Indiana Grain Company, LLC

Posted: 06/28/10

By: tomgrisafi

West Virginia Democrat, Senator Robert Byrd, passed away last night at the age of 92. Byrd was the longest serving member of the Congress, taking his first oath of office on January 3, 1959, and remaining a public servant until his death on June 28, 2010.

Fellow West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller referred to Byrd as an ‘icon.’ Rockefeller told USA Today, "He lived this institution... soared to the heights of power, yet never forgot where he came from. The senator always had the constitution in his pocket, close to his heart.”

The Daily Beast said, “Byrd’s politics demonstrated a commitment to open-mindedness befitting a man who earned his undergraduate degree when he was 77 years old.

Although representing a state in which George W. Bush had thumped Al Gore, Byrd was fearless in standing up to a presidency he called “reckless and arrogant.” It was in opposing Mr. Bush’s attacks on the Constitution that Sen. Byrd placed himself squarely on the right side of history. "The Constitution,” he said, “the foundation of this great nation, is under attack by an administration bent on secrecy, that has to be dragged kicking and screaming to answer questions, that follows a path of myopic recklessness."

Senator Byrd’s desk on the senate floor is wrapped in black, in memory of the man and his service to the United States Senate.