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Senate Democratic leaders unveiled their $56 billion economic stimulus package on Thursday, less than an hour before leaving to meet President Bush at the White House to continue the fragile negotiations on the financial rescue bill. Calling it “an economic recovery package that will help middle-class families struggling in the weakening Bush-McCain economy,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) pitched the plan with the familiar mantra of “not forgetting Main Street.” The plan includes a $7.5 billion down payment on $25 billion in loans for the struggling auto industry. “Democrats believe that we must...

Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. We believe in the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts: 1. Commitment to God 2. Commitment to the Black Community 3. Commitment to the Black Family 4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education 5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence 6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic 7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and...

The scene still makes plenty of West Virginians wince. A succession of Mountain State residents proclaim to a television camera that they'll never vote for Barack Obama because of his religion, which they get wrong, or his race. After a few such testimonials, "Daily Show'' host Jon Stewart mockingly suggests a new state motto: "West Virginia: No Interviews, Please.'' That ran in May, shortly after Sen. Hillary Clinton trounced Obama by a margin of more than 2-to-1 in a state roughly 94 percent white. Since then, residents have been on the defensive over charges of widespread bigotry while wondering themselves...

With the brouhaha on the left over GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's belittling of Senator Barack Obama's previous career as a 'community organizer' (note that she didn't offer any guidance as to what community organizing actually consists of or why she thinks it unworthy of respect) still in progress, it just occurred to me that Barack Obama is not the only member of the United States Senate who was a so-called community organizer. So was Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Byrd, who as president pro tempore of the Senate is third in the line of presidential succession, was a...

Original caption: Senator Robert Byrd is a mentor for Senator Barack Obama

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The nation's longest-serving U.S. senator tells candidates John McCain and Barack Obama that to be the great president America needs they need to be what George W. Bush was not. Be humble, honest and contemplative, Sen. Robert C. Byrd writes in his latest book, "Letter to a New President: Commonsense Lessons for Our Next Leader." Seek dissenting opinions. Reject the politics of fear. Admit and learn from your mistakes, the 90-year-old West Virginia Democrat advises. Byrd has long been a critic of the president, and his latest book offers a scathing assessment of Bush: a "son of...

As you no doubt know, the Senate last week voted to confirm Gen. David Petraeus -- slandered less than a year ago by MoveOn.org as "Gen. Betray Us" -- by a 95 to 2 vote. Which two senators voted against Petraeus, despite his historic achievement: dramatically changing U.S. military strategy in Iraq and turning what looked to be America's defeat at the hands of al-Qaeda and Iran's proxies into a clear success? The answer (drum roll please): Senator Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) and Senator Robert Byrd (D., W.V.) voted against him. Interesting, don't you think, that both Harkin and Byrd...

Senator Byrd In Step with West Virginians, Poll ShowsByrd Opposes Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Bill Rejected by Overwhelming Majority in Region For Release: June 6, 2008 Washington, DC - Senator Robert Byrd, who opposes America's Climate Security Act presently scheduled for a key Senate vote at 9 AM Friday, is in sync with a majority of West Virginians, says a poll released by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The survey found 64% of likely voters in mid-Atlantic states (WV, VA, MD, PA, NY, NJ and DE) oppose spending more for gasoline to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 71% oppose spending...

On the same day the second longest sitting senator had brain surgery, the longest sitting senator was hospitalized with a fever. Ninety-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., was hospitalized tonight after staffers noticed he was lethargic at work and a caregiver discovered he had a high temperature. He is remaining overnight on the advice of his doctor, according to his spokesman, Jesse Jacobs, who said he was unsure which hospital his boss was at. It is unclear at this point if the hospitalization is anything more than precautionary. Byrd, who has had a spate of health problems recently -- he fell...

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) was admitted to the hospital for the third time this year on Monday night, this time for overnight observation after suffering a high fever. Byrd, 90, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, was taken to a Virginia hospital in the early evening and will stay there overnight after feeling ill throughout the day, spokesman Jesse Jacobs said. Jacobs said Byrd had felt “lethargic and sluggish” throughout the day, but attended the lone Senate vote of the day, at 5:30 p.m. He was one of 14 senators to vote against debating a climate change bill. Shortly...

MSNBC reporting Senator Byrd, (West Virginia) has been hospitalized. He was described as being "lethargic, sluggish and having a fever"

(The Politico) Sen. Robert C. Byrd has offered perhaps the most emotional outpouring on the Senate floor in years, offering a weeping tribute to "his dear friend, Ted Kennedy." His voice cracking, hands trembling, Byrd sat in his wheelchair and slowly read his tribute to Kennedy, who has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. "I want to take a moment to say how distraught and terribly shaken I am over the news of my dear friend, my dear, dear friend, Ted Kennedy," Byrd said. "Ted, Ted, my dear friend, I love you, and I miss you." Byrd broke down...

Another overwhelmingly white state backed Hillary Clinton with a landslide victory early today. The former First Lady won by as much as 30 points in Kentucky just a week after she trounced Barack Obama by 41 per cent in West Virginia. Seven in ten white Kentucky voters sided with Mrs Clinton, according to exit polls. The carbon copy triumph in a southern state dominated by rural, low income families once again highlights fears that Mr Obama has failed to win over key white voters. But it did little to dent the Illinois senator's almost invincible lead in the race for...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Sen. Robert Byrd's stem-winding opposition to the war in Iraq wasn't in fashion when U.S. troops toppled Saddam Hussein more than five years ago. Over the course of the war, the West Virginia Democrat, now 90, has become increasingly frail, but the old fire — along with some tears — was back as he kicked off debate on a war funding bill on Tuesday. Speaking from a wheelchair in only his second speech since falling in February at his Virginia home and suffering other health setbacks, Byrd angrily denounced President Bush for leaving his successor with a...

Robert Byrd Endorses Obama Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and a one-time opponent of civil rights legislation, endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday. Obama is vying to be the nation's first black president. Byrd's support comes almost a week after the Illinois senator's 41-point loss to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the longtime lawmaker's home state of West Virginia.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and a one-time opponent of civil rights legislation, endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday. Obama is vying to be the nation's first black president. Byrd's support comes almost a week after the Illinois senator's 41-point loss to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the longtime lawmaker's home state of West Virginia. Byrd said he had no intention of getting involved while his state was in the midst of a primary. "But the stakes this November could not be higher," he said in a written...

May 19, 2008 Categories: Barack Obama Sen. Robert Byrd endorses Obama The Charleston Gazette reports an endorsement deep with symbolism: West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd is endorsing Barack Obama. "Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support," Byrd says. He said he has "no intention of involving myself in the Democratic campaign for President in the midst of West Virginia's primary election. But the stakes this November could not be higher." Byrd, 91, a master of Senate rules and Iraq war foe, has spent much of his political career repenting the...

Sen. Robert C. Byrd had some advice Monday for Democratic presidential combatants Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — stop the negative bickering and stick to the real issues. Byrd certainly knows his way around the political arena. It was back in 1946 that he won his first political post — a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates — one year before Clinton was born and fully 15 years in advance of Obama’s birth. A super delegate to the Democratic National Convention, the senator hasn’t endorsed either hopeful but advised both to tone down the personal rhetoric and start...

Byrd tells critics: ‘Shut up’ By J. Taylor Rushing Posted: 04/16/08 07:45 PM [ET] Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) took control of his own narrative Wednesday by managing a two-hour Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Iraq war that for the time being silenced critics who say he’s no longer fit to serve as chairman. Byrd seemed to grasp that what was on the official agenda was not the only topic of the hearing, showing up on time in a crisp suit and displaying a broad smile while an aide wheeled him into the room. When the hearing ended, his only...

All eyes will be on Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) Wednesday. The 90-year-old senator is expected to chair a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on an Iraq war spending bill and his appearance should send “an important signal” as to whether he can continue as chairman. But that may not happen. At least two Democratic sources said Tuesday that Byrd’s health remained a question and that staffers had taken the extremely rare step of holding off scheduling a time for the hearing. A notice finally went out at the end of the day, announcing the hearing would take place at noon on...

Posted: 04/15/08 04:31 PM [ET] All eyes will be on Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) Wednesday. The 90-year-old senator is expected to chair a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on an Iraq war spending bill and his appearance should send “an important signal” as to whether he can continue as chairman. But that’s if the hearing happens at all. At least two Democratic sources said Tuesday that Byrd’s health remained a question and that staffers have taken the extremely rare step of not officially scheduling a time for the hearing. Byrd’s spokesman, Jesse Jacobs, confirmed Tuesday that an official meeting time had...

Sen. Patrick Leahy is privately indicating interest in taking over the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee from an ailing Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) if necessary, four Democratic sources said Thursday. The Vermont Democrat, third-in-line on the panel, strongly denied those claims. But all four sources said Leahy has sent several signals to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) about the move. “It’s been going on. There have been lots of whispers in Reid’s ear,” said one Democratic source. Leahy “has tried to meet with Reid several times” about Byrd’s chairmanship, according to another source.The 90-year-old Byrd has been ailing for months, after...

WASHINGTON - Take that, Washington rumor-mongers. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the longest-serving senator in history, defied a whisper campaign about his declining health by showing up Thursday, very much alive and able to vote, for a marathon session on the federal budget. "Yes!" Byrd shouted, defiant as ever, from a wheelchair on the Senate floor as the chamber opened a vote-o-rama expected to last late into the evening. It was a pushback that recalled the Monty Python sketch in which supposed victims of the plague are prematurely loaded, protesting, onto carts. "No!" Byrd shouted later, rejecting a subsequent...

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) was readmitted to a Washington-area hospital Wednesday afternoon for tests, after he developed allergic reactions to antibiotics that he has been taking for a urinary tract infection. The hospitalization comes less than a week after a four-day hospital stay for back pains. The 90-year-old Byrd — the longest-serving senator in U.S. history — is suffering from reactions to his antibiotics and needs tests and observation to determine a different course of medication, said a statement from his office. “His stay is expected to be brief,” the statement said.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) will return to Capitol Hill next week after being hospitalized because of severe back pains, his office announced Thursday. Byrd, 90, has been hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center since Tuesday after sustaining a back injury from a fall at his Virginia home on Monday night. X-rays showed that Byrd suffered no broken bones from his fall, according to the senator’s spokesman, Jesse Jacobs. Byrd will undergo physical therapy “to ensure he is steady on his feet when he returns to his Senate duties next week,” Jacobs said. Byrd is the longest-serving senator in U.S....

WASHINGTON - Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia was hospitalized Tuesday after complaining of back pain following a fall at his home, his spokesman said. Byrd, 90, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the longest-serving senator in history, was staying overnight at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for observation, said spokesman Jesse Jacobs. It was not immediately clear whether he had suffered broken bones. Jacobs said Byrd fell at his Virginia home Monday night. He came to his office Tuesday and was on the Senate floor to vote for an Indian health bill. But after noticing he...

I just heard on Hannity & Colmes that Senator Robert Byrd has fallen and is complaining of back pains.... FWIW -

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest serving senator in American history, has been admitted overnight to Walter Reed hospital after sustaining an injury to his back this week. The 90-year-old Byrd’s injury is not life threatening, and he was admitted to the hospital for “observation,” according to his spokesman, Jesse Jacobs. The senator injured his back when he fell down Monday night in his Virginia home, but arrived in the Senate Tuesday and cast votes in the morning during debate over an Indian health measure. But he missed the chamber’s afternoon procedural vote to take up a bill aimed...

Doctors checking for broken bones after 90-year-old falls at homeWASHINGTON - Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia was hospitalized Tuesday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after complaining of back pain after a fall at his home, his spokesman said. Byrd, 90, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the nation’s longest-serving senator, was staying in the hospital overnight for observation, said spokesman Jesse Jacobs. It was not immediately clear whether he had suffered broken bones. Jacobs said Byrd fell at his Virginia home Monday night. He came to his office Tuesday and was on the Senate floor...

Democrat Senator Robert Byrd is President pro tempore of the U. S. Senate. As such he is 3d in line to be President of the United Sates in the event of the death, removal or incapacitation of the Prez, VP and Speaker of the House. He is 90 years old. This is incredible, rambling, off-topic video of him, a week ago, He seems drunk, stoned, crazy or senile, (or possibly a combination of all of the above) on the Senate floor, live on national (and international) TV! As a qualification for Democratic Senator from West Virginia, he is a fomer...

U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd turns 90 Tuesday.Byrd spokesman Jesse Jacobs says Byrd plans to spend his birthday quietly reading the hundreds of birthday wishes that have flooded his offices. Byrd also had lunch with his staff and to visit with his seven great-grandchildren.A surprise 90th birthday party was held Thursday in the ballroom of the Capitol Hill hotel. More than 300 people attended, including West Virginia's entire congressional delegation and Governor Manchin.Manchin presented Byrd with a West Virginia Living Legend Award, which the governor created as a tribute to renowned West Virginians. The award has been given to only...

Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate's oldest member and longest-serving member, is celebrating his 90th birthday today. The senator had a party last week and plans to spend time with family and friends today.U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd plans to spend his 90th birthday quietly by reading the hundreds of birthday wishes that have flooded his offices. The legendary senator turned 90 today. Byrd spokesman Jesse Jacobs said birthday greetings have poured into the senator's West Virginia offices and have been forwarded to him in Washington, D.C., where he plans to spend most of his Thanksgiving break. Also on tap for Byrd's...

Senate Armed Services Committee members, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., left, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., take part in the committee's hearing on the state of the Army, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook) French President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) is applauded by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)(L) and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) prior to speaking to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 7, 2007.

Byrd gets tired of Code Pink disrupting the hearing and throws them out. Amusing, if nothing else.

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia isn’t known for mincing words on the Senate floor. Still, even by his standards, his recent comments about a crime in the news were especially impassioned. He repeatedly called the alleged crime “barbaric” and even volunteered to attend the execution of the accused. He told his colleagues that he is “confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God’s creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt . . .” What prompted the senator’s ire? Genocide? Ethnic cleansing? No, cruelty to animals, specifically the...

A remarkable thing happened in the United States Senate earlier this evening, and it occurred over a rather unremarkable piece of legislation that was being debated. Conservatives, frustrated at the lack of a genuine leader of their party, may have finally found one in Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. After Democratic leader Harry Reid’s MoveOn.org all-night session Tuesday night, a move that resulted only in helping unify the weak-kneed Republicans who were peeling away from continued support of the Petraeus surge in Iraq, McConnell, the Republican leader, served notice to anyone watching C-SPAN that he now runs the Senate. The Senate...

In a rather soft boiled story on West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd's dotage and his uselessness as an able bodied member of the Senate, at 89 he's currently the longest serving Senator in American history, the AP did the right thing in reminding the readers that Byrd was once a member of the Klan. Yet, they had to go and ruin the truth by claiming that Klan members are "certainly conservative." In fact, this AP story amazingly tries to make it seem as if Byrd had only late in life become that member of Congress that has been "endeared" to...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Age is finally catching up with West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd in the winter of his 54-year career in Congress. At 89, the longest-serving senator in history and third person in the line of presidential succession has ceded major duties -- such as handling appropriations bills on the Senate floor -- to younger colleagues and aides. Byrd continues to steer pork projects to his home state, rail against President Bush and the Iraq war and quote Cicero and the King James Bible now and then on the Senate floor. But as he walks haltingly with two...

David Obey and Robert Byrd are the real waste here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-c0DeSlhZA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fredstate%2Ecom%2F

Neither a federal investigation into his finances nor watchdog groups on the left and right calling him one of the most corrupt men on Capitol Hill has stopped U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan from bringing home the bacon. Motorists winding through hill country south of Morgantown, near the Democrat congressman's hometown here, can't miss the gleaming Interstate 79 Technology Park that sprouted through his efforts. The steel skeleton of a new Commerce Department building stands next to a NASA software facility, easily spotted because of the 20-foot white rocket mounted in front. Across the goose pond, at the center of it...

The alliance with Obama, combined with the turnout of top Democrats at the filibuster rally, is yet another indicator of MoveOn's growing presence on Capitol Hill. It also shows a strong alliance with Byrd, the 87-year-old senator who has taken the lead in the Democratic effort to justify the judicial filibusters. Byrd "is fighting an attempt by Republicans to change the 200-year old rules of the Senate that would allow Republicans to ram federal judges through the Senate with no regard for what others might say," Obama wrote in the MoveOn letter. "Above all, Robert Byrd understands just how sacred...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Pork barrel politics threaten to foil Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) plans to make the Capitol building complex more "green." Key to the effort is the Capitol's coal-burning power plant, which is being defended by lawmakers from coal producing states. Speaker Pelosi says she needs to switch the Capitol Power Plant to natural gas if Congress wants to cut emissions and meet its goal of making the government complex "carbon neutral" within the next two years. (snip) According to reports Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who both hail from major...

Throughout the Iraq war, one of President Bush's loudest Democratic critics has been the longest-serving member of the Senate: Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. *** Yet the octogenarian lawmaker's voice was quavering as he spoke, his regal bearing a bit unsteady. It was another indication that all is not well with Byrd, an institution within an institution, who turned 89 in November after winning a ninth Senate term. The war debate now unfolding in Congress is tailor made for Byrd, fusing his three celebrated Senate roles: Appropriations chairman (the legislation on the table is a spending bill); resident constitutional...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said in the Senate Thursday she and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., will introduce legislation to end authority for the war in Iraq. The bill will propose Oct. 11, 2007, as the expiration date for the congressional resolution that authorized President George W. Bush to use force in Iraq. That resolution was approved Oct. 11, 2002. ~ snip ~

One of the most touching photos in years taken by an AP photographer moved across the wires last night (Thursday) and few newspapers published it. The Daily Mail did. It showed President Bush helping Robert Byrd walk. The occasion was the overdue awarding of a congressional Gold Medal to the Tuskegee airmen who served in World War II. There is irony there. But there also is compassion from President Bush. This may be why the photo received so little play in the newspapers today.

WASHINGTON -- As part of "Sunshine Week" to promote transparent government, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) last Monday was supposed to release a comprehensive database revealing the number and cost of earmarks since 2005. It did not. The word on Capitol Hill was that the OMB was muzzled by the White House for fear of offending powerful congressional appropriators.

...The attention quickly shifted -- to Robert Byrd. The 89-year-old West Virginia Democrat, beginning his ninth term, wore a red-white-and-blue tie and punctuated the opening prayer with shouts of "Yes!" and "Mmmhmmm!" and "Yes, Lord!" and "Yes, in Jesus's name!" When he was sworn in, he twice cried out "Hallelujah!" and then "Amen!" Minutes later, he was installed as Senate president pro tempore, the majority party's most senior member. "Yeah, man! Yeah, man!" he shouted. "Hallelujah!" "I do, so help me God!" he shouted when the oath was administered. "Yeah, man!" His colleagues were amused. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) at...