Political Quotes

“Mr. President, with the passing of our colleague, Robert Byrd, a mighty oak in the forest of Senate history has fallen. There are flowers on his desk, but there is a tremendous void in our midst. As we all know, Senator Byrd was the longest serving Senator in the history of this body. But what was most remarkable about Robert C. Byrd was not his longevity but his unique stature and accomplishment in the Senate. No individual in our long history has been a more tenacious champion of the traditions, prerogatives, and rules of this body. Senator Byrd was very fond of noting how many Presidents he had served under. He always answered, ``None.'' As he explained it, he had never served under any President but he had served with 11 Presidents as a proud member of a separate and coequal branch of government. Likewise, no individual has had greater reverence for the Constitution and for our Founders' vision for an assertive, independent legislative branch. As the ``Almanac of American Politics'' says in its profile of Senator Byrd: He may come closer to the kind of Senator the Founding Fathers had in mind than any other. For so many years, if anyone on the Senate floor needed to look up something in the Constitution, we knew where to turn. Senator Byrd always carried a copy in his left breast pocket, directly over his heart.…”