The Emperor Has No Clothes

[Bronco70]

He literally wrote the book on the history of the Senate...

Because he's been there the whole time.

 

[KM32MVP]

Even Foxnews can acknowledge it as a loss...that should tell you something.

A man of the Senate. I am sure that Robert Byrd, who died last night, would want people to remember that about him. And amidst all the remembrances of his life--from his many fans and his many critics--it’s important to remember what the word “Senator” meant to Byrd.

Byrd was a throwback: A throwback to the Constitution. To him, it mattered a lot that the powers of Congress are listed first in the Constitution, in Article One, while the powers of the president are listed second, in Article Two. For Byrd, that ordering of power was sacred and permanent--as sacred and permanent as the Constitution itself. And with that reverence came an understanding that concentrated power, clustered in the presidency, is always a danger.

Many Republicans find it easy to oppose imperial presidencies--when a Democrat is in the White House. And many Democrats find it easy to oppose secretive presidents--when a Republican is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Byrd was different. He was a senator, resolutely protective of his institution and against all opponents, especially presidents, in either party. And so he would lecture, on C-SPAN and elsewhere, on the history of senates, going back to the Roman Republic. No doubt many of his listeners were rolling their eyes as he talked about, say, the ancient Roman Helvidius Priscus, who fought imperial power in the first century, but Byrd knew what we all should know--if you don’t understand history, you won’t just repeat it, you will repeat the worst parts of it.

In his own way, Glenn Beck is doing the exact same thing today; he is reminding Americans of their own history. There’s power in that, and greatness. Both Byrd and Beck have been willing to do some of the hard work of freedom, which includes knowing where your freedom comes from and how it can exist only within the framework of a Constitutional Republic.

In the course of his six decades in Congress, Robert Byrd rose to the pinnacle of Senatorial power--as Senate majority leader in the 70s and 80s. But his real home was in the Appropriations Committee, from which he procured pork-barrel spending for his beloved West Virginia. And if you didn’t like it--he didn’t care. As a Senator he had the power of the purse. It was in the Constitution.

And so in the course of his 92 years on this earth, Robert Byrd did something to offend just about everyone. He even joined, briefly, the Ku Klux Klan. But the voters of West Virginia, including black West Virginians, forgave him.

And as for the rest of us, if we treasure the separation of powers, if we fear over-centralization in the executive, if we think that procedure is what protects freedom--then we should celebrate his life and honor his memory.

James P. Pinkerton is a writer and Fox News contributor. He is the editor/founder of the Serious Medicine Strategy blog.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/06/28/james-p-pinkerton-senator-robert-byrd-constitution-senate-president-republican/

 

[sirkickyass]

Agreed. If the president has term limits so should everyone else. 51 years? WAAAAAY too long. 3 term max. Then make them run for another job like House of Reps or something.

Funny story about Presidential term limits: Only one president has ever had more than two terms and virtually everyone agrees that it would have been a bad idea for him not to run the third time.

 

[KM32MVP]

The republican congress at the time spearhead the movement out of fear I think.

 

[The Pearl]

Another victory for the Tea Party.

And white *******, err white negroes.

 

[7StraightIsGreat]

Since when did being a racist count as a "youthful indescretion"? Throwing a keggar when your parents are out of town is a "youthful indescretion". Hating black people is something that came from his heart. Hard to believe his "apologies" weren't spurnned on by mounting civil rights pressure and his desire to stay in office.

 

[DeliveryBoy]

Barack Obama never had a problem with Byrd's past. In fact, there's a touching passage in Obama's second book describing his first meeting with Byrd, where Byrd's past came up. The regret the man felt about it was evident.

It's been frustrating to me how for some people, a distinguished 50 year career has been boiled down to something the man did before he even thought about running for Congress. Get over it, the man was a true patriot, and it's an awful loss.

 

[sirkickyass]

To be honest, I regret posting the quote from his letter. I was mostly being snarky because I was annoyed that the OP posted a lengthy speech with no context regarding who said it or why it was being posted, so I felt like being contrary.

I'm more than willing to acknowledge that bringing up something Byrd wrote 60 years ago is a cheap-shot, especially given the somewhat overwhelming evidence that he was a very different person at age 65 than he was at age 25.

 

[VINYLONE]

To be honest, I regret posting the quote from his letter. I was mostly being snarky because I was annoyed that the OP posted a lengthy speech with no context regarding who said it or why it was being posted, so I felt like being contrary.

I'm more than willing to acknowledge that bringing up something Byrd wrote 60 years ago is a cheap-shot, especially given the somewhat overwhelming evidence that he was a very different person at age 65 than he was at age 25.

Then only current thing I remember from this guy is using the n-word to describe certain white folk in an interview...I might be way the **** off, but I could swear thats the way it went down.

 

[The-Joker]

Funny story about Presidential term limits: Only one president has ever had more than two terms and virtually everyone agrees that it would have been a bad idea for him not to run the third time.

Ya, but FDR was like the Lebron James of government... pretty much everyone since has been a power hungry prick or a clueless idiot... not to say FDR wasn't power hungry...

 

[Scat]

It's been frustrating to me how for some people, a distinguished 50 year career has been boiled down to something the man did before he even thought about running for Congress.

He filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That would be well into his career as a politician. He also was against the Voters Rights Act of 65. His stance moved from federal mandated segregation to that of letting the states segregate as they saw fit. Very undemocratic of him but politically safe while maintaining his own beliefs.

His conversion to white knight for civil rights is not the immediate transformation his proponents would like us to believe.

 

[KM32MVP]

To be honest, I regret posting the quote from his letter. I was mostly being snarky because I was annoyed that the OP posted a lengthy speech with no context regarding who said it or why it was being posted, so I felt like being contrary.

I'm more than willing to acknowledge that bringing up something Byrd wrote 60 years ago is a cheap-shot, especially given the somewhat overwhelming evidence that he was a very different person at age 65 than he was at age 25.

Really? The things I read sometimes on this board, and that annoyed you? Actually, I didnt post the author because I half-hearted sought reaction without some preconceived view points concerning Byrd. Obviously that didnt work. As for context, I dont feel the speech needs context...I thought it could stand on its own in that regard. But I neglected to consider the results of trifling with the emotions of the masses.