Reply #21: Thank you for a dash of reality.

[scarletwoman]

I'm an old timer here, since mid-2001 (I rarely post anymore). I only mention this in order to point out that over the past 5 years there have been LOTS of threads about stirring, heroic Robert Byrd speeches (yes, my friends, he's been speechifying mightily throughout the entire installation of the bush* cabal)

Years ago, DUers organized our very first flower extravaganza for Senator Byrd for some stirring speech or another pre-Iraq invasion.

I'm much less easily impressed at this point. To me, his avowed plan to "offer a series of addresses" deliniating, apparently, the nature and definition of the Senate as an institution, rather comes off as self-aggrandizing naval gazing, and of little practical use.

Not that I don't think that he has wisdom to offer -- however, the country as a WHOLE, our Constitution, our form of government, our society -- EVERYTHING -- are all extremely endangered. The arcana of Senate traditions have not clearly NOT provided any kind of effective protection against the takeover of our government by what is basically an extremely powerful criminal syndicate.

If you want to believe that long-winded speeches before an essentially empty chamber, (which is how most of Senator Byrd's inspiring speeches have gone down for the past five years), unnoticed and uncovered by most mainstream news sources will somehow produce salutory results, more power to you.

Myself, I just see an old politician mainly looking for a shot at rhetorical immortality. He's not so much concerned with the fate of our republic as he is with his personal historical legacy. Not a wholly unadmirable effort -- in other, less crisis-ridden times, I'd happily cheer him on.

It must be kept in mind that through his ACTIONS (like his vote to confirm Alito) he has allowed and abetted much more than he has ever forestalled by his rhetoric. His stirring speeches over the past 5+ years have neither stopped nor slowed the bush* juggernaut one whit.

sw