Not the Year for Happy Returns

Until stepping down earlier this month, Byrd was adamantly defending his right to continue. On his Web site, his staff has posted a June 2007 speech in which he declared that "my only adversity is age."

"I feel compelled to address head on the news stories in recent weeks that have pointed out the shocking discovery that I am growing older," Byrd said. "I am not always as fast as I once was. I am not aware of any requirement for physical dexterity in order to hold the office of U.S. Senator. . . . I will continue to do this work until this old body gives out. Just don't expect that to be anytime soon."

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who praised Byrd for work on Hurricane Katrina relief measures, said in an interview that "I've got to believe there's a sense of relief for Senator Byrd. His health has not been the best lately. . . . The job does require someone who is stronger physically." But she believes he will continue to work vigorously.

Byrd has long been one of the most emotional and erudite of the Senate's long-winded members. He famously railed against dog-fighting, wept about Sen. Edward Kennedy's brain cancer and spoke up vehemently about going to war with Iraq, predicting a quagmire, a stance widely criticized at the time that proved prescient. Over the years, he spoke for hours in the Senate about Roman history, quoted Cicero, invoked "Death of a Salesman" and mourned his dear departed dog, Billy.

"There is never a day that I don't pass his little box of ashes that is sitting up in my bedroom, never a day I don't touch that little box and think of little Billy," he said in a November 2002 speech.

But now the champion talker has less to say without a script. He does not do "long informational interviews anymore," Jacobs says. Byrd's powerful chief of staff, Barbara Videnieks, declined repeated interview requests to discuss his legacy and accomplishments. The staff has tired of "people writing the obit before its time," Jacobs says. Stevens's office also did not respond to repeated interview requests.

The two senators are the twin "Kings of Pork" in the eyes of watchdog groups that track federal spending, though their supporters label them as great economic developers and job creators. Stevens had his "Bridge to Nowhere," a much-lampooned, $220 million plan to connect a small town to a tiny island, as well as billions of dollars worth of other federal projects. "Big Daddy" Byrd -- an "Exalted Cyclops" of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1940s who later repented and apologized -- has the Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technologies Center. And there's the Robert C. Byrd Center for Hospitality and Tourism, the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse, the Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex and many more. Critics question why a state that has received so much federal money still ranks near the bottom in many education, health and economic indicators.

"Seemed like when we were in our campaign bus, and every highway and road was named after him -- that's a lot of advertising," said John Raese, a Republican whom Byrd defeated easily in 2006.

In the Senate, people have grown used to that same level of ubiquity in person.

And so Byrd caused a minor stir simply by not showing up on Tuesday for his party's caucus in his beloved Old Senate Chamber, which he once said was the Senate's home during an "exhilarating period," the Senate's "Golden Age."

That would be 1810 to 1859.

"It's a big hole; it's a big gap," Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said of Byrd's absence from the caucus. "I dread the Senate without him. Obviously the time comes for all of us. He's the one who knows that and has spoken [with his decision to step down as Appropriations chairman]. He'll know when the time is right."

Byrd's records seem safe from being eclipsed by the younger man now that Stevens will be departing the Senate, perhaps for a federal penitentiary. Byrd, who has served 49 years and 10 months in the Senate, had a 10-year head start on Stevens, who has served 39 years and 10 months (Sen. Kennedy has served 46 years and Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye, of Hawaii, more than 45). Then again, Alaska wasn't even a state when Byrd was elected -- there were only 48 when he won his first Senate race in 1958. Alaska became the 49th state on Jan. 3, 1959, the same day Byrd took office as a senator. Nondairy creamer, soft contact lenses and Post-it notes weren't on store shelves, and Hawaii was still months away from statehood.

Byrd also has cast more votes than any senator in history -- 18,370 and counting as of last month. He has voted about 2,000 more times than Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who retired from the Senate in 2002 and died the next year, and about 3,300 more than Stevens.

The departure of the two old friends, Byrd and Stevens, from chairmanships, though, won't necessarily usher in a youth movement at the upper echelons of the Senate hierarchy, which skews heavily to seniority. Next in line to chair Appropriations is Inouye. In September, he celebrated a birthday, too -- No. 84.

Research director Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.