Byrd, the Senate's orator and rules maven, steps aside from Appropriations

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- He is considered one of the Senate's greatest orators, and has served in the deliberative body longer than President-elect Barack Obama has been alive. And just weeks before his 91st birthday, Robert Byrd is passing the torch on Capitol Hill, stepping aside as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

"To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven,'' Byrd said today in a statement characteristic of the lyrical and literary addresses he has given in 50 years as West Virginia's senator.

Byrd has long rejected suggestions that his age and health made him unqualified for his Senate duties, and in 2007, went on the Senate floor, sarcastically denouncing West Virginia newspapers for publicizing "the shocking disclosure that I am growing older.''

But with Byrd's health deteriorating -- he is now in a wheelchair -- pressure has grown recently on the veteran lawmaker to hand over control of the Appropriations Committee, which decides spending levels for government programs.

Byrd's departure as chairman comes as another veteran lawmaker, Representative John Dingell of Michigan, faces a challenge from a younger and more liberal colleague for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell, who was just elected to his 28th term, is more pro-industry than some Democrats prefer; Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who is currently the House's chief investigator and chairman of the committee on Government Reform and Oversight, is seeking to oust Dingell from the job.

Byrd is famous for both his picayune, sometimes excruciating knowledge of Senate rules and procedure as well as his oratorical flourishes. Byrd has been a frequent and passionate critic of President Bush on the war in Iraq. "Today, I weep for our country,'' Byrd said on the Senate floor before the Iraq invasion.

On the first day of every spring, Byrd has delivered a Senate floor speech on the rites of spring -- a ritual he undertook even in 2003, when the loud booms from the American "shock and awe'' attack on Baghdad reverberated from television sets in adjoining rooms.

His ailing health has not kept him from the Senate floor, and when Senator Edward M. Kennedy was diagnosed with a brain tumor in May, Byrd wept openly as he lauded his longtime friend. "Ted, Ted, my friend. I love you. And I miss you,'' Byrd said, wiping away tears.

The West Virginia lawmaker said he made his decision "after personal soul-searching,'' and only after he felt assured that West Virginia -- long the beneficiary of Byrd's work on appropriations -- would not suffer for it.