Byrd becomes longest-serving Congress member
Laurie KellmanThe Senate is a resolutely superlative place, so it was resolved that the august body on Wednesday will open its session by saluting Sen. Robert C. Byrd, Congress' longest-serving member.
"United States senators, like baseball fans, love statistics," the West Virginia Democrat, who turns 92 on Friday, observed during a 1986 floor speech.
"From time to time, we stop to congratulate colleagues on their years of service, the number of votes they have cast, their tenure in a committee chairmanship," he continued. "In this vast array of statistics, some record-holders stand out from the others."
Byrd was paying tribute at the time to former Majority Leader Mike Mansfield. But on Nov. 18, it's Byrd's turn.
"I look forward to serving you for the next 56 years and 320 days," Byrd said in a statement marking the occasion.
Here are some of Byrd's statistics: He was already married to his beloved Erma for nearly four years when Thanksgiving was deemed a federal holiday in 1941. He began his political career four years later as a member of West Virginia's House of Delegates. He remains the only member of Congress to earn a law degree while a member of the federal legislature, according to his Web site.
Erma passed away three years ago. Byrd says her absence at this milestone is his only regret.
"I know that she is looking down from the heavens smiling at me and saying congratulations my dear Robert -- but don't let it go to your head," Byrd said.
Setting records, though, is old news to the white-maned lawmaker. Since June 12, 2006, Byrd has been the longest-serving senator and later that year was elected to an unprecedented ninth term. His colleagues have elected him to more leadership positions than any senator in history. He has cast more than 18,000 votes and, despite fragile health that has kept him from the Senate floor during much of the year, has a nearly 98 percent attendance record over the course of his career.
Which, by Byrd's count, has spanned 20,774 days. On Wednesday, Byrd's service breaks the record set by Sen. Carl Hayden, D-Ariz., who served from 1912 to 1969.
The arc of Byrd's story is more complex than the numbers would suggest. It's been long enough for him to rescind positions that he once trumpeted, such as his opposition to the Civil Rights Act. Lengthy enough to voice his regret, over and over, about joining the Ku Klux Klan a lifetime ago. Long enough to see and cheer the nation's first black president, and to watch his one-time rival and later dear friend Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., succumb to brain cancer.
He's made good on a storied pledge to become West Virginia's billion dollar industry several times over, helping bring home $326 million in earmarks for 2008 alone, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.
He is the resident expert on the Senate's arcane procedures and traditions, as well as the Constitution. Byrd is fond of telling his colleagues that he loves the Senate more than any of its members. But he has poured forth his affection for his favorites, anyway.
Byrd's also been around enough to confound a months-long whispering campaign that he was not well enough to continue serving as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He stepped down only when he was ready, but still chairs the panel's subcommittee on Homeland Security. In October after a season of illness and absence, Byrd personally managed a $44.1 billion spending agreement on security measures against natural disaster, terrorist attacks and other threats.
Wednesday would be about marking this new milestone, although it was unclear whether Byrd would be able to attend Wednesday's session. Friday would be a celebration of his 92nd birthday. And next week, Byrd writes in his weekly column, should be about Thanksgiving.
As is his own tradition, Byrd marks the holiday with a history lesson: from the Pilgrims' first celebration in 1621 through George Washington's "Thanksgiving Proclamation," to the designation of an official holiday in 1941.
What does Byrd give thanks for this year? The privilege, he writes, of representing "our great people in the United States Senate."
Longer, of course, than anyone else.
___
On the Net:
http://byrd.senate.gov/
(This version CORRECTS that Byrd will break late Arizona Sen. Carl Hayden's service record on Wednesday.) )