pompy's kind of guy: "sheets" byrd has another name for himself:
Sen. Robert Byrd: West Virginia's 'Santa Claus'
Leaning on two canes, Sen. Robert C. Byrd hardly looks like a billion-dollar industry - or "Big Daddy," as the 88-year-old Democrat calls himself.
No matter: Voters once again are looking beyond Byrd's age to his political guile - and the truckloads of federal dollars he's steered to West Virginia - as they consider whether to give him a record ninth term in the Senate..
With Byrd, the getting's often good: In the last decade alone, he's brought home more than $2.2 billion to West Virginia. Today, it's difficult to travel more than a few miles without coming across something plastered with his name - a building, a road, even a giant radio telescope.
This summer, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history played up that role when he dedicated the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center at Marshall.
"I rolled up my sleeves to do the work in Congress, to secure the federal funding," Byrd told the crowd. "Yeah, man, you're looking at Big Daddy!" |
