No, we’re not talking about the King of Pork who invented this gastrointestinal monstrosity.
We’re talking about West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, who passed away June 28 at 3 a.m., at the tender age of 92. Byrd’s nickname actually comes from the way he directed federal spending to his impoverished home state.
Robert Byrd was born in North Carolina in 1917, and entered Congress at a time when Stalin was in power, the H-bomb was announced publicly, and the first Corvette and color TVs were built. It was also the year Aldous Huxley took some mescaline and wrote a book about it.
Byrd holds the record for the longest-serving member of Congress, with nine terms as a Democrat since 1953. I’ll do the math for you—that’s 57 years in office!
He was a strong vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, and had a well-established reputation as a fiery orator. He said that one of his proudest accomplishments was his vote against the legislation that gave President Bush the power to invade Iraq in 2002.
There were a few stains on his career, though: he opposed civil rights movement in 1964, and in the 1940s, he joined Klu Klux Klan, something he attributed to his Southern upbringing. He later came to deeply regret these decisions, saying they were huge mistakes that could never be erased.
Byrd was married for 69 years to Erma James; they had two daughters. The title of Oldest Senator in Congress is now held by Frank Lautenberg, who is 86.
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