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Another Milestone for Byrd in the Senate

Posted by Jeff (Guest) jeff@attoz.com - Thursday, April 8 2004, 15:45:02 (EDT)
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Another Milestone for Byrd in the Senate
By CARL HULSE

Published: April 2, 2004

enator Robert C. Byrd cleared another milestone on Thursday as he cast his 17,000th vote in the Senate, padding the record he already held. Fittingly for an orator, the West Virginia Democrat hit that number with his vote against shutting off debate on a welfare bill.

Never one to miss the opportunity to make a point, Mr. Byrd, 86, who is in his 46th year in the Senate, took the opportunity to pass judgment on the current state of politics. He found it wanting.

"Once, it was possible for a poor young man, with no important connections, no PR firm behind him, no fund-raising apparatus racing at full tilt, to simply go to the people of his state, and, on the strength of his energy and convictions, be elected to the greatest deliberative body in the world," Mr. Byrd said as many of the most senior members of the Senate sat and listened. That day, the senator said, is long since past.

"Too often now in America it is the size of the pocketbook that elects public officials," he told his colleagues, some of whom are now involved in their own races that will cost millions of dollars. "I regret that change. It keeps people out of public service instead of welcoming them in."

Despite his apparent discontent with how some of them arrived in the Senate, Mr. Byrd was still roundly congratulated by his fellow senators on his achievement.

True to form, he quoted one Greek philosopher and a Roman emperor in his remarks. "I still glory in the name of senator," Mr. Byrd said.

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