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Forwarded to you by BuzzFlash:
O'Neill Cries at Senate Hearing and Claims He Was Born in a
Ditch
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020207/
ts_nm/economy_oneill_spat_dc_2
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Treasury's O'Neill, Senator Byrd Trade Barbs
Thu Feb 7, 3:00 PM ET
By Glenn Somerville
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A routine Senate hearing took a
strange twist on Thursday when an infuriated Treasury
Secretary Paul O'Neill traded barbs with Democratic Sen.
Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of U.S. Congress,
over who grew up poorer.
But when asked later about a report that there were tears
in his eyes during the heated exchange with the 84-year-old
West Virginia Senator, O'Neill shot back: "That was fire."
The spat began when Byrd took offense to a cartoon in the
Bush administration's 2003 budget document, released on
Monday, showing Gulliver tied down by Lilliputians, which
the West Virginia senator said implied the interests of
ordinary people were too minor to warrant consideration.
The silver-haired Byrd, renowned for his insistence that
the White House show respect for Congress, then snapped:
"I've been here for 50 years (and) we're here to represent
the interests of the people."
Byrd labeled the cartoon's inclusion in the glossy, photo-
filled, flag-emblazoned budget document -- a departure from
the usual plain-paper, plain-cover plan the White House
usually produces -- "nonsense" and added: "A lot of us were
here before you. You're not Alexander Hamilton."
Hamilton was the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, who
served from 1789 until 1795 and who established basic
economic policy for the United States.
O'Neill, a wealthy former industrialist, was clearly
agitated by Byrd's manner and fired back: "I've dedicated
my life to doing what I can to getting rid of rules that
limit human potential and I'm not going to stop."
Sitting ramrod straight at the witness desk, O'Neill
rejected any implication that he lacked empathy for
ordinary working Americans and said his own beginnings were
humble.
A LADDER WITHOUT RUNGS
"I started my life in a house without water or electricity
so I don't cede the high moral ground to you of knowing
what life was like in a ditch," O'Neill said in a tightly
controlled voice.
Byrd was swift with a riposte. "I started out in life
without any rungs in the bottom of the ladder...I've had
that experience and I can stand toe-to-toe with you," he
said.
The West Virginia Senator then threw in a reference to an
early controversy involving O'Neill, who initially resisted
putting his huge personal stock holdings into a trust when
he was appointed Treasury secretary but eventually did so.
"I haven't walked in any corporate boardrooms. I haven't
had to turn millions of dollars into trust accounts -- I
wish I had those millions of dollars." Byrd said.
"I grew up in a coal-miner's home and I married a coal-
miner's daughter, so I hope you don't want to start down
this road and talk about our backgrounds and how far back
we came from," he added.
NOT THE FIRST TIME
Even after the normal committee business resumed, the
touchiness between O'Neill and Byrd occasionally flared.
As Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore), led O'Neill through a series
of gentle questions and said he hoped the Treasury
secretary hadn't felt "demeaned," he noted that O'Neill
clearly didn't need the job.
Byrd quickly interjected. "I don't need to serve here
either. I could retire and get more money," he said tartly.
The exchange came at the start of O'Neill's fourth
appearance on Capitol Hill this week to discuss and defend
the Bush budget proposals, but it was by far the liveliest.
Veterans of the Senate Budget Committee took it in stride,
though, especially Sen. Byrd's participation in it.
"He's skewered witnesses before," a Senate aide said
afterward. "This is not a first."
Nor is it the first tense moment between Byrd and the
Treasury secretary, whose fondness for plain speaking has
landed him in hot water with Congress before.
During a Senate Budget panel hearing last March, Byrd, a
vocal guardian of Senate etiquette, took O'Neill sharply to
task for interrupting Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a
Democrat, as she questioned the Treasury chief about Bush's
tax-cut plan.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020207/
ts_nm/economy_oneill_spat_dc_2
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