Obama, Biden to attend W.Va. service for Byrd

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: The Herald-Dispatch

CHARLESTON -- President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will attend a memorial service for the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd at the state Capitol.

The White House made the announcement Tuesday. The memorial service is set for 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Capitol's North Plaza in Charleston.

People in Washington and in West Virginia will have an opportunity to pay their respects to Byrd in a series of public recognitions for the longest-serving senator in U.S. history. The late senator will lie in repose Thursday in the chamber of the U.S. Senate and then be transported to West Virginia to lie in repose in the West Virginia Capitol building.

Byrd's final appearance on the Senate floor, where he became famous for soaring oratory and record-setting speeches, will be as historic as the senator himself. A senator's casket last lay in repose there in 1959, the year Byrd joined the chamber. He was the longest-serving member of Congress ever and was third in line to the presidency.

Read more: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/homepage/x2072979294/Obama-Biden-to-attend-W-Va-service-for-Byrd

[sabrina 1]

1. One of my favorite memories of Sen. Byrd was when

he debated Frist on the Senate floor. He had his copy of the Constitution in one hand, and the Bible, the favorite book which Republicans liked to quote from assuming that Democrats, 'godless, sinners', knew nothing about it. Byrd not only out-quoted Frist, mostly from memory, from the Constitution but also from the Bible. After losing round after round to Byrd, Frist finally just walked off the floor. It was an applause-inducing moment. Byrd, finishing up another 'lesson' in the Constitution to Frist, looked around and said 'But what happened to my opponent'?

RIP Sen. Byrd. I will miss seeing him on the floor of the Senate, dispensing with Republicans as if they were school-children in a Civics Class who had not done their homework. He had a great, although dry sense of humor, as his comment on Frist's flight to safety demonstrated.