Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia served nine terms in the U.S. Senate and cast a record-setting 18,600 votes before he died early Monday morning. He was 92 and was taken to a hospital only a week ago, interrupting yet another year of senate duty.
No one brought more bacon home from Washington, D.C. than he. He helped steer billions of federal dollars into pro-jects in West Virginia. A Washington Post writer reported that in the two years when he served as majority leader, 1988-89, more than $1 billion flowed from Washington into his home state to build highways, bridges, buildings and other government facilities, many of which bear his name.
But Sen. Byrd was much more than king of the pork barrel. He was an acknowledged student of Senate procedures, of government and of the nation’s political history. Always courtly, Sen. Byrd knew that the art of government required compromise. He worked with both sides of the aisle and was as at home with conservatives as with liberals.
He also was a man of strong convictions. A fierce opponent of the war in Iraq, Sen. Byrd responded to a vote by Congress in support of the 2003 invasion with this passionate condemnation of the decision to invade without having been attacked:
“Today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are question-ed.”
HIS CAREER makes a strong argument against term limits: no man or woman could learn as much and thereby become as useful in two terms or even three, as Byrd did in his half-century at the job. But his last feeble years, when he was wheelchair-bound and in and out of hospitals, do make an argument for a mandatory retirement age for all government officers, elected or otherwise.
With the gentleman from West Virginia in mind, perhaps no one older than 70 should be allowed to file for election or re-election to a six-year term or for the presidency. Using the same logic, candidates for the House of Representatives should not seek election or re-election after 74. The same should apply to cabinet secretaries, all judicial appointments and to senior diplomats and other officials of comparable rank.
Had those age restrictions been in place in 1994, Sen. Byrd would have become Mr. Byrd and had these past 16 years to write a pithy, informed and useful set of memoirs to guide future senators from that point forward.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
