Robert C. Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in 1917. Adopted by his aunt and uncle, who renamed him, he was raised in the coal-mining region of southern West Virginia.
At the age of 24, Robert Byrd became a member of the Ku Klux Klan and was quickly elected as an officer – an event that began is quest for a political career. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd). Though Byrd would later renounce his tenure as Kleagle (recruiter) and Grand Cyclops in the racist order, it no doubt bode well for his electability in the racially divided West Virginia towns that dotted the coal laden mountains.
Byrd’s first Senate election carried significant racial overtones as well. Republican incumbent W. Chapman Revercomb was on record as an advocate of civil rights – an issue that played in Byrd’s favor. Senator Byrd joined with other Southern and border state Democrats to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1964,personally filibustering the bill for 14 hours. Even though Senator Byrd place himself in the camp of those Democrats who opposed the Civil Rights Act on “states rights” grounds, his stance helped him avoid serious opposition – as he was reelected eight times.
The enigma that was Senator Byrd ran the gammut from his early Klan ties and his filibustering of the Civil Rights Act, to later denouncing his youthful transgressions and begging forgiveness. Further clouding the portrait of Robert C. Byrd was his opposition to Judges Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas – both black – and his later battle against many of George W. Bush’s appointees – who were also black. And the strangest of all was Byrd’s 100 per cent approval rating by the NAACP for the 108th Congress (2003-2004). In what could be seen as “political payback”, in 2005 Senator Byrd proposed $10 million in additional spending for the MLK national memorial in DC.
Many have pointed to Senator Byrd’s propensity for spending other people’s money, as evidenced by the MLK proposal, as the means to his longevity. Known as the “King of Pork” by the Citizens Against Government Waste, Byrd succeeded in steering over $1 Billion to West Virginia for public works in the state. A shameless adherent to wealth redistribution, Byrd was proud of the thirty pending or existing federal projects that bore his name and referred to himself as “Big Daddy”.
There are others, holding not so caustic or cynical view of the Senator, who maintain that it was his ability to connect to West Virginians that kept him in office. An anonymous poster on another commentary said this:
I once visited Byrd in his Senate office and in the foothold of his desk was a pile of boxes containing 6×8 cards with names and phone numbers on them. They were the names of local officials in all the counties of West Virginia, and he called them regularly. Lyndon Johnson did the same thing, and I think Byrd picked the idea up from him. I believe this is the reason for Byrd’s unbelievable support in West Virginia, even in his old age when it was clear he didn’t have full control of his faculties. I contend his personal contacts were more significant than the federal funds and projects he funneled to the state because money is anonymous, but local officials remember when a senator calls them and seeks their advice. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2010/06/28/DI2010062801981.html).
And so, was it Senator Byrd’s ability to “bring home the bacon” that so endeared him to his constituents;? Or was it a willingness to “chew the fat” with local pols that kept sending him back to the Senate? I think it may have been a little of both.