Congress Watch: Whose dream is it, anyway?
Irony is eternal and never more so than in politics. As the Senate prepares to get out of town for the Fourth of July recess, lawmakers can be forgiven if they worry a little bit about the hard and ugly schedule awaiting them on their return–Defense authorization, stem cell research, asbestos reform, a mountain of spending bills, and maybe consideration of a Bush nominee to the Supreme Court, each of which promises to be more draining and contentious than the issue before. But this week, there was a brief example of how things can change over time. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the former Klansman, who spent a good chunk of time 41 years ago filibustering what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964, spent some time this week explaining how changed he was.
Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, and Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, teamed up to sponsor a $10 million amendment to the Interior appropriations bill to help fund the construction of a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall.
The move may affirm King's dream, with the senior senators from West Virginia and Mississippi sponsoring a bill to celebrate the triumph of the civil rights movement, but it tells an even more compelling story about the ironic times in which we live.
"I certainly had my share of differences with Martin Luther King, a lot of them," Byrd said, completely free of irony, on the Senate floor Monday. "We were both products of our times, and both of us were doing what we believed was right."
But the 87-year-old Byrd, who recently published a memoir recounting his controversial time in the Klan in the 1940s, says time has opened his eyes to how wrong he was. "I have come to appreciate how Martin Luther King Jr. sought to help our nation overcome racial barriers, bigotry, [and] injustice and how he helped inspire and guide a most important–most important–and most transforming social movement."
Byrd, a vocal opponent of the Bush administration, has become a liberal champion and has been attacked by conservatives as a hypocrite. But this summer, he sounds like the product of different times. "Martin Luther King taught us tolerance. How we need his teaching today," Byrd said. And it sounds like he has a dream: "May his life, his legacy, and, someday, his memorial remind us of his vision," he said of King.
The amendment comes up for consideration today, and there is no threat of a filibuster.
Ah, the irony!
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