a Comeback
@Hunter Gathers:
Sully has a right to his opinion-I won’t be mourning Byrd that much myself-but not to his hypocrisy. He’ll be crying oceans into his beers when the hatemongering bigot Margaret Thatcher dies.
KCinDC
@General Egali Tarian Stuck, there’s a Facebook group called “Take care of yourself, Dick! We need you healthy enough to stand trial.”
geg6
@Waynski:
The state has many rivers and lakes that need the services of the Coast Guard. As is true in PA, there many, many boats and where there are boats, there is a need for the Coast Guard.
catclub
@KCinDC:
I am sure you can find plenty of politicians to vote for that.
All the ones whose egos are not the size of small planets.
Also, Reagan died in 2004. 10-20 year wait? ha, ha
SiubhanDuinne
RIP, Senator Byrd.
After a little time has passed, I hope some really good historian will consider writing a kind of joint biography of Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd. Losing both of them within slightly less than a year, and listening to the Byrd obits this morning, I started thinking about their very different backgrounds: one a child of wealth and privilege, with a dominating and influential family, who attended the most elite schools; the other a hardscrabble boy from coal-mining country whose mother died when he was a baby and who was self-educated.
The son of the establishment became a champion of the marginalized; the son of poverty and make-do became the champion of “the world’s most exclusive club.” Both made very serious youthful mistakes (Chappaquiddick, the KKK) which haunted them and probably defined them for the rest of their lives but which also offered the extraordinary gift of redemption — a gift which both men accepted and, IMHO, earned many times over.
I’m not really a believer, but I like to think that Ted Kennedy is waiting to greet his dear friend and colleague.
Aldous Huxley
He was an extremely old man.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m not a believer at all in any way. But it’s on a day like this that I almost wish I was just so I could picture that in my mind. If I’m wrong (which I don’t think I am about this), Teddy is definitely waiting at the gate for Bob.
El Tiburon
Cole – sorry for the thread hijack attempt, but a week or so ago you had a post on BP security guard attempting to block a reporter from beach access. This touched off a rather contentious debate here.
I thought it might be time to revisit the topic.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/radio/2010/06/28/mcclelland/index.html
Karen
The Repubs always used Byrd as an example that the Dems have a racist, former KKK member in the party.
Well, Byrd saw the error of his ways a long time ago and renounced his KKK past. Can you name any Repubs who did the same?
Didn’t think so.
RIP
Brien Jackson
@Waynski:
I’m basically of the opinion that you don’t get forgiveness for being a member of the Klan at a point where you couldn’t even pretend they were anything but a racist terrorist group, so I’m not shedding any tears over Byrd, but you can’t deny the guys conversion. At the least, deciding whether Byrd is ultimately deserving of absolution isn’t my call, and I appreciate Byrd’s fierce condemnation of the Bush administration, so I’m not cheering it either.
That said, hating someone that much because, as a Senator in the US system of representation, they directed a large share of federal money to their constituents is just fucking stupid and petty. That’s what the system is designed for, taking advantage of it doesn’t make you a bad person.
Brien Jackson
@Karen:
Right, whatever I may think of what Byrd did, hearing people who still have nothing but good things to say about Jesse Helms attack Byrd makes me want to rip their eyeballs out.
flukebucket
In the book “The Audacity of Hope” Obama tells a story of a meeting he had with Byrd. It was a wonderful piece of writing and one of my favorite parts of that book.
lol
Byrd got over being a racist KKK members. Meanwhile, most Republicans in the Senate are still actively hoping for a return to the days of Jim Crow when darkies knew their place and the white man reigned supreme over his inferiors.
Death Panel Truck
This is also the first time in the lives of at least half the country that Robert Byrd wasn’t a Senator, period.
Waynski
@geg6: Looked it up. You’re right the Coast Guard is responsible for inland waterways. It’s counter-intuitive, but nevertheless correct. My apologies to the late Senator and as I said, I liked the guy. Thanks for setting me straight.
The Moar You Know
Says the man who endorses the Bell Curve. Fuck you, Sullivan.
Chris G.
@Death Panel Truck: Between losing Byrd and Kennedy, Biden becoming VP, and other deaths, defeats, and retirements of longtime members, the Senate has lost an astonishing amount of institutional memory in the last half-decade or so.
Persia
@The Moar You Know: Sullivan is one of those idiots who literally believe you can’t be racist unless you’re wearing a white hood.
Kryptik
It’s funny considering Byrd has actual provable remorse and rejection of his racist past, whereas way too many Repub stalwarts either want to pretend that racism is dead, or that the racists were fundamentally right.
Byrd had warts, but god if he was far preferable to some of the fractious hacks we have now.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Hopefully Teddy can get him on the list for Catholic Heaven (as seen on “The Simpsons”).
catclub
@Chris G.:
Of course, if they forgot to worship the filibuster and comity,
due to lack of memory, I would not object.
geg6
@Waynski:
You’re welcome. As a boater of many years, I am very thankful to the Coast Guard for the safe boating classes and the protection they provide for those of us who use our country’s lovely rivers and lakes.
As an aside, one of my trips on a boat was a two-week trip with my ex and another couple from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati (round trip: over 1000 miles). We had numerous encounters with the Coast Guard along the way. And of the 11 locks and dams through which we passed on the way to Cincinnati (and of course, on the way back), the best, most modern, and easiest to traverse was the Robert Byrd Lock and Dam in Gallipolis Ferry, WV, just outside of Huntington. The lives of the many men and women who work our river transport system would be vastly improved and made infinitely safer if all of our senators could find a way to fund modern locks and dams the way Senator Byrd did for this marvel of a modern lock and dam.
fucen tarmal
he actually stood up on the real senate floor and voiced real opposition to the iraq war, before it was popular. that erases a lot of the past many choose to bring up, ironically often, the ones with 21st century analogs to those same views.
eemom
and he loved doggies.
merrinc
@Hunter Gathers:
That was utterly reprehensible. Here’s a hearty fuck you to Andrew Sullivan — I have to go find something to put my fist through.
Cacti
RIP Senator Byrd
I must say I’m not a huge fan of the idea of Senators serving until they’re into their 80’s and 90’s for this very reason.
geg6
One of my favorite quotes from Byrd, which I was looking up and found I didn’t have to because the Rude Pundit remembered it too, came during Clinton’s impeachment trial:
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/
ChrisB
@KCinDC: Actually, Sullivan did give Byrd credit today for “Byrd’s courageous and prophetic speech before the catastrophe of the Iraq war – which [Sullivan] relentlessly championed.”
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/06/for-the-record.html
Sly
Which actually happened: Robert Byrd leaving the Klan and repudiating his past, or Andrew Sullivan recognizing The Bell Curve for the pseudo-academic and racist drivel that it is?
Stones and houses and whatnot.
Svensker
@Sly:
Yes. Thank you. FUAS.
specialed5000
Ever since I heard a friend use this a while ago, I can’t see or hear any reference to Shelley Moore-Capito without thinking Shelley More-Cameltoe. She looks just like Arch in a bad blond wig.
NotReallyHere
This is the relevant section of the West Virginia statutes:
If the unexpired term of any office be for a longer period than above specified [two and a half years], the appointment shall be until a successor to the office has timely filed a certificate of candidacy, has been nominated at the primary election next following such timely filing and has thereafter been elected and qualified to fill the unexpired term.
West Virginia has already closed its filing period for 2010. West Virginia has already held its primary election for 2010. West Virginia does not hold a primary election in 2011, nor does it include any statutory language for holding a special election on any date other than the scheduled general elections, at least for US Senate seats. July 3rd would have been the 2.5 year mark, so West Virginia statutes call for a special election to be held after the 2012 primaries, hich are the next primary election.
This seat will not be up this November. There will be a special election concurrent with the general election in 2012, which will determine who holds the seat from November 2012 to January 2013, after which the general election winner will hold it until January 2019.
KrisK
Congrats on having least unhinged comment thread on Sen. Byrd today on the whole net. Moutaineers!
The Coast Guard facility in Martinsburg, WV is an Operations Support center — they design, test, implement and train CG personnel on information systems, communications systems, etc. More at http://www.uscg.mil/hq/osc/ This facility does not need to be near an ocean, so why not have it – a needed federal function with national security impact – in a place that needs jobs, especially high-tech ones. Similar facilities in WV are the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Service in Clarksburg and the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope.
As for those who complain about him “ripping off the taxpayer” — the US system allows enormous resource extraction with the profits going to private hands — as it should be. So private enterprise makes money off our land — but the profit goes elsewhere. But in states like WV, LA, AK, the environmental and social costs stay right at home. West Virginians pay taxes at the same rate as you — but there are not a lot rich people here, so yes, we get a net gain in federal transfers.
In exchange you get the coal that lights your houses, runs your hospitals, keeps your schools warm etc. I’d ask you to consider that it may be fair exchange, because we’re all on this boat together eh?
I appreciate Byrd disavowing his racist past. Whether he is forgiven isn’t really up to us, now —
Steeplejack
@Hunter Gathers:
It’s telling that Sullivan considers populist as bad an epithet as racist and larcenous.
Joseph Nobles
58 years of service in the United States Congress.
234 years of an actual United States.
Robert Byrd was there for just under one quarter of our nation’s history.
handy
Shorter Sully: Cat hiss.
specialed5000
@KrisK:
You brought up a point I’ve made often when RCB came up in conversations with out of state friends. The extreme wealth in coal, oil, natural gas, timber, etc that has been sucked out of WV since about 1880, hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars worth in current dollars, literally built much of the country’s physical infrastructure, and much of its wealth, leaving behind a people who are understandably cynical, bitter, and skeptical of outsiders after 140 years of being cheated, robbed, and literally killed by corporate greed. The federal dollars RCB brought home here is scant payback for a century of exploitation.
Also, anyone who doesn’t believe that his conversion from his racist past was genuine, or thinks that it was purely political, didn’t see his appearance at an Obama rally here in downtown Charleston 2 years ago, along with Biden, and I forget who else spoke. Frail, in a wheelchair, and with his voice failing, still his passionate endorsement of Obama was incredibly moving. He spoke powerfully about how important it was that Obama be elected, and how he was exactly what the country needed. This was after the overwhelmingly and embarassingly racist primary, when it was clear that he was not speaking for anywhere close to a majority of his constituents. He was clearly speaking his own feelings and his own words.