Bye Bye Byrdie

One of Jon Stewart's rare miscues came recently when he essentially turned the death of Senator Robert Byrd into a joke.

Sure, Senator Byrd started out his career on rocky footing, campaigning against the Civil Rights Act and for the Vietnam War, but you have to give him props for spending most of the rest of his career making amends.

Unlike Mr. Stewart, I remember distinctly that Senator Byrd was one of a handful in Congress who voted 'No' to allowing George W. Bush the power to initiate war in Iraq. That took courage, when even the most liberal Democrats around had succumbed to Bush scare tactics and were falling over themselves to vote 'Yes', out of fear doing otherwise would make them look 'unpatriotic' or worse yet sympathetic to the terrorists.

That was one of those times when standing up for what you truly believed was fraught with consequences, yet Senator Byrd and a few others (Maxine Waters also comes to mind) had the 'right stuff' to do so.

So Jon Stewart riffs on how the Senator's passing was no surprise, seeing he was '92'. Which may be true, but overlooked how important the man had been to preserving what was left of our liberties under Bush, and how much help, despite his age, he was likely still giving us.

I wonder if there are any conservative rapscallions out there now, who may right their ways and become beacons of honesty and justice, ala Senator Byrd, in some distant future? It looks bleak, but you never know ...