Senator Robert Byrd did something really funny...
Well, not really "hahaha" funny, but more "weird" funny.
I was watching CNN earlier and they went to a commercial after showing the members of the Senate all reciting the Pledge of Allegience this morning. Then people took their seats and several people came to the podium to take their places.
Byrd sits at the top seat, over everyone. Anyway he gets beside his chair and pulls it out (his chair) and just stands there and looks at it, then looks off to the side, where a blue-blazered page or whatever is standing. Byrd just stares at this kid and suddenly the page (or whatever the hell it's called) RUNS over, pull the chair out, gets Byrd all cozy, checks him arm placement and then gingerly scoots the old coot Byrd into place.
Byrd was able to PULL his chair out, lean on it, stand in front of it, etc. But how dare he have to sit in it and be pushed in unassisted!
The nerve!
It just looked weird, and a very snooty, kingly sort of gesture. This wasn't the focal part of the scene (it was a wide shot showing the entire podium area with people scrambling around), but I happened to be watching Byrd at the top of the screen because he was just standing there looking off at something, then that's when the kid darted out.
I've seen enough interviews with Byrd over the years. He's kinda a crotchety old fart and seems to trip on the power a bit. More than any other politician I can recall, I seem to see him acting like a dick more than most.
Seeing this today was another little reminder that he probably is the bane of every mid-level aide and page on Capitol Hill.
Snooty old fart.
I was watching CNN earlier and they went to a commercial after showing the members of the Senate all reciting the Pledge of Allegience this morning. Then people took their seats and several people came to the podium to take their places.
Byrd sits at the top seat, over everyone. Anyway he gets beside his chair and pulls it out (his chair) and just stands there and looks at it, then looks off to the side, where a blue-blazered page or whatever is standing. Byrd just stares at this kid and suddenly the page (or whatever the hell it's called) RUNS over, pull the chair out, gets Byrd all cozy, checks him arm placement and then gingerly scoots the old coot Byrd into place.
Byrd was able to PULL his chair out, lean on it, stand in front of it, etc. But how dare he have to sit in it and be pushed in unassisted!
The nerve!
It just looked weird, and a very snooty, kingly sort of gesture. This wasn't the focal part of the scene (it was a wide shot showing the entire podium area with people scrambling around), but I happened to be watching Byrd at the top of the screen because he was just standing there looking off at something, then that's when the kid darted out.
I've seen enough interviews with Byrd over the years. He's kinda a crotchety old fart and seems to trip on the power a bit. More than any other politician I can recall, I seem to see him acting like a dick more than most.
Seeing this today was another little reminder that he probably is the bane of every mid-level aide and page on Capitol Hill.
Snooty old fart.
Comments
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Snooty old fart.
Yep. Not to mention he called a duly confirmed and senior member of the federal judiciary "stupid" about 100X's yesterday. Talk about lack of restraint. I think its bad to heap disrespect onto the courts and thereby encourage others to disrespect the institution. Oh well. Maybe my perspective is a little warped... (maybe?!?)
Thoth
He also slammed a big door shut in the face of someone.
Then his "verbal" style: yeah, the name-calling and insults.
He seems to be a classic case (like Kennedy or someone) who has been in the position so long and has never been challenged and simply KNOWS the job is his for as long as HE wants it, that it's all gone to his head a bit. He's this senior member, so I'm sure he's got LOTS of perks and leeway and pull, so he can pretty much do whatever, I guess.
Well, he certainly acts like it, that's for sure.
He just seems like a grumpy old man and...hey, wait...he IS!
"Hi, I'm Senator Byrd...you can't touch me, so go screw yourselves. Ah've got a committee breakfast to attend this mornin'. And that little pudgy bastard page Timmy had BETTAH pull my chair out for me the way I taught him, otherwise there's gonna be hell to pay! Hell, I tell ya!"
Dipshit.
Holy hell.
Okay, folks...THIS is how I know a double-standard exists...AND DON'T EVER ****ING DOUBT ME AGAIN.
Could any of you, honestly, imagine a Republican who was an ex-KKK being in the Senate or whatever? Okay, maybe he COULD, but that would be his permanent, ongoing label. It would be the phrase or tagline associated with him in every news story, profile, etc.
Just ask that idiot David Duke.
Seriously, folks: would Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, John McCain, Fred Thompson, etc. ever be allowed a moment's peace if they were former KKK members?
I'm not saying Byrd is still one, and I'm sure that he doesn't feel that way anymore. Good for him.
But I love the forgiveness and chumminess afforded him (because he, apprently, is on the "right team", when it comes to race and civil rights issues).
"Yeah, Senator Byrd WAS a member...but we all forgive him because now, more importantly, he's ain't a Republican! He's one of the Good Guys!"
You just KNOW it.
Here's how it breaks down, people:
A Democrat can actually BE in the KKK, but in the big scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. It can be overlooked and forgiven and forgotten.
A Republican can merely have it SUGGESTED that PERHAPS he harbors a bigoted mindset, perhaps due to his opposition for some huge, overreaching Federal program that directly or indirectly affects blacks to some degree (or, worse, to simply have the lack of tact to perhaps utter a "a white guy, a Mexican and a black guy walk into a bar..." joke when he shouldn't) and all absolute hell would break loose.
People would come for his head. Meanwhile, that smirking old coot Byrd actually WORE THE ROBES and God-knows-what-else and he's a lifelong member of the Friend of the Black Man Club.
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
Nutty, isn't it?
I bet old Strom Thurmond was a Klan memba. Just betcha. Back when he was a Democrat, too. We might not ever be able to KNOW that, but I'd bet he was -- he wouldn't have gotten elected in certain parts of SC without it (A LONG LONG TIME AGO). BUT even SC is different today, so that probably isn't relevant.
Hollings was prolly a Klansman too.
[ 06-27-2002: Message edited by: finboy ]</p>
Is he 100 yet? He HAS to be close.
Still doesn't erase the fact that what I talk about above wouldn't be the case.
A Republican ex-KKK is STILL going to get more grief and be held to a different standard than an ex-KKK member who's a Democrat.
For all the reasons I mention above...
Harry fucking Truman!
What can you say? The man't been around since the dawn of the Dirt Era.
<strong>Is he 100 yet? He HAS to be close.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Not quite yet. But have no fear! He'll be in Congress until he's 120.
What's the problem?
There are lamer, more inconsequential threads than this sprinkled throughout AI. Go ask your question about some of them.
Oh wait...don't tell me: you're a HUGE Robert Byrd fan?
<img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
Not my fault is was Senator Byrd. Not my fault that on numerous occasions over the years, I've seen him carry on in such an arrogant manner.
Rest assured, that when I see John McCain or Fred Thompson doing something like that, I'll comment on it too.
Yes, age probably does have something to do with it. But he did everything BUT seat himself. The look he gave the page spoke a million words.
And I wouldn't have given it two thoughts (OR started a thread about it) if it didn't look so weird AND had I not seen/heard tons of footage, interviews, articles, etc. over the years where Byrd has had a bit of a smugness about him and his position.
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I bet old Strom Thurmond was a Klan memba. Just betcha. Back when he was a Democrat, too. We might not ever be able to KNOW that, but I'd bet he was -- he wouldn't have gotten elected in certain parts of SC without it (A LONG LONG TIME AGO).</strong><hr></blockquote>
Maybe so. He was a candidate for the Dixiecrats - the segregationists party - in that '48 election. So it wouldn't surprise me. But it's also true that he rose extremely fast in SC politics. He was a judge by the age of 36 and then he left to serve in WWII. He earned 18 decorations including a Purple Heart for his military service. Not surprisingly, when he returned he was promptly elected Governor. So with that record, support from the Klan, even in SC, may have been unneccessary.
[ 06-29-2002: Message edited by: spaceman_spiff ]</p>
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Because a senior Senator was acting like a pig. That's pretty relevant. And it's part of his regular behavior. There's a pattern of this kind of thing.
And I hope that we catch others doing the same thing, so we can point it out. Fat chance catching McCain or Thompson doing this kind of crap, though.
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Because a senior Senator was acting like a pig. That's pretty relevant. And it's part of his regular behavior. There's a pattern of this kind of thing.
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Hmm.. like I said, don't you think this has more to do with his AGE than anything else?