Kerry on the Passing of Senator Robert Byrd

[ProSense]

Kerry on the Passing of Senator Robert Byrd

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) today released a statement following the news that Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) passed away earlier this morning.

“This morning, the Senate lost its guardian, West Virginia lost a champion, and many of us lost a teacher. When I first came to the Senate, Robert Byrd was our Minority Leader. Our class of freshly minted Senators wasn’t lacking in ambition or agenda. We’d all campaigned on long lists of policy ideas we exuberantly believed we’d pass into law immediately. Leader Byrd took the time to meet with all the freshmen individually, listened to us, helped us with our Committee assignments, and took particular care to instruct us on something we’d thought very little about: our responsibility to be caretakers of the institution. He helped us see a bigger picture about this place. Much has been made about Robert Byrd’s habit of carrying a pocket-sized Constitution and delivering fabled exhortations about history. But those details don’t capture fully his deep commitment to an institution he loved deeply for 51 years. He saw reflected in every Senator the highest hopes of the Constitution’s framers.

“Robert Byrd did more thinking and reevaluating in his eighties and nineties than many Senators do in a lifetime. He surprised many with his fierce opposition to the war in Iraq and the evolving views about energy and climate change he articulated even in his last year in the Senate. On these and so many occasions, he was prescient. Whether you agreed or disagreed with his positions, he was one of a rare group of senior voices whose thoughtful speeches could bring the entire Senate to a halt as we leaned in to listen. He cared immensely about his country and fought as proudly for his state as any Senator in our history. He leaves behind a remarkable example of what it means to be an engaged public citizen.

“Teresa and I send our love and prayers to Senator Byrd’s daughters, Mona and Marjorie, and to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren at this difficult time.”

[Oceansaway]

1. K&R...n/t

[hlthe2b]

2. His evolution through his 92 years, while incomplete, is worthy of respect

“Robert Byrd did more thinking and reevaluating in his eighties and nineties than many Senators do in a lifetime. He surprised many with his fierce opposition to the war in Iraq and the evolving views about energy and climate change he articulated even in his last year in the Senate. On these and so many occasions, he was prescient. Whether you agreed or disagreed with his positions, he was one of a rare group of senior voices whose thoughtful speeches could bring the entire Senate to a halt as we leaned in to listen. He cared immensely about his country and fought as proudly for his state as any Senator in our history. He leaves behind a remarkable example of what it means to be an engaged public citizen.

[jobycom]

3. That's what impressed me about him. His ability to see the new challenges.

A lot of leaders who survive to that age latch on to their old ideas of what was needed 20 or 40 years ago, and still fight for those, even though those goals are no longer relevant or worse, even though they have been superceded by newer needs. Byrd adapted. His guiding principles didn't lock him into one particular mindset, or else his guiding principle was simply the advancement of the ideas of equality and freedom. His views on race, on equality, on war, on many issues, seemed to grow as the nation's awareness of those issues grew.

Whether he was always a good man is probably debatable by some, but he was always trying to see the right thing to do, and often he tried to lead others to see the right thing. That's a rare trait in a politician--someone who leads, rather than someone who follows the opinions of others.

RIP, Senator Byrd, and condolences to family and friends.

[flpoljunkie]

4. Very nice tribute. Thanks for posting.

[karynnj]

5. Kerry's tributes are always so thoughtful and good in distilling what is good in the honoree

They are always so eloquently stated and personal. This one, like many others Kerry has written, made me change (in a positive way) my opinion of Byrd. I knew he was a Senate expert (who could not have heard of the "Byrd rule" this year and that he had emotionally connected the IWR to the vote after Gulf of Tonkin - in what proved to be a very apt call - but I had missed his shift on the environment, which is incredible at his age and his backround.