Obama: Byrd had courage to change

President Barack Obama said Monday that America “has lost a voice of principle
and reason” with the death of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).

The nation’s first African-American president hailed Byrd’s
life story as “uniquely American,” and did not mention the senator’s time as a
member of the Ku Klux Klan when he was younger.

{mosads}Obama did say that Byrd had “the courage to stand firm in
his principles, but also the courage to change over time.”

Byrd filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and also
opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Several years later, he voted for the
Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Byrd, the longest serving member of Congress in history,
died early Monday at the age of 92. The senator “was as much a part of the
Senate as the marble busts that line its chamber and its corridors,” Obama
said.

“His profound passion for that body and its role and responsibilities was as
evident behind closed doors as it was in the stem-winders he peppered with
history,” Obama said. “He held the deepest respect of members of both parties,
and he was generous with his time and advice, something I appreciated greatly
as a young senator.”

“He was born into wrenching
poverty, but educated himself to become an authoritative scholar, respected
leader and unparalleled champion of our Constitution,” Obama continued. “He
scaled the summit of power, but his mind never strayed from the people of his
beloved West Virginia.”