Last night, my wife and I attended a small reception for Senator Robert Byrd. In the past two years we've started to attend quite a few of these, and they're usually a pro forma combination of stump speeches, handshakes and a few minutes of chitchat as the candidate walks out the door. This was different (more below the fold)
First, let's be honest: Sen Byrd is getting on in years. He stands with a cane, walks slowly, talks softly, and occasionally stops in mid-speech to collect his thoughts. But, when he continues, his thoughts are both sharp and to the point, as well as richly dotted with history and culture.
At last night's reception, he spoke extemporaneously for about 20 minutes, focusing on contemporary issues such as the War in Iraq (pointedly observing that none of the 9/11 hijackers came from there), the growing national debt, and the Administration's attempts to usurp power from the Congress. He also, despite his "courtly" demeanor (an overused term, but highly appropriate in this case) exhibited a clear disdain for President Bush and his cronies ("never worked a day in his life" comes to mind as a quote). And, as he did so, he wove into his discourse details of Alexander Hamilton's duel with Aaron Burr, Cato's speech to the Roman Senate on public service, and a poem (recited from memory) by Gilbert Chesterton:
I asked myself, as I went my way,
which of these roles have I tried today?
Am I a builder, who works with care,
measuring life by the rule and square,
shaping my deeds by the well-made plan,
patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,
content with the labor of tearing down?
Even better, after the speech was over, and the reception was breaking up, he and my wife had a 10 minute private conversation on the constitutional implications of the Congress' War Powers resolution authorizing the President to take whatever action he wanted in response to the "War on Terror".
My observation to Sen. Schumer who, as DSCC Chair was there to do introductions, was that more Democratic Senators and candidates should speak their minds like Senator Byrd does. The Party and the nation would be better for it.