By Mannix Porterfield
On the day he learned of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s brain cancer, Sen. Robert C. Byrd broke down and wept in the Senate chamber.
Then came the grim news Wednesday that Kennedy’s year-long bout with the affliction ended in death.
“I had hoped and prayed that this day would never come,” Byrd, D-W.Va., said Wednesday in a statement from his office.
“My heart and soul weeps at the lost of my best friend in the Senate, my beloved friend, Ted Kennedy.”
Byrd is the longest serving member of the Senate in its storied history, and the Massachusetts senator was third behind him.
As political luminaries paid tribute to the last of the famed Kennedy brothers of Massachusetts, Byrd recalled how he and Ted Kennedy resisted the Bush administration over the war in Iraq.
“Sen. Kennedy and I both witnessed too many wars in our lives, and believed too strongly in the Constitution of the United States to allow us to go blindly into war. That is why we stood side by side in the Senate against the war in Iraq.”
Byrd said his late friend’s idealism wasn’t diminished by his age, his years of political battles on Capitol Hill, nor by his illness.
“Throughout his career, Sen. Kennedy believed in a simple premise — that our society’s greatness lies in its ability and willingness to provide for its less fortunate members,” he said.
“Whether striving to increase the minimum wage, ensuring that all children have medical insurance, or securing better access to higher education, Sen. Kennedy always showed that he cares deeply for those whose needs exceed their political clout. Unbowed by personal attacks or by the terrible sorrows that have fallen upon his family, his spirit continued to soar and he continued to work as hard as ever to make his dreams a reality.”
West Virginians have a close kinship with the Kennedy clan, dating to the 1960 presidential election when John Kennedy tested his ability to win as a Roman Catholic in a largely Protestant state en route to the White House.
Kennedy returned to the state in 1963 to help West Virginia observe its 100th birthday.
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
