Colleagues Celebrate Life, Legacy Of Robert Byrd

Legislators and Presidents gathered in West Virginia Friday to honor the memory of recently deceased Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history.

“He was a Senate icon, he was a party leader, he was an elder statesman and he was my friend,” President Barack Obama said from the West Virginia Capitol’s north plaza, the site of the memorial service.

Byrd, who died early Monday morning, served three terms in the House of Representatives in the 1950s. In 1958, he was elected to the Senate, where throughout his career he assumed the roles of Majority Leader, chairman of the Appropriations Committee and President Pro Tempore, leaving him fourth in line for the Presidency. He was well known as a firery advocate for his state and secured his constituents with an unprecedented level of federal funds.

Earlier in his life, the West Virginia Democrat was briefly a member of the Ku Klux Klan and filibustered against the Civil Rights Act in 1964. However, as his career progressed Byrd reversed many of his positions and expressed shame over both periods in his life.

“He was a country boy from the hills … of West Virgina and he was trying to get elected. Maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done, [but] he spent the rest of his life making it up,” former President Bill Clinton said. “That’s what a good person does.”

In the 2008 Democratic Primary Byrd endorsed Obama over then Senator Hillary Clinton.

A number of those in attendance touched warmly upon Byrd’s command of history and literature.

“He had an incredible, prodigious memory,” Vice President Joe Biden, who served 35 years with Byrd in the Senate, said. “I remember one time sitting with the queen of England … and he recited the entire lineage of the Tudors and every year each one had served.”

Added Biden, “She sat there and I thought her bonnet was going to flip off her head.”

Byrd’s declining health relegated the Senator to the sidelines for much of the last year. However, on Christmas Eve the wheelchair bound Byrd was brought into the upper chamber to deliver a decisive vote to pass health care reform.

Also in attendance for Friday’s memorial service were Senate Majority and Minority Leaders Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the widow of deceased Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) Vicki Kennedy.

On Thursday, Byrd laid in repose in the Senate chamber for six hours. Starting Monday, his Senate desk was draped in black and adorned with a pot of white flowers and his personal copy of the constitution. Byrd was 92.

McConnell ‘Sure Hopes’ Democrats' Health Care Reform Push Is Dead

Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown’s victory Tuesday night could kill Democrats’ chances of completing their months-long effort to reform the health care system, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell seems just fine with that.

When asked at a press conference Wednesday whether he believed if Brown’s long-shot victory meant the legislation in its current form was dead, McConnell replied “I sure hope so.”

“This was in many ways a national referendum, principally on the major issue we’re wrestling with here in the Congress,” the Kentucky Senator explained.

According to McConnell, Brown’s victory could also impede a number of other items on the majority party’s agenda, including climate change legislation.

“There is minimal enthusiasm, to put it mildly, for cap and trade,” McConnell said, but noted that the decision to pursue climate policy would ultimately be left with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

McConnell expressed confidence that neither Democrats in the Massachusetts state legislature or the U.S. Senate will make any moves to pass the legislation prior to Brown being sworn-in, but conceded that the House could still adopt the Senate’s version of the legislation as-is, and thus pass reform.

“I can’t speak for the House,” McConnell said. “There has been discussion on the House side.”

Senate Will Stay In Session Christmas Eve For Health Care Vote

The Senate will remain in session Christmas eve to continue debate on health care reform legislation.

“We will be here Christmas eve completing work on this bill,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday afternoon following his party’s policy luncheon. “I think it’s important that we take the time to analyze it every way we can before the final votes are taken in the Senate.”

While the rules of the Senate provide 30 hours of debate following cloture, there were hopes among Senate Democrats that the minority party would accept an agreement to move the vote up to Wednesday.

Earlier Tuesday, McConnell stated on the Senate floor that he and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would pursue an agreement to bring the health care reform debate to a sensible end.

"[Reid and I] are working on an agreement that will give certainty to the way to end this session,” said McConnell. “Hopefully, the two of us together can be recommending something that makes sense for both sides in the not too distant future.”

McConnell could not confirm when he expects the Senate to hold their vote on the 24th.

Boehner Will Back $250 To Seniors If It Comes From Stimulus Funds

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday that he would support the recent announcement by the White House to provide senior citizens with a check for $250 if the move was payed for with Recovery Act funds.

“The stimulus bill is not working,” said Boehner during a press briefing. “If we’re going provide this benefit to our seniors, why don’t we take it from stimulus funds that clearly aren’t getting the job done?”

The White House suggested the $250 early Wednesday to counter the lack of a cost of living increase in funds received by Social Security recipients.

Boehner was joined Thursday by Senate Minoirty Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who disparaged the direction the health care debate has taken.

McConnell called upon his Democratic colleagues to slow down the health care reform process, pointing to the length of time it took the Senate to tackle other crucial issues.

“Some would argue that [health care reform] is a bigger issue than No Child Left Behind. We spent seven weeks on that,” McConnell said. “Some would argue that this is a bigger issue than Energy, we spent eight weeks on that.”

McConnell Declines Comment On Ensign Scandal

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Friday declined the opportunity to comment on the scandal facing GOP Senators John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Tom Coburn (R-Ok).

“I don’t have any observations to make about the Ensign matter today,” McConnell said.

The Minority Leader's refusal comes after the revelation that Ensign had a relationship with the wife of a former aide. Coburn has also been accused of advising Ensign to give the aide money in order to relocate to Colorado.

McConnell also touched upon the America’s Healthy Future Act, the markup of which concluded early Thursday morning.

“What we know for sure about this proposal, the core of it, is that it will include half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts over 10 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases on both individuals and businesses,” he said.

McConnell said these are the issues the American people were responding to during the townhall protests in August.