from arkansas. we weren't much better off than you. we weren't any better off than you. every friend i had in arkansas. he is just a senator. you're sitting in white house. we don't get squat. what is matter with you. i was getting the living day lights beadedden out of me once a week. i said early in first term, senator, if you pave every single inch of west virginia, it is going to be much harder to mine coal. and he smiled and he said, . . ts from delivering they can to their constituents. [laughing] and, -- [applause] but let me say something serious. he knew people who were elected to represent states

and regions and political fa losses were flesh and blood people means they never would be perfect. >> he knew they were subject to passion and anger and when you make a decision, it's important when you are mad, there's about an 80% chance you might mistake. and that's why he thought the rules and the institutions and the constitution were so important and he put them before everything. even what he wanted. .i never forget when we were trying to pass healthcare reform in 1993 and '94, senator byrd was a passionate supporter of the efforts we were making just as he was the efforts that president obama has made. but we only had 55 votes and we

could not defeat a filabuster. and so, i said well senator, why don't you just let me stick this on the budget because it's the only thing you can't filabuster. that violated something called the byrd rule. thought go ahead and name the rule for him. i said you really ought ought to suspend it because you are spending so much money on health care and we can't do it to offer health care to everybody. he looked at me and he said that argument might have worked when you were a professor in law school. but you know, as well as i do, it is substantively wrong. he wouldn't do it. then in his defense, he turned right around and he worked his heart out to break that filabuster, trying to the very

end not to get me to give up the fight because he thought if we tried we could find some errant republican who would make a mistake and vote with us. point i want to make is he made a decision against his own interest, his own conviction. his own fight.i that's one reason i thank god that he could go in his wheelchair in his most significant vote at the end of his service in the senate and vote for healthcare reform and make it [applause] -- now >> i won the battle over the line item veto. hated the line-.

he hated the line-item veto with a passion that most people in westtvirginia reserve for blood feuds like the hatfields like the hatfields and mccoys. you would have thought the line-item veto had been killing members of the byrd family for 100 years. [laughter] >> it made his blood boil. you've never been lectured by anybody until bob byrd has lectured you, you're never known a lecturer. i regret that every new president and every new member of congress will never have the experience of being dressed down by senator robert byrd. and i'll be dark if he was right about that. the supreme court will for him instead of me on the line-item veto. [applause] >> the point i want to make here is a serious one.

he did as good a job for you as he could. as far as he was concerned, there was no such thing as too much for west virginia. but the one thing he would not do, even for you, is a violate his sense of what was required to maintain the integrity of the constitution and the integrity of the united states senate, so that america could go on when we were wrong as well as right. though we would never be dependent on always being right. [applause] >> let me just say, finally, it is commonplace to say that he was a self-made man, that he set an example of lifetime learning. is the first, and as far as i know maybe the only member of congress, to get a law degree while serving in the congress. but he did more learning than

that. and all you've got to do is look around this crowd today and listen to that music to rememb remember. there are a lot of people who wrote these eulogies for senator byrd in newspapers, and i read a bunch of them. they mentioned that he once had a fleeting association with a ku klux klan, what does that mean? i'll tell you what it means. he was a country boy from the hills and hollows from west virginia. he was trying to get elected. and maybe he did something he shouldn't have done come and he spent the rest of his life making it up. and that's what a good person does. [applause] >> there are no perfect people. there are certainly no perfect politicians. oso yeah, i'm glad he got a logically but by that time he already knew more than 99% of lawyers anyway. the degree he got in human

nature and human wisdom, the understanding that came to him by serving you, serving in the senate, that the people from the hills and haulers of west virginia in their patriotism, they provide a disproportionate number of soldiers who fought for our independence from england. [applause] >> than provide a disproportionate number of the soldiers in every single solitary conflict since that time whether they agreed or disagreed with the policy. [applause] >> the family feeling, the clan loyalty, the fanatic independence, the desire for a hand up, not a hand out, the willingness to fight when put into a corner, that is often not

the people from whom senator byrd and i sprang in trouble. because we didn't keep learning and growing and understanding that all the african-americans who have been left out, left down, and lived for going to church you live forcing their kids get a better deal, and have their children signed up for the military, they are just like we are. that all the irish catholics, scots irish used to fly, everybody, the italian immigrants, the people from latin america who have come to our shores, the people from all over the world. everyone who's ever been let down and left out and ignored and abuse, who has a terrible family story, we are all unlike. that is the real education robert byrd.com and he lived it every day of his life in the united states senate to make america a better, stronger place.

[applause] >> so, not long after, maybe right before senator byrd lost erma, i said in a fleeting world of instant food and attention deficit disorder, he had proved, and so had she, that some people really do love each other till death do them part. i've been thinking about that today, thinking maybe we ought to amend the marriage vows and say until death do us part, and until death do bring us back together. [applause] >> i admired senator byrd.

i like them. i was grateful to him. i loved our arguments, and i loved our common causes. but most of all, i loved it that he had the wisdom to believe that america was more important than any one individual, anyone president, anyone senator, that the rules, the institution, the system had to enable us to keep forming a more perfect union, through ups and downs in good times and bad. he has left us a precious gift. he fought a good fight. he kept the faith. he has finished his course, but not ours. if we really would honor him today, and every day, we must remember his lessons and live by them. thank you. [applause]

>> the next person that i have the honor to present is a man who has served with our beloved senator byrd 436 years in the senate, almost longer than any other senator. would you please join me in getting a west virginia welcome to the vice president of the united states, joe biden. [applause] >> bishop, reverend clergy, good morning, margaret, the entire byrd family. if you didn't already know it, it's pretty clear they incredible esteem your father

was healthy. i know you have known that your whole life. to my fellow members of the senate, you know, i was on the president when i got elected, the last time, a great honor of running with the president, i was elected vice president and united states senator the same day, my seventh term. and in talking to, and i got sworn in for the seventh term because we thought we might need a vote there in those first couple of weeks. and every time i sat with the leader, i never called senator byrd sender. i always called him later. when i sat with the leader, i could see that look in his face and he said, joe, are you sure you're making the right decision getting at the senator for vice president? [laughter] >> s. senator snowe, he revered the senate. going into the chamber when

we're going to honor your father, yesterday we walked in together, he said, you know, joe, if you state you would be number two. i'm still number two. [applause] >> i'm still number two. ladies and gentlemen, mr. president, yesterday i had the opportunity to pay my respects to senator byrd as he lie in repose in the senate chamber. i met the family then, and again today. and the last time that happened was 50 years ago. the last time but that chamber i revere served as the resting place for anyone was 50 years ago. but although i am icollege behind me reader the senate, robert c. byrd elevated the

senate. other great men and their families would have chosen for them to lay in state in the rotunda, but bob byrd family chose to lay in state in the senate chamber. and to me, this is completely appropriate having served in their 36 plus years, for the senate chamber was robert c. byrd's cathedral. the senate chamber was his cathedral, and west virginia was his heaven. [applause] >> and there's not a lot of hyperbole in that. every person in the senate, as my colleagues behind me can tell you, brings something special about them. i will never forget having privately criticized a senator

when i was there the first year. i was sitting with the previous leader, senator mansfield, an incredible guy, and he told me that he said, why are you upset? and i told him about a particular senator railing against something i thought was very worthy, the americans disability act. and he went on to tell me that every member of the senate represented something in the eyes of their state that was special, and represented a piece of their state. well, if there was ever a senator who was the embodiment of his state, if there was ever a senator who, in fact, reflected his state, it was robert c. byrd. the fact of the matter is, the pick of the banjo, the sweet

sound of the fiddle, dinners in the spring, country fairs in the summer, the beauty of the laurels and the mountains, the rush of the rapids through the valley, these things not only describe west virginia, but from an outsiders point of view who has been there many times at the invitation of jennings randolph and robert c. byrd, it seems to me they defined a way of life. it's more than just a state. and robert c. byrd was the fairest, most feared defender of not only the state but the way of life. i think the most fierce defender of the state has ever known in its history. you know, robert byrd did use the phrase when i die, will be

written on my heart. and i usually get them. has so many scots data, you don't recognize the guys name choice. when they use that phrase he never acknowledged that was james joyce's that when i die, it will be written in my heart. all he would do is laugh. the fact of the matter is, west virginia was not one but not his heart he worked on a street. he took such pride in this place. he took such pride and off you. i remember he has been one of the few races he had come in was a race, because i was a young guy and i came down and demonstrate to everybody that i could not keep up with robert c. byrd, which happened to be true. and i was, i think nick, you at the dinner, we had jefferson jackson day dinner, down here and robert c. byrd did something that never happened before at

all the dinners i've spoken it. he stood up and he said, we're honored to have senator joe biden from delaware here tonight, and, joe, i'd like to introduce you to west virginia. then he spent his neck all, remember, the next probably 10 minutes talking about everyone in the audience. by name, where they were frrm, what they had done, how they have thought through difficulty, and then he said, kind of like johnny, here's joe. well, i thought it was pretty impressive, literally. robert c. byrd asked me to speak, but he knew the privilege was mine, not the people to whom i was speaking. he was devoted to all of you

like to senators in the 37 years i was there, 36 plus years i was there, that i have ever ever known. he was fiercely devoted, as you've all heard to his principles. even once he became power, he always spoke to power. standing up for the people he proudly was part of, and you've heard it many times today, but it bears repeating again, for the constitution he revered. i always wear a flag pin, but i was afraid he would be looking down today because every time i would wear the flag pin on the floor, he would grab me, take my pen, and put on the constitution and. that's that then i'm wearing. so, boss, i'm wearing the pin. [applause]

>> robert c. byrd said many things, but he once said as long as there is a form in which questions can be asked by men and women who do not stand in awe of a chief executive, and one can speak as long as one seat will allow one to stand, the liberties of the american people will be secure. 11 presidents, new robert c. byrd. he served, as he pointed out, concurrently with them, not under them. [applause] >> and 11 presidents, with a author, and two are here, can attest to the fact that he always showed respect, but never difference. and he stood in all of none. he had an incredible prodigious memory that i will not take the time to regale you about. i just never one time sitting with the queen of england at a

formal dinner, and he recited the entire, the entire lineage of the tutors, and every year each one had served. and she sat there, and i thought her bonnet was going to flip off her head. [laughter] >> she was like, what did i just hear? she learned about relatives you probably forgot she had. as also known, robert c. byrd was a parliamentary library, keeper of the institution of the senate, and he was the institution himself. but to me, and many people here today like guys i see, bill bradley and jim sasser the lone left the senate for greener pastures, but and, i hope, better remuneration, we used to get about that, too, but i, for a lot of us he was a friend. he was a mentor and he was a

guide. nicanor talking a little earlier because, nick, i commute everyday for 36 years to the message said 250 miles a day. robert c. byrd was a stickler. about when he said those. an hour drive down from washington and i would call nick on this big old car phone i just had which was about that big, and i would say, nick, i can see the dome. hold of the book that i can see the dome. finally, he caught on. center, how far away can you see the dome? can you hold a vote to more minutes for biden? as long as i was behaving, he held the vote. when i found myself in disagreement, i would stand there to catch a 7:00 train. he would set a vote for 7:00. and i would walk up to them and i need seven minutes from the chamber. and nick knows this, i would stand, i always do down in the well and he stood at the first riser, and i would say

mr. leader, i note we have an hour, i said you set the vote for seven. any possibility of setting it at 10 to seven signed a trade? he would go like this can look at the clock, look at me and say, no. [laughter] >> no. but that's because i misbehave once. i voted with george mitchell on a matter relating to minors. and that was a big mistake. [laughter] >> he literally took the roll call sheet, the sheets of the staff memos know, with every senator's name and how they voted. he took the roll call sheet, have it framed, had my name circled in red, and literally, literally had it screwed to the ornate doorframe in his office then as the chairman of the appropriations committee. so every single sender coming to see him would walk out and that

i hide they would seek biden circled in red, and no dogma they better not vote against robert c. byrd, ever. [applause] >> you think i'm joking? i'm not joking. and then i got in his good graces. i tried to run for president he said i do want any senators running for president. i said why, mr. leader? he said because you never come back and thought when i need you. so i made a promise that no matter where i was when he called me and said he needed my vote, i would drop whatever i was doing and i would come. and i kept the commitment, the only one, i might add. that got me back in his good graces again. the point is, that this is a man who knew exactly what he was doing. after i was elected in 1970 as a twin nine year old kid, i was number 100 out of 100 in seniority. and leader byrd offered up, he

offered his office to me to come down from delaware so i could have a place to interview the staff members. it was in his office, and the connection his secretary put through that i received a call telling me about an accident which took the life of my wife and my daughter. and when they were buried, we held a memorial service a couple of days later in delaware where thousands of people showed up. it was a bone chilling, "slate" day of rain. and people couldn't get to church. and i never knew it, initially, but robert c. byrd, and i think you may have driven him up, nick, drove up on his own with nick, to that church.

he stood outside for the better part of an hour in a driving rainstorm, where the temperature was below 32. when my brother saw him and asked him to come in, he said no. he wouldn't displace anyone. he stayed there for the entire service. when the service was over, he got in the vehicle and he drove back. never attempting to be noticed. never seeking, as mike casey's wife uses a, the real measure of generosity, would you do it if no one ever knew you did it? well, robert c. byrd did that. i was appreciative of what he did, but i quite frankly didn't understand until a couple of years later. i was in his office, and behind his desk was a huge booth in bronze. it was michael's boot, his

grandson's boot. and all of a sudden it came so crystal clear to me who this guy was. i had known him, but i understood immediately what he was about. for him, it was all about family. it was not just erma, his beloved wife of 69 years. and it was not just his daughters and his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, all of whom are in our prayers today. it was an awful lot of you. i bet if he were here, he could look out and name, name you. and tell you what your father or mother did for him, what your grandmother or grandfather did for him. and how you made such and such of yourself. clearly, his own life, robert byrd suffered a lot of hardships. you all know the story, losing

his mom, being raised and adopted by an aunt and uncle, growing up in a home without electricity or water, having to work at every age. he had an incredible, incredible determination. one that i don't think any of my call legs have ever witnessed. but, you know, this man was, wasn't just that as president clinton pointed out, that at age 47 as a sitting congressman, or 45, he went and got a lot of greek. i don't know if you know, you probably do, mr. president, he got a lot of grief without having a college degree. and at age 77, he went to marshall university and completed his work, getting his college degree. because, to him, in my view, and i don't know if family would tell you this -- [applause] >> in him i think he thought there was something wrong with the fact that he got the law

degree without graduating. he didn't need that undergraduate degree. but it was bob byrd who quoted john stennis, plaut to the end of the row. remarkable thing about him is he traveled a hard path, he devoted his life though to making that path a little easier for those who followed. this is a guy who continue to taste and smell and feel the suffering of the people of his state. he tasted it. that's what it was so deeply ingrained in him. it wasn't just a moral obligation. this guy remembered, and he unapologetically wanted out, improve the money by stealing money that he could possibly get. remember, governor, the two campaigns. he was getting beat up two campaigns ago, have the fbi

moved out down to west virginia. and the national press was beating him up, and i was on the floor with him and he just got ripped in a press conference about that. and you know used to grab you by the arm, walk you back and say, joe, i hope they keep throwing me in the briar patch. [laughter] >> but i tell you what, you west virginia's oh a lot of people in delaware for a lot of money. we should of got that you got. i just want you to know that. so be nice to the rest of us. [laughter] [applause] >> and by the way, if you doubt it, just drive here, crossed the robert c. byrd drive, the robert c. byrd library, clinic, robert c. federal building in charleston and on and on and on. but ladies and gentlemen, of course it's more than the name we're not going to forget. it's his courage. he died like event.

he died like he lived. he never stopped fighting. how many people would have hung on as long as he did? how any people would've had the ability to get back out of that hospital bed and get in a wheelchair and come in and vote, vote for this? he never stopped thinking. about his people and the things he cared about. speaking several weeks ago, this week actually, when senator byrd said, quote, like jefferson and adams, i'm inspired to continue serving the land i love to the very best of my abilities, to the whole, for the whole of my dears. he served the land he loved. he served the people he loved. he served the people who were in

his blood. and because of that service, you have gained greatly. and with his loss, you are the first to feel that loss. but it's not just west virginia alone. it's all of us. i said to him, i said of him when i learned of his death, i was on an errand for president in cleveland, and i said, you know, paraphrase the poet, you shall not see his like again. had he been there he would have said, joe, that's shakespeare. hamlet act i, scene two. [laughter] >> and the actual quote is i shall not look upon his like again. mr. leader, we're not going to look upon your like again. i'm not even going to ask god to bless you because you're a has, and i know where you are. may god bless your family.

may god bless this state in this country, and may god protect our troops. thank you. [applause] >> it is truly an honor for west virginia to host all these special dignitaries that came today, and i really, on behalf of these great people and this wonderful state, i want to thank each and every one of you. and it really just shows how many lives senator byrd has touched. over two months ago, the man i'm going to introduce to you honored us by coming in paying tribute to our fallen miners. at upper brig branch, and we appreciate that so much in honoring them and honoring their families and all the people who

work so hard to make this country what it is calm and keep it strong and free. ladies and gentlemen, it is truly my honor now to present to you the president of the united states. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. mona and marjorie, and to senator byrd's entire family, including those are adorable great granddaughters that i had a chance to meet, michelle and i offer you our deepest

sympathies. to senator byrd's friends, including the speaker of the house, the majority leader, the republican leader, president clinton, vice president biden, vicki kennedy, nick rahall and all the previous speakers, senator rockefeller for the outstanding work that you've done for the state of west virginia, to his larger family, the people of west virginia, i want you all to know that all of america shares your loss. but maybe all find comfort in a verse, a scripture that reminds me of our dear friend. the time of my departure has come, i have fought the good fight, i think in the race, i

kept the faith. it's interesting that you've heard that passage from several speakers now. because it embodies somebody who knew how to run a good and long race. and somebody who knew how to keep the faith. with his state, his family, his country and his constitution. years from now when i think of the men we have memorialized today, i will remember him as he was when i came to know him. his white hair full, like a main, his gait steadied with a cane. determined to make the most of every last breath, the

distinguished gentleman from west virginia could be found at his desk and to the very end up doing the peoples business. delivering soul stirring speeches, a hint of the appalachians in his voice, stabbing the air with his finger, fiery as ever. use in the 10th decade, he was a senate icon, he was a party leader, he was an elder statesman. and he was my friend. that's how i will remember him. today, we remember the path he climbed to such extraordinary peaks. born cornelius calvin junior, corning, he joked for short, his mother lost her life and the great influenza pandemic of

1918. and from beyond an aunt and uncle who raised him, and west virginia's coal camps, he gained not only the byrd may but a reverence for god almighty, a love of learning, that was nurtured in mark twain's school. and there he met erma, his sweetheart for over 70 years, by whose side he will now rest for eternity. unable to afford college, he did what he could to get by, finding work as a gas station attendant, a producer husband, and meat cutter, and a world in the shipyards of baltimore and tampa during world war ii. returning home to west virginia after the war, he ran for the state house of delegates, using his fiddle case as a briefcase.

better to stand out on the stump. before long he ran for congress, serving in the house before jumping over to the senate where he was elected nine times, held almost every leadership role imaginable, and proved capable of slaying others, as standing alone. marking a role of milestones along the way. longest-serving member of congress, for nearly 19,000 votes cast. not a single loss at the polls. a record that speaks to the bond that he had with you, the people of his state. transplant to washington, his heart remained here in west virginia. in the place that shaped him with the people that he loved. his heart belongs to you. making life better here was his only agenda.

giving you hope, he said, was his greatest achievement. hope in the form of a new jobs and industries. hope in the form of black lung benefits and union protection. hope through roads and research centers, schools, scholarships, health clinics, and industrial parks that bear his name. his early rival and late friend, ted kennedy, used to joke about campaigning in west virginia, when his bus broke down, said he got a hold of the highway patrol who asked where he was. he said i want robert byrd highway. [laughter] >> the dispatcher said, which one? [laughter] >> it's a life that immeasurably improve the lives of west virginia and.

of course, robert byrd was a deeply religious man. a christian. and so he understood that our lives are marked by sins as well as virtues, failures as well as successes, weakness as well as strength. we know there are things he said, things he did that he came to regret. i remember talking about that first time i visited with him. he said there are things i regretted in my youth. you may know that. and i said, none of us are absent some regrets, senator. that's why we enjoy seeking the grace of god.

and as i reflect on the full sweep of his 92 years, it seems to me that his life been towards justice, like the constitution he tucked in his pocket like our nation itself, robert byrd possessed that quintessential american quality, and that is a capacity to change. a capacity to learn. a capacity to listen. a capacity to be made more perfect. over his nearly six decades in our capital, he became too seen as the very embodiment of the senate. the history and the four farms he gave to me, just as he gave president clinton.

i, too, read it. i was care he was going to quiz me. [laughter] >> but as i soon discovered, his passion for the senate passed, his mastery of even its most arcane procedures, it wasn't an obsession with the trivial or the obscure. it reflected a profoundly noble impulse, a recognition of a basic truth about this country that we are not a nation of men. we are a nation of laws. our way of life rests on our democratic institutions. precisely because we are fallible, that falls to each of us to safeguard these institutions. even when it's inconvenient, and pass on our republic, more

perfect than before. considering the vast learning of this self-taught senator, his speeches sprinkled with the likes of cicero and shakespeare and jefferson, it seems fitting to close with one of his favorite passages in the literature, a passage from moby dick. there is a catskill eagle in some souls, that can block down to the gorges and soar out of them again and become visible in the sunny space. and even if he forever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains. so that even in his lowest swoop, the mountain eagle is still higher than any other byrd on the plane. even though they soared.

robert byrd was a mountain eagle. and his lowest swoop is still higher than the other birds on the plane. may god bless robert c. byrd. may he be welcomed kind by the rights under righteous judge and may his spirit scored like a catskill eagle high above the heavens. thank you so much. [applause] [applause] [background sounds]

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>> let us all stand for the benediction and military honors. the benediction seems to be such a finale to the life celebrations such as this. however, according to the faith that senator byrd held so deeply, this celebration actually will never end. it will simply move to a more select real location. and as from that location that senator byrd and his wife, erma, are looking down and observing us at this moment. and they are probably wondering what all the fuss is about. senator byrd would say, i was simply doing my duty for the citizens of west virginia. the apostle paul best describe the effectiveness of the senators duty and service, when

he said, he fought a good fight. he finished his course. he kept the faith. therefore, there is a crown of righteousness laid out for him, which the righteous judge himself shall give to him on that day. so, heavenly father, as senator byrd has cared for us, and watched over us all of these years, we pray now that you care for and watch over him throughout eternity. now, unto the god who is able to do above all that we can ask, according to the power that wasn't in as, be glory both now and forever more. erma. amen.

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♪ . >> the funeral services will be held next tuesday in arlington, virginia. .

>> this morning we'll talk with reuters economics correspondent emily kaiser about the june unemployment report and what it says about the condition of the economy. then david kramer offers his insight on the arrest of 10 people suspected of