Senator Robert Byrd Breaks Down Over Ted Kennedy's Brain Tumor

Senator Robert C. Byrd became emotional while paying tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor today. Byrd was reacting to news of Kennedy's malignant brain tumor.
"Ted, Ted, my dear friend I love you and I miss you," said Byrd.

Watch the video from MSNBC:

Comments

[savory1]

Senater Byrd is a sweet and genuine man and may Senater Kennedy fight the Good Fight with God's Blessings.

[BlackandProud]

Of course Robert "KKK" Byrd loves Kennedy.

All former Klansmen love the Kennedys.

Peas in a pod.

[rzan]

Tell me, because you obviously know. is ignorance bliss?

[BlackandProud]

Read the reply above, and you'll learn something.

[BlackWidowPilot]

"Peas in a pod?" According to whom are the *Kennedy brothers* peas in the pod with the KKK?

Please cite your sources.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[BlackandProud]

Let me give you one of many examples:

When Senate Democrats successfully blocked President Bush's nominees for federal appeals-court judgeships (California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, a black woman, and Miguel Estrada, a Hispanic), Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., told reporters that he would continue to oppose any "Neanderthal that is nominated by the president for any federal court."

The implication is that this black female judge and Hispanic man are something less than human beings... lower on the evolutionary scale.

If you do your homework you'll find that peppered throughout his family's history are unfortunate racist comments like this. The Kennedys are the typical billionaire elitists who look at blacks and hispanics as "less than whites"...

...or as Kennedy put it... Neanderthals.

[DHSmd]

As you may know, I am quite familiar with the chapter in Byrd's life that produced your KKK reference. The past should never be forgotten, but human beings who show enough honesty to recognize the error of their ways and who show the courage to change them for the better deserve forgiveness.

More importantly, those who were wronged by others deserve to forgive - for earned absolution is a gift to both the injured and the forgiven. Conversely, those who hold on to their bitterness long past the injurious acts that produced it are harmed by it to a greater degree than is the target of their animosity.

Above all else, your attempt to tar Kennedy with that same brush is just mind-numbingly stupid. By what possible measure could you even begin to justify such an outrageous comment?

[lysistrata]

Can anyone think of a Republican Senator of the stature of Senators Byrd and Kennedy?

[rwe]

none are that low

[Cynical]

I watched Senator Byrd several months ago reading something on the floor of the Senate and my first reaction was that this man has been there for too long. He couldn't put a coherent though together without it being on the printed page.

His affection for Kennedy seems to be real, but I was looking for the paper that he was reading from during his comments.

Time for both of the dinosaurs of the Senate to call it quits.

[Eric8869]

I just saw Phil Donahue's BODY OF WAR documentary. Mr, Byrd is so eloquent and moving in that movie. He is a great man.

[CrazyDemocrat]

No way are Byrd and Kennedy buddies !!

[kathykathy]

Senator Byrd - Ferociously against the war from the start! An enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama. A dear friend of Senator Kennedy. A GREAT SENATOR IN HIS OWN RIGHT!!!

[jamrock47]

I too am no fan of politicans,but from the moment this great country opened it's doors to me. being the political junkie I am I have gravitated to senator Ted Kennedy, not because of his last name but because of the unwavering way in which he have fought for the little man, he didn't have to , he was born rich however he has dedicated his life to serving his fellow man, no man can do more than serve his fellow man, I have never met Senator Kennedy, but it didn't take long for him to become my favourite political leader, there are too few leaders like Ted Kennedy, there was one other young man whom had started in the same vein but was taken away too soon , I speak of Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, there is one more ,Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, I have been saying for a long time that Senator Obama should ask Senator Hagel to serve as his vice President.I cried when I heard the news about Senator Kennedy , and I asked God why it is that the good people are the ones whom always seem to get afflicted or cut down, I pray for forgiveness for this impertinence, may good bless Senator Kennedy and his family we are praying for you.

[JFaye]

Yesterday, I cried. Today, my prayer and thoughts are for his fight ... as well his wife, children and the entire Kennedy klan ... a profile in courage continues.

CBS did an informed, encouraging interview with Dr. Bernardine Healy (not sure is first name spelled correctly) with a very similar diagnosis and SHE SURVIVED!!!

As our next president so eloquently spoke last night, SENATOR KENNEDY WE'RE FIGHTING WITH YOU AND FOR YOU. LIVE!

[DHSmd]

Just read a long article on Byrd's albatross of KKK involvement, and his lifetime effort to overcome that stain on his reputation. As far as I am concerned, He has made up for his youthful ignorance and indiscretion many times over. He may have been slow to move into the Civil Rights camp, but he has been one of the greatest senators in our nation's history for half a century, and has been a steady voice for peace and sanity through several insane periods during that time.

I already posted an appreciation for Sen Kennedy and his family over at dKos. So here, I'd like to express my appreciation, admiration, and forgiveness of, for, and to Senator Byrd.

Sens Kennedy and Byrd, we have too few Great Americans in our time. Please stay with us a while longer, because we need you now more than ever.

[MsLiz]

I appreciate how much an Appalachian Southerner can love a Massachusetts Yankee. But then, I am the daughter of an Alabamian and a Rhode Islander.

[GrainOSand]

1968 was one heck of a year in history. The world seemed to be in a state of massive flux, turmoil, emerging potential, and looming doom. That was a mere forty years ago. 2008 is shaping up to be a year of equally great change, conflict, and definition. To me the most compelling analysis of the two years will be the comparative analysis that reflects how far this nation has come. In that regard I grabbed a few notable items off of the list of events from 1968 for people to think about. The entire list is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968

Who are we is the ever-present question. The candidacies of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain are coincidental to this question and will only be reflective or symptomatic of the answer, not an avoidance of having to answer as some may think.

May Senator Ted Kennedy live on and may society come to grow as Robert Byrd seems to have grown. May we all bend more towards love! May we free ourselves from the manacles and the iron vests and steel masks of hatred born of ignorance and fear! May this nation truly be great and therefore deserving of blessing! May Ted Kennedy, live on to see the fulfillment of his dream that this be so, and may we all know we are better because of his commitment to public service!

[GrainOSand]

1968 – Part I

January 15 - An earthquake in Sicily kills 231 and injures 262.
January 30 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins, as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.
February 1 - Vietnam War: A Viet Cong officer is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The event is photographed by Eddie Adams. The photo makes headlines around the world, eventually winning the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, and sways U.S. public opinion against the war.
March 16 - Vietnam War: My Lai massacre - American troops kill scores of civilians.
March 31 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not seek re-election.
April - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, becomes the first amputee certified to make diving missions, after a long battle which started with the accident which amputated his leg in 1966.
April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupt in major American cities for several days afterward.
April 11 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
May - "May of 68" is a symbol of the resistance of that generation. Agitations and strikes in Paris lead many youth to believe that a revolution is starting. Student and worker strikes, sometimes referred to as the French May, nearly bring down the French government.

[mike53]

We need term limits.

[GrainOSand]

1968 -- Part II
May 17 - The Catonsville Nine enter the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, take dozens of selective service draft records, and burn them with napalm as a protest against the Vietnam War.
June 3 - Radical feminist Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol as he enters his studio, wounding him.
June 5 - U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy dies from his injuries the next day.
June 8 - James Earl Ray is arrested for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
July 17 - Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état.
August 5-August 8 - The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida nominates Richard Nixon for U.S. President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President.
August 21 - The Medal of Honor is posthumously awarded to James Anderson, Jr. — he is the first black U.S. Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
August 24 - France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
September 6 - Swaziland becomes independent.
September 7 - 150 women protest against the Miss America Pageant, as exploitative of women. It is one of the first large demonstrations of Second Wave Feminism.