I have been in Congress for more than a half century. I have lived through times of fear and times of hope. Of despair and of achievement. I have seen our government at its best, but today I fear that we see our government at its worst.

ISBN 0-16-006391-4
1991. Byrd also opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1968. 3.

From 1989 to 2010 he served as the President pro tempore of the United States Senate when the Democratic Party had a majority and as President pro tempore emeritus during periods of Republican majority beginning in 2001. A member of the Democratic Party Byrd served as a U. Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.