Longest-serving US senator Robert Byrd dead at 92

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.
A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia. His health had been failing for several years.
Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving US senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate@@@s majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In comportment and style, Byrd often seemed a Senate throwback to a courtlier 19th century. He could recite poetry, quote the Bible, discuss the Constitutional Convention and detail the Peloponnesian Wars — and frequently did in Senate debates.
Yet there was nothing particularly courtly about Byrd@@@s pursuit or exercise of power.
Byrd was a master of the Senate@@@s bewildering rules and longtime chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls a third of the $3 trillion federal budget. He was willing to use both to reward friends and punish those he viewed as having slighted him.
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