Washington: US Senator Robert Byrd, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died yesterday. He was 92.
A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3am at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Vancouver. He had been in hospital since late last week.
At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He'd been in frail health for several years.
Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate's majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Senator Jay Rockefeller, a fellow West Virginian in the Senate, said it was his "greatest privilege" to serve with Byrd. "I looked up to him, I fought next to him, and I am deeply saddened that he is gone," Rockefeller said.
In comportment and style, Byrd often seemed a throwback to the courtly 19th century. He could recite poetry, quote the Bible, discuss the Constitutional Convention and detail the Peloponnesian Wars and frequently he did in Senate debates.
Yet there was nothing courtly about his exercise of power. Byrd was a master of the Senate's bewildering rules and a longtime chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls a third of the $3 trillion (Dh11.01 trillion) federal budget. He was willing to use both to reward friends and punish those he viewed as having slighted him. "Bob is a living encyclopedia, and legislative graveyards are filled with the bones of those who underestimated him," Former House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, once said in remarks Byrd later displayed in his office.
In 1971, Byrd ousted Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts as the Democrats' second in command. He was elected majority leader in 1976 and held the post until the Democrats lost control of the Senate four years later. He remained his party's leader through six years in the minority, then spent another two years as the majority leader.
Byrd stepped aside as majority leader in 1989 when Democrats sought a more contemporary spokesman. His consolation price was the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee, with control over almost limitless federal spending. Within two years, he surpassed his five-year goal of making sure more than $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) in federal funds sent back to West Virginia. The money was used to build highways, bridges, buildings and other facilities, some still named after him.
