-Caveat Lector- JANUARY 29, 2003 http://www.thehill.com/eisele/012903.aspx
Albert Eisele On the Record Senator Byrd takes on the White House You have to get up pretty early to get the jump on Sen. Robert Byrd. Even at 85, the West Virginia Democrat and now senior member of the Senate showed up half an hour early for an 8 a.m. meeting with reporters at the St. Regis Hotel on a frigid Friday morning. The occasion was Washington’s longest-running power breakfast for print journalists — no TV or radio types invited — that the Christian Science Monitor has sponsored since 1966. Occasionally, the group grills newsmakers at lunch or dinner or, as with White House political guru Karl Rove two days earlier, at an afternoon tea. Fortunately, David Cook, the avuncular successor to Godfrey (“Budge”) Sperling Jr., who hosted some 3,200 such sessions before retiring last year, was on hand to greet Byrd. Like an old lion in winter, the white-maned Byrd made it clear that he will brook no challenge to Senate prerogatives from Rove or from Rove’s boss, or from the newly empowered Senate Republican leadership. As the bleary-eyed reporters straggled in and 18th century English monarchs looked on from the walls, Byrd delivered a 15-minute tutorial on constitutional history that showed why The Almanac of American Politics once said he may come closest to the kind of senator the Founding Fathers had in mind. Byrd, who was elected to the Senate in 1958 after six years in the House and who has served both as majority and minority leader, lamented that, because neither members of Congress nor the public understands the proper role of the legislative branch, many Americans now look to the president as the source of all authority. “In the days since Sept. 11, 2001, we have seen power shift to the executive branch,” he declared. “Without a Congress willing to stand up for its prerogatives, and without a public that understands the importance of equal branches of government and separation of powers, that shift will gain the speed of a downhill truck.” Byrd issued a blistering broadside against his Senate and House colleagues — and much of the media — for not opposing the Bush administration’s “bull- headed rush to war” in Iraq without seeking the support of world opinion or finding conclusive evidence of Saddam Hussein’s noncompliance with United Nations disarmament demands. Declaring himself “amazed at the cowardice on the part of some of our members,” Byrd called it “absolutely disgraceful that we have not used that great force, the Senate, to inform the people, to debate this great issue, to advise the administration, to create a better understanding of why the administration is asking the American people to send its boys and girls off to war.” Byrd warned that Bush “has thrust the United States into a new and unflattering posture on the world stage [where] America the peacemaker is now seen as the bully on the block.” Reminded that Rove (who drew some 70 reporters compared to about 40 for Byrd) told the same group that Americans support Bush’s hard line on Iraq, Byrd said the president has yet to present clear and compelling evidence that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction. As a result, he said, “I don’t think the American people understand why we’re going to war.” Byrd insisted that he isn’t acting out of partisan motivations, “so help me God,” and predicted that Congress would rally behind the president, as it did for his father in 1991, should he make a convincing case for a preemptive strike against Iraq. If not, President Bush may find the dean of the Senate leading the next antiwar protest at the White House gates. Albert Eisele is editor of The Hill. Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article have to stand on their own merits. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. 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