My Good Friend Robert Byrd

I think Hell's going to freeze over. I just agreed with something Robert Byrd said.

The senior Senator from West Virginia not only opted to say that he will vote to confirm Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, he decided to scold the Senate Judiciary Committee for the way the hearings were conducted...

The people of West Viriginia in no uncertain terms were, frankly, appalled by the Alito hearings. I don't want to say it, but I must. They were appalled. In the reams of correspondece that I received during the Alito hearings, West Virginians--the people I represent--West Virignians who wrote to criticize the way in which the hearings were conducted used the same two words. People with no connection to one another. People of different faiths. Different views. Different opinions. [They] independently and respectively used the same two words to describe the hearings. They called them called an outrage and a disgrace.

And these were not form letters ginned up by special interest groups on either the right or the left. These were hand-written, contemplative, old-fashioned letters written on lined paper and personal stationary. They were the sort of letters that people write while watching television in the comfort of their living rooms or sitting at the kitchen table. It is especially telling that many who objected to the way in which the Alito hearings were conducted do not support Judge Alito. In fact, it is sorely apparent that many who opposed Judge Alito's nomination also opposed the seemingly made-for-TV antics that accompanied the hearings...

Now, Byrd says that he's not aiming this criticism at any particular Senator or the committee as a whole. But this sure looks like the formal Senate way in which Senators say, "Screw you, Senator Kennedy."

Here's to you, Senator Byrd. God, I feel dirty just typing those words.