Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.)

U.S. Senator (January 1959-June 2010)

(Lois Raimondo/TWP)

Why He Mattered

Byrd died at the age of 92 as the longest-serving senator in U.S. history. He entered the Congress' upper body in 1959; 11 presidential administrations later, Byrd was serving an unprecedented 9th term when he expired after several years of hospitalizations for a variety of causes. He had relied on a wheelchair to get around the Capitol since 2008.

From 1989 until January 2009, when the Democrats held the Senate majority, West Virginia's then-senior senator was the chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and directed billions of dollars in funding to his home state.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Senate Majority Leader (1977 to 1980 and 1987 to 1988); Senate Minority Leader, (1981 to 1986);Senate Majority Whip (1971 to 1976);U.S. Representative, (1952 to 1958); West Virginia Senator (1950 to 1952); West Virginia House of Delegates (1946 to 1950)
Birthday: November 20, 1917
Hometown: North Wilkesboro, N.C.
Alma Mater: American University, J.D., 1963; Marshall University, B.A., 1994
Spouse: Widowed (wife Erma Ora James Byrd died in 2006)

Religion: Baptist
DC Office: 311 Hart BuildingWashington, DC 20510Phone: 202-224-3954
State Offices: 300 Virginia Street EastSuite 2630Charleston, West Va. 25301304-342-5855;217 West King StreetRoom 238Martinsburg, West Va. 25401304-264-4626
Email
Website

Path To Power

Robert C. Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. on November 20, 1917 in North Wilkesboro, N.C. After his mother died when he was an infant, he was sent to live with an uncle and aunt, Titus and Vlurma Byrd, who renamed him. Titus was a coal miner, and the Byrds scraped out a meager living in a house without electricity or running water.

Byrd married his high school sweetheart, Erma Ora James Byrd, in 1937. She died in 2006. Byrd had two daughters, five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. He lived in Sophia, West Va.

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As a young man, Byrd formed a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and was voted its "Exalted Cyclops."

Accounts about the length and depth of Byrd's involvement and the strength of his racist views vary, but Byrd has consistently downplayed his role and repeatedly apologized for the affiliation. "It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career, and reputation," Byrd wrote in his 2005 memoir "Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields." Byrd had to overcome his Klan history when it surfaced in his campaigns for the U.S. House in 1952 and the Senate in 1958.

Political Debut

Byrd was first elected to public office in 1946 when he won a seat in West Virginia's House of Delegates as a 29-year-old. In 1950, he became a West Virginia state senator. He won a U.S. House seat in 1952, which he held until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1958. Byrd has never lost an election.

In fact, Byrd was elected to public office before earning a college degree. Unable to finance his education, Byrd dropped out after one semester at Marshall University and began working as a welder and meat-cutter. It wasn't until 1963, after 10 years of part-time classes taken while he was a representative and then a senator, that Byrd earned a law degree from American University. President John F. Kennedy, there to give the commencement speech, presented Byrd with his diploma. Byrd earned a bachelor's degree (and straight A's) from Marshall University in 1994 when he was 77-years-old.

In heavily Democratic West Virginia, Byrd has never faced a tough Senate reelection bid as a legend in his home state. In 2006, he ran against Republican businessman John Raese, the son of one of Byrd's old friends, the former coach of the West Virginia University basketball team. Raese didn't put up much of a fight. "I'm running for U.S. Senate, not against Senator Byrd. I have a lot of different ideas, not that his are right or wrong. Mine might be better," Raese said during the campaign. Byrd won, 64 to 34 percent.

Longest-Serving Senator

In June 2006, Byrd became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history. Months later, he was reelected to an unprecedented 9th term. He has also held more leadership positions that any other senator: as the Senate's Democratic majority whip from 1971 to 1976; majority leader from 1977 to 1980 and 1987 to 1988; and minority leader from 1981 to 1986.

He was the most senior senator, making him the president pro tempore of the Senate, a title that is largely ceremonial but put him third-in-line to the presidency behind the vice president and the House speaker.

Byrd is the author of several books, including Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency, about George W. Bush, and a four-volume historical series, "The Senate 1789-1989," written with Senate historian Richard Baker. He is also an avid fiddler who has performed at the Kennedy Center and recorded an album, Mountain Time.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman

Byrd was the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee when the Democrats were in power from 1989 to January 6, 2009, when he stepped down because of concerns about his age and was succeeded by 84-year-old Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii). Byrd was first appointed to the Appropriations Committee as a freshman senator in 1958 by then-Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas). Byrd also sits on the Armed Services Committee, the Committee on Rules and Administration and the Budget Committee.

The Issues

Byrd voted with the majority of Democrats 90.2 percent of the time in the 111th Congress.

The Economy

In October 2008, Byrd voted for the $700 billion bailout package that passed the Senate 74 to 25. In February 2009, he voted for President Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan that passed the Senate 60 to 38. During the last administration, Byrd called President George W. Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which were skewed toward benefitting the wealthy, "sheer madness."

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Pork

As head of the Senate Appropriations Committee for 20 years, Byrd was able to direct massive amounts of funding to his home state of West Virginia. In 1990, a year after he became chairman, Byrd said, "I want to be West Virginia's billion dollar industry." He has succeeded nearly three-fold. Government watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste reported in 2006 that $2.95 billion had been funneled to West Virginia since 1991.More than 30 bridges, highways, schools, and public buildings in West Virginia are named after Byrd.

Civil Rights

Byrd's former membership in the Ku Klux Klan in West Virginia is not the only position that has tarnished his otherwise liberal credentials.

With other Southern Democrats, he opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Byrd filibustered the bill, which he said damaged federalism, for 14 hours. In 1967, he voted against the nomination of the Supreme Court's first black justice, Thurgood Marshall. In recent years, letters written by Byrd have come to light that indicate that he was virulently anti-black and participated in the KKK for much of the 1940s, rather than the year or so to which he has admitted. He credits the Baptist church with changing his views. In 2008, he endorsed African-American Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

Iraq War

Byrd voted against the 2002 resolution to grant President George W. Bush power to use force against Iraq. Byrd tried to filibuster the resolution that eventually passed 77 to 23. "This is the Tonkin Gulf resolution all over again," Byrd said at the time, referring to the measure that effectively started the Vietnam War. "Let us stop, look and listen. Let us not give this president or any president unchecked power. Remember the Constitution."In 2002, Byrd opposed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Byrd even criticized Bush's motivation. "All of a sudden the president was dropping in the polls, and the domestic situation was such that the administration was appearing to be much like the emperor who had no clothes," Byrd said on the floor in 2002. "All of a sudden, bam! All of this war talk-the war fervor, the drums of war, the bugles of war, the clouds of war, this war hysteria-has blown in like a hurricane. And what has that done to the president's polls? Seventy percent," he said, referring to the bounce Bush got in his approval rating.

The Network

Byrd endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008. He made the announcement just a week after West Virginia's Democratic primary, in which Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) beat Obama 67 to 25.7 percent. "Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support," Byrd said.

Byrd was a close friend and ally of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who entered the Senate in 1962 and remained there until his death in August 2009.

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