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Home Front: Politix
Byrd drunk at Senate opening session?
2007-01-05
by Dana Milbank, Washington Post
Embedded within a longer article on Harry Reid is this little gem of gossip:
. . . The attention quickly shifted -- to Robert Byrd. The 89-year-old West Virginia Democrat, beginning his ninth term, wore a white sheet red-white-and-blue tie and punctuated the opening prayer with shouts of "Yes!" and "Mmmhmmm!" and "Yes, Lord!" and "Yes, in Jesus's name!" When he was sworn in, he twice cried out "Hallelujah!" and then "Amen!" Minutes later, he was installed as Senate president pro tempore, the majority party's most senior member. "Yeah, man! Yeah, man!" he shouted. "Hallelujah!" "I do, so help me God!" he shouted when the oath was administered. "Yeah, man!"

His colleagues were amused. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) at one point pretended to tilt a bottle into his mouth, though it was unclear whether Byrd was the target of that gesture.
Takes one to know one, I guess. Then there's this:
Then there was Reid. . . . in his first utterance as majority leader, he spoke the immortal words "Mr. President, I note the absence of a quorum."

When he started his speech, Reid spoke in a barely audible voice, and his colleagues' chatter drowned out his oration. "Please," the presiding officer said with a bang of the gavel, "the majority leader is speaking."

Those who listened to Reid heard a plea for senators to work harder. "Factory workers, shopkeepers in America's malls, schoolteachers, police officers, miners, welders, and businessmen and -women work at least five days a week," he said. "Shouldn't we?"

Evidently not. Just a few minutes into Reid's speech, only 20 senators remained on the floor. . . .
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