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Senator Byrd delivered these remarks following the historic agreement among Senators to avert the “nuclear option” showdown.
In his now revered Second Inaugural Speech, Abraham Lincoln observed, that:
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God give us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds....
I have always believed that the Senate, by its nature, attracts and probably also creates men and women of the quality and character that are able to step up when faced with crises that threaten the Ship of State, to calm the dangerous seas which, from time to time, threaten to dash our Republic against rocky shoals and jagged shores.
The Senate proved it to be true again yesterday, when 14 Members of this revered institution came together to avert the disaster called the nuclear option. These men and women of great courage.
As William Gladstone said, in referring to the Senate of the United States, the Senate is that remarkable body, the most remarkable of all the inventions of modern politics.
I thank all of those Republicans and Democrats who worked together to keep faith with the Framers and the Founding Fathers. We have kept the faith with those whose collective vision gave us this marvelous piece of work, the Constitution of the United States. Thank God that this work has been done and we have averted a catastrophe.
Article II, Section 2 of our Constitution refers to the Senate and to its duty to provide both its “Advice and Consent” to nominations before the nominees can be confirmed. There are two parts to that proposition, which are that the Senate must provide the President with its “Advice,” as well as its “Consent.” Again, Article II, Section 2 states that the President shall nominate “by and with” the Advice and Consent of the Senate. It is therefore a shared responsibility between the President of the United States and the Senate.
By its agreement yesterday, the Senate is keeping that construct alive.
The agreement reminds us of the words of our Constitution by encouraging the President to consult with the Senate on the take-off, meaning prior to sending his nominees up for our consideration. In recent times -- and by that I mean under Presidents of both parties -- there hasn’t been all that much consultation by the President with the Senate. Here, we are offering the hand of partnership to the Chief Executive, and saying consult with us. You don’t have to take our advice, but here it is. And by considering that advice, it only stands to reason that any President will be more assured that his nominees will enjoy a kinder reception in the Senate.
The agreement, which references the need for “Advice and Consent” as contained in the Constitution proves once again -- as has been true for over two hundred years -- that our revered Constitution is not simply a dry piece of parchment. It is a living document. Yesterday’s agreement was a real life illustration of how this historical document continues to be vital in our daily lives. It inspires, and it teaches. And yesterday, it helped the country avoid a serious calamity.
Mr. President, for this reason and others, I would ask that the agreement that was reached by 14 Senators yesterday be submitted for the record, so that we in the Senate and the President may all have a way of easily revisiting the text of that agreement for future reference.
On the heels of this agreement, I believe that we should now move forward, propelled by its positive energy in a new direction. We should make every effort to restore reason to the partisan fervor that has overtaken our country and this city. We must stop arguing and start legislating. Divisive agendas are not America’s goals. The right course lies someplace in the middle, and it is our job, the work of representatives of a reasonable people, to do what is right – regardless of threats from any of the angry groups that seem dedicated to intimidation. The sceptics, the cynics, the doubters, the pharisees, those who are intoxicated by the juice of sour grapes did not prevail. The fourteen rose above those who do not wish to see accord, but prefer discord.
Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," contains the "Pardoner's Tale," which most, if not all, of you will remember having read in your school days. The story took place in Flanders, where, once, there sat drinking in a tavern three young men who were given to folly. As they sat, they heard a small bell clink before a corpse that was being carried to the grave, whereupon, one of them called to his knave and ordered him to go and find out the name of the corpse that was passing by.
The boy answered that he already knew, and that it was an old comrade of the roisterers who had been slain while drunk by an unseen thief called Death, who had slain others in recent days.
Out into the road the three young ruffians went in search of this monster called Death. They came upon an old man, and seized him and with rough language demanded that he tell them where they could find this cowardly adversary who was taking the lives of their good friends in the countryside.
The old man pointed to a great oak tree on a nearby knoll, saying, "There, under that tree, you will find Death." In a drunken rage, the three roisterers set off in a run 'til they came to the tree, and there they found a pile of gold--eight basketfuls, of florins, newly minted, round coins. Forgotten was the monster called Death, as they pondered their good fortune, and they decided that they should remain with the gold until nightfall when they would divide it among themselves and take it to their homes. It would be unsafe, they thought, to attempt to do so in broad daylight, as they might be fallen upon by thieves who would take their treasure from them.
It was proposed that they draw straws, and the person who drew the shortest cut would go into the nearby village and purchase some bread and wine which they could enjoy as they whiled away the daylight hours. Off towards the village the young man went. When he was out of sight, the remaining two decided that there was no good reason why this fortune should be divided among three individuals, so one of them said to the other: "When he returns, you throw your arm around him as if in jest, and I will rive him with my dagger. And, with your dagger, you can do the same. Then, all of this gold will be divided just between you and me."
Meanwhile, the youngest rogue, as he made its way into the town, thought what a shame it was that the gold would be divided among three, when it could so easily belong only to the ownership of one. Therefore, in town, the young man went directly to an apothecary and asked to be sold some poison for large rats and for a polecat that had been killing his chickens. The apothecary quickly provided some poison, saying that as much as equaled only a grain of wheat would result in sudden death for the creature that drank the mixture.
Having purchased the poison, the young villain crossed the street to a winery where he purchased three bottles--two for his friends, one for himself. After he left the village, he sat down, opened two bottles and deposited an equal portion in each, and then returned to the oak tree, where the two older men did as they had planned. One threw his arm playfully around the shoulders of the third, they buried their daggers in him, and he fell dead on the pile of gold. The other two then sat down, cut the bread and opened the wine. Each took a good, deep swallow, and, suffering a most excruciating pain, both fell upon the body of the third, across the pile of gold. All three were dead.
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