"Sen. Byrd has set a new standard for taxpayer-funded narcissism by convincing the West Virginia Legislature to erect a statue of himself in the state Capitol. The statue's completion violates state law prohibiting statues of government officials until they have been dead for half a century." Citizens Against Government Waste
The nation has lost a great statesman and parliamentarian. Senator Byrd was the longest-serving Senator in US history. No one knows where Robert Byrd first discovered his leadership skills (likely it was during the halcyon days of old when he rose in the ranks to serve as Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan). Of course, it would be unfair to tar and feather the “Soul of the Senate” based on his youthful indiscretions in the KKK. As he clearly noted in his autobiography (Robert Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields), he renounced the KKK at the tender age of 25. As Michael Grunwald notes in a review of Byrd’s autobiography, he fails to account for subsequent statements on things like the desegregated military (e.g., correspondence where he declared that he would never fight “with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels”). Ah yes…a man of principles.
If Robert C. Byrd stood for any principle, it was the principle of pork (as the Soul of the Senate once stated so eloquently: “you might as well slap my wife as take away my highway money”). Citizens Against Government Waste has some interesting statistics on Byrd’s achievements (e.g., between 1991 and 2008, Senator Byrd delivered $3.3 billion in pork to West Virginia). Fortunately, we do not have to worry about finding a suitable memorial for Senator Byrd. We can simply visit those he created for himself. An incomplete list (thanks to Citizens Against Public Waste) includes:
- Robert C. Byrd Locks and Damn
- Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope
- Robert C. Byrd Drive, from Beckley to Sophia (Byrd’s hometown)
- Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling Jesuit University
- Robert C. Byrd Highway
- Robert C. Byrd Federal Correctional Institution
- Robert C. Byrd High School
- Robert C. Byrd Freeway
- Robert C. Byrd Center for Hospitality and Tourism
- Robert C. Byrd Science Center
- Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia
- Robert C. Byrd Cancer Research Center
- Robert C. Byrd Technology Center at Alderson-Broaddus College
- Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technologies Center, near Princeton
- Robert C. Byrd Bridge between Huntington and Chesapeake, Ohio
- Robert C. Byrd addition to the lodge at Oglebay Park, Wheeling
- Robert C. Byrd Community Center, Pine Grove
- Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarships
- Robert C. Byrd Expressway, U.S. 52 near Weirton
- Robert C. Byrd Institute in Charleston
- Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing
- Robert C. Byrd Visitor Center at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park
- Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse
- Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center
- Robert C. Byrd United Technical Center
- Robert C. Byrd Federal Building (there are two)
- Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex
- Robert C. Byrd Library and Robert C. Byrd Learning Resource Center
- Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center
- Robert C. Byrd Clinical Addition to the veteran’s hospital in Huntington
- Robert C. Byrd Industrial Park, Hardy County
- Robert C. Byrd Scholastic Recognition Award
- Robert C. Byrd Community Center in the naval station, Sugar Grove
- Robert C. Byrd Clinic at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
- Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center at Marshall University
R.I.P., Senator Robert Carlyle Byrd (November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010)
Marc, like you I’m appalled at the adulation this leech is receiving. He seems not to have done an honest day’s work for over 50 years, and has cost the taxpayers of the other 49 states untold millions of dollars. So, statesman? Only if the state in question is West Virginia, I think.
An elected thief!
Just a typical Democrat.
a typical politician. self-aggrandizing knows no political party.
So high schools and freeways and cancer research centers and prisons are all just useless “pork”?
It is unseemly to have names of living pols attached to them.
And these things are properly the purview of the market (in the case of high school adminstration and medical research) or of states (freeways, prisons).
No, these things are not “all just useless ‘pork.” Let’s break this down a bit. Pork is not purely “useless” in most instances. It may provides jobs (e.g., working at the Robert C. Byrd gift shop at the Robert C. Byrd Visitor Center at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park). It may reward loyal constituents. It may help elected officials remain elected officials. All of these may be valued and thus are not purely “useless.”
In fact, Citizens Against Government Waste uses seven criteria to identify pork (requested by only one chamber of Congress; not specifically authorized; not competitively awarded; not requested by the President; greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding; not the subject of congressional hearings; or serves only a local or special interest). One may disagree with one or more of these criteria. However, None of these criteria speaks to the issue of usefulness.