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Good-Bye, Senator Byrd
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Senator Robert Byrd, KKK-WV, passed away last night.
He will not be missed. -- Sucrose Octanitrate. Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Speak for yourself, K, and preferably, in better taste in the future.
Yes, he was practically the 'Prince of Pork' - but the things he directed here to WV, the roads and federal facilities and other infrastructure, would still have existed, still have been 'wasted', but would have gone to places where there were already schools, roads, jobs, rather than bolstering a suffering backwater. That people aren't willing to admit that that kind of investment is a good idea for their country when they, personally, aren't the ones getting the handout means that getting enough to build up any given section of the nation, any given state, means that there's always going to be a struggle to acquire access to that support even before the admittedly inevitable greed factor. Byrd's seniority and influence are, I think, much to credit for things being as well off here as they are. As a United States Senator, Byrd had a responsibility to work for the overall good of the nation - and I think that, overall, he did. As a Senator for West Virginia, he also had an equal responsibility to work for the overall good of the state, and his work in that respect is beyond challenge. And if he wasn't perfect in his judgment or motivations, then, me, I don't care. Pure saints make crappy politicians, and worse statesmen, and anyway only fool would count on finding them in the first place. =========== =============================================== "V, did you do something foolish?" "Yes, and it was glorious." Quote:Pure saints make crappy politicians, and worse statesmen, and anywayValles, you do know a statesman is a dead politician, no? That being said, Senator Byrd knew his place in the scheme of things. That being a member of of a deliberating and legislative body whose function is to check the executive branch from going too far. As a senator he was very effective for the nation, even if he opposed the Civil Rights Act (which he later regretted). He also did very well by his constituents. Remember the maxim" All politics are local". For a state that is one of the poorest in the Union, I really don't have a problem with it. There is pork, there is graft, there is "honest" graft..is there such a thing as "honest" pork? __________________ Into terror!, Into valour! Charge ahead! No! Never turn Yes, it's into the fire we fly And the devil will burn! - Scarlett Pimpernell
"Honest Pork" was one of the points I was groping for, yeah. As I noted in my weekly phone call with my mother, today, I think that the late Senator was quite possibly the literal difference between West Virginia and Mississippi. This is The State That Byrd Built, as I've noted waggishly in the past.
=========== =============================================== "V, did you do something foolish?" "Yes, and it was glorious."
I'll give him credit for the fact that when he claimed to have stopped being so racist, his voting patterns actually changed. And he did vote against the Iraq War. However, he was still an unrepentant bigot against other minorities, including and especially homosexuals. As told by Ted Kennedy of Byrd in 1993:
"But the meeting went on and on, for more than two hours – extraordinary by White House standards. Finally, my turn to speak came. I made a brief comment in support of allowing gays in the military, in which I mentioned that all the arguments against such a policy had already been made….Well, I was wrong about that. Almost all the arguments had been used before. The last senator to speak was Robert Byrd, and he came up with a new one on all of us…..He informed us, with many ornate flourishes, that there had been a terrible problem in ancient Rome with young military boys turned into sex slaves. I don’t remember the exact details, but I think the story involved Tiberius Julius Caesar being captured and abused and used as a sex slave. He escaped and then years later he sought vengeance and killed his captors. Anyway, it was something like that. The room fell silent. The senator continued. Then President Clinton stood up. His response was short and sweet. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘Moses went up to the mountain, and he came back with the tablets and there were ten commandments on those tablets. I’ve read those commandments. I know what they say, just like I know you do. And nowhere in those ten commandments will you find anything about homosexuality. Thank y’all for coming.’ He ended the meeting and walked out of the room.” So while there were undoubtedly both good and bad aspects to the man's character, and I'll give him credit from taking a few steps forward from his days in the KKK, I'm not exactly going to beatify him just because he was good at getting money funneled to West Virginia.
And, really, is pork anything to really be all that proud of, when the Federal Budget is so massively overstretched and overspent as it is?
-- Sucrose Octanitrate. Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode. |
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