![]() ![]() Vice President Richard Nixon was the presiding officer. Byrd cast his first vote in the Senate - on Jan. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, said, "To help put the length of his service in perspective, consider a few facts: When Sen. In his 51 years in the Senate, the Democratic senator cast more than 18,600 votes - more than any other senator to date.ĭelivering a tribute on the Senate floor following Byrd's 18,000th vote, Sen. But what set him apart from other senators was that "he could put it back in his pocket and recite it verbatim, the whole Constitution," recalled Sen. He insisted on the dignity of the Senate and tried to make people put aside their partisanship and really look at the Senate as a deliberative body," ABC News contributor Cokie Roberts said on "Good Morning America."īyrd always carried a copy of the Constitution and often pulled it out in one of his fiery speeches on the Senate floor. "And the Senate is a lesser place for his going."įamed for his informed, often lengthy speeches on the floor of the Senate, Byrd's admirers praised his mastery of governmental procedure, historical knowledge and candor - often calling him the "conscience of the Senate."īyrd will be remembered "as that guardian of the Senate, as an institution. "We shall not see his like again," Biden said today at an event in Louisville, Kentucky. Vice President Joe Biden remembered Byrd as a "tough, compassionate, and outspoken leader." ![]() "He was as much a part of the Senate as the marble busts that line its chamber and its corridors." Byrd," President Obama said in a statement today. "The people of West Virginia have lost a true champion, the United States Senate has lost a venerable institution and America has lost a voice of principle and reason with the passing of Robert C. ![]()
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