With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Democrats May Nudge Byrd Off Post in Committee

Senate Democrats are coming around to the view that Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the longest-serving senator in American history, needs to be replaced as chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the next Congress, because he is not up to the immense challenges he would face in that job, Democratic aides said Tuesday.

Democratic senators hope Mr. Byrd will step aside voluntarily, the aides said. But, they added, a growing number of Democratic senators would, reluctantly and sorrowfully, try to ease him out as chairman if he did not do so.
Mr. Byrd, 90, entered the House of Representatives in 1953 and has been a senator since 1959. In a statement Tuesday, he indicated that he would try to hold on to his leadership of the committee, which controls about one-third of all federal spending.
Read entire article at NYT