I really think that Robert C. Byrd has done a great deal for WV. I also think I liked him better when he didn’t talk so much. Take this for example.

Byrd criticized President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for repeatedly trying “to make the American public swallow whole the line that the war in Iraq is the front line of a global war on terror, which must be continued at all costs. Stay the course, they say, despite three years of discouragingly little progress in Iraq.”

I’m really tired of hearing this stuff. Bush and Cheney tried to trick us. The war is over oil. They are just trying to profit from the war. Blah blah blah. Everyone had the same intelligence (information, definitely not intellect). The Senate voted 77-23 for the war. The House voted 296-133 for it. So, either those who voted for the war thought that Iraq was a threat, or they are complete morons for being duped by a man portrayed as a dumb frat boy. Either way, it makes the current democratic stance weak.

I’m also tired of the complaining about ‘staying the course’. Byrd and others take every opportunity to complain, but have yet to offer a better idea. I agree that the situation in Iraq is far from ideal. So show me a better plan and I’ll be happy to back it. Until then, be quiet. (I’m also not going to accept a John Kerry-type plan as a better plan. You remember…the one that could be summarized as “I’m going to do everything that Bush says he’ll do. I’m just going to do it better and faster.)

“I cannot remember a time in our history when our elected leaders have failed the people so completely, and yet, so far, are not held accountable for costly misjudgments and outright deceptions.”

Of course, at his age, Byrd probably can’t remember what he had for breakfast either.