2010 scores another VIP kill...

Here's a brief excerpt of the story as reported by Yahoo! News:

Quote :

West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd dead at 92



By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 28, 6:02 am ET


WASHINGTON – Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.

A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He had been in the hospital since late last week.

At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He had been in frail health for several years.

Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate's majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Why?!

Why did this 92 year old man have to die?

Quote :

WASHINGTON – Sen. Robert Byrd of West
Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging
power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of
his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.

That's a real polite way of saying "Obnoxious racist and Undisputed King of Pork and Assorted Wasteful Spending whose sole goal in life was to name every street, library and sewer system in West Virginia after himself died Monday. He was 92."

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

That's a real polite way of saying "Obnoxious racist and Undisputed King of Pork and Assorted Wasteful Spending whose sole goal in life was to name every street, library and sewer system in West Virginia after himself died Monday. He was 92."

1) If you wanted to be in politics at all at the time he was growing up, you pretty much had to be in the KKK (which Byrd later characterized as "the greatest mistake I ever made").

2) Byrd repented and regretted his involvement in the KKK, particularly after his opposition to the Civil Rights Act. He explicitly renounced his position on racial segregation, and became a better supporter of civil rights than most of his former Democratic colleagues ever were (at the time of his death, his ACLU rating on rights-related legislation was around 70%).

3) Show me a politician who isn't trying to steer pork to his District, and I'll show you a politician who isn't likely to be in Congress very long.

I remember my government teacher saying that even after Byrd died, W. Va. would still elect him. (Zombie!Senator)

Now we get to find out.

Chris91 wrote:

2010 Old age scores another VIP kill

FTFY

He was 92, he died still a Senator and doing what he loved, and he set a record for longest tenure. This one's not exactly a tragedy in my eyes. He seems to have done all right.

And now he can be with his beloved Ted.

Spotts1701 wrote:

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

That's a real polite way of saying "Obnoxious racist and Undisputed King of Pork and Assorted Wasteful Spending whose sole goal in life was to name every street, library and sewer system in West Virginia after himself died Monday. He was 92."

1) If you wanted to be in politics at all at the time he was growing up, you pretty much had to be in the KKK (which Byrd later characterized as "the greatest mistake I ever made").

2) Byrd repented and regretted his involvement in the KKK, particularly after his opposition to the Civil Rights Act. He explicitly renounced his position on racial segregation, and became a better supporter of civil rights than most of his former Democratic colleagues ever were (at the time of his death, his ACLU rating on rights-related legislation was around 70%).

3) Show me a politician who isn't trying to steer pork to his District, and I'll show you a politician who isn't likely to be in Congress very long.

So he was a racist as long as it was politically convenient for him, then pretended to not be a racist once racism fell out of style?

Also, John McCain, and uh...

Well, John McCain. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]