A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT C. BYRD PAGE 1 JOHN SHATTUCK: Good afternoon and welcome to the John F. Kennedy Library. I’m John Shattuck, the CEO of the Kennedy Library Foundation. And on behalf of Paul Kirk, who chairs our Board, and Deborah Leff, who directs the Library and Museum, let me just say how pleased I am to introduce one of our country’s most distinguished statesmen and legislators, the senior senator from West Virginia, Senator Robert Byrd. ROBERT BYRD: Thank you. SHATTUCK: Senator Byrd, in addition to this wonderful, warm applause, we’ve prepared a very special surprise to welcome you to the Kennedy Library -- a trip down memory lane as we show you this brief film clip from the graduation ceremonies at American University on June 10, 1963. [FILM CLIP] SHATTUCK: While President Kennedy certainly knew the difference between an honorary degree and one that was earned the hard way, I can imagine he would have wanted to say to Senator Byrd, were he here today, that having you here as our guest is an honor for us all. Before introducing this afternoon’s forum, let me offer special thanks to the institutions that make these forums possible starting with our lead sponsor, Fleet Boston, Bank of America. In addition, we thank Boston Capital, The Lowell Institute, WBUR, which broadcasts our forums on Sunday evenings at 8:00, The Boston Globe , and boston.com. A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT C. BYRD PAGE 2 For more than one-half a century, Senator Robert Byrd has represented the people of West Virginia, first in the House of Representatives and then for a phenomenal 48 years ongoing in the Senate. In fact, so great is Senator Byrd’s congressional seniority and the wisdom he has gained through his years of distinguished service to our country, that it is frankly easy to think of him as one of our Founding Fathers. Today, I would say he reminds me of Benjamin Franklin, who when asked by an admirer after the Constitutional Convention of 1787, “Dr. Franklin what have you given us?,” famously replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” “A republic if you can keep it.” That’s the warning Senator Byrd has sounded with increasing frequency in recent years. In his new book, Losing America, which I had the privilege of reviewing several months ago in The New York Times, Senator Byrd argues eloquently for the defense of the Constitution against what he regards as the reckless assertion of presidential power and the weakness of congress’s response. Quoting another great senator, Daniel Webster, with whom he might be compared, Senator Byrd asks in his book, “Who shall rear again the well proportioned columns of constitutional liberty? If these columns fall, they will not be raised again.” This afternoon we will hear from Senator Byrd about the constitutional crisis that he describes in his book and I’m very pleased to say, as we do with all authors, that we will be selling signed copies of his book in the Kennedy Library bookstore after the forum. A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT C. BYRD PAGE 3 Robert Byrd’s story is a classic American saga of humble beginnings, hard work, and great achievement. Raised an orphan by his aunt and uncle, he grew up in the cold fields of West Virginia in the depths of the Depression. He graduated at the top of his high school class, but couldn’t afford to go to college until much later. He worked as a gas station attendant, a meat cutter, a produce salesman, and a welder, before being elected to the state legislature in 1946 and then to the Congress in 1952 and the senate in 1958. In 1963, he became, as we saw, the first sitting member of either the Senate or the House, ever to earn a law degree by attending night classes, I assume, when Congress was not in session. Senator Byrd was elected Senate Democratic Whip in 1971 and Democratic Majority Leader in 1977. He was twice elected President Pro Tempore of the Senate, which made him third in line of succession to the presidency. In fact, he has held more leadership positions in the Senate than any other senator in history. And he’s cast to date more than 17,000 votes during his Senate career, also more than any other senator in history. He has served with 11 presidents -- five Democrats and six Republicans. So, when Senator Byrd rings the alarm bell for the Constitution, I think we should pay heed. To engage Senator Byrd in this Kennedy Library conversation, this very special conversation this afternoon, we are very fortunate to have with us someone who needs no introduction here in Boston: one of Boston’s and the country’s leading journalists, Dick Gordon. Dick, to listeners of WBUR’s award-winning program “The Connection,” is a household name. Five days A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT C. BYRD PAGE 4 a week, he delivers to listeners in Boston and throughout the nation his own remarkable brand of wisdom and insight as he interviews politicians, poets, scientists, authors, newsmakers on every conceivable subject from this year’s presidential election to this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Before coming to “The Connection,” Dick was a senior correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Company. He has covered many of the major international conflicts of our time, including Bosnia, Kashmir, the Caucases, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. He has been honored frequently for outstanding reporting and has received two National Journalism Awards in Canada and two Gabriel Awards for his documentary work. So, please join me in welcoming to our stage for this very special conversation, Senator Robert Byrd and Dick Gordon. BYRD : Yes, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for that overly charitable introduction. How grateful I am for this marvelous opportunity to be here and to reminisce again the early days when I first came to the Senate and served with the late Jack Kennedy. Thank you all for your presence here this afternoon and thank you, may I say to the most interesting, engaging moderator that I have seen, Dick Gordon. Thank you. In the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930s with dictators like Franco, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin exploiting the desperate economic conditions of their times to accumulate power, the Nobel Prize-winning author Sinclair Lewis wrote his famous book It Cannot Happen Here. This was a fictional A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT C. BYRD PAGE 5 tale of a fascist takeover of the United States, but it was a book with the dire warning that it can happen here. Lewis was showing his American readers how, in the election of 1936, a fascist dictatorship could evolve here in these United States. For those of you who are not familiar with the book, allow me to briefly summarize it for you. It begins with a hotly contested election of a bumbling, but likeable president. A president who presents himself as a reformer, but who is really a tool for powerful interest groups. A president who presents himself as a down-to-earth, good old boy, while appealing to political and religious extremists. A president who expresses compassion for minorities, while stripping them of their rights and freedoms. That sounds a little too familiar, doesn’t it? Well, there is more. Just wait. The villain in Lewis’s book is an ambitious politician who gains power by exploiting the crisis of his day and then uses it to pressure Congress into granting him unlimited power, including war-making power and control over the purse. His rise to power and eventual dictatorship is eased by a frightened American people who have allowed the anxieties of the times to render them complacent about encroachments on their freedoms by the government. Seventy years later, as we witness continued assaults on our constitutional system by a secret and duplicitous White House, we may be seeing the fulfillment of Lewis’s prophetic warning of a despotic government. It can happen here, has become, it is happening here. And now. A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT C. BYRD PAGE 6 Some of you may think I am being premature. Some of you probably think I am being an alarmist. I prefer to think that I am a realist. We are confronting, as I say on the cover of my book, a reckless and arrogant president. And I should add, it is a dangerous one. It is a dangerous one because the Bush Administration is a direct challenge to the very foundations of this country. It is a challenge to The Constitution of the United States . That is why I wrote this book Losing America to save this book The Constitution of the United States . The Constitution is a precious document. It establishes our system of government. It is the bedrock of our rights and liberties. Just as importantly as anything else, it was intended to be a necessary, prudent nuisance and a frustration to those who grasp for power. Our Founding Fathers realized that it was imperative that no single man, no single branch of government, could gain absolute power. No single man could acquire so much authority to decide the fate of our nation. Those framers scattered the powers of government into different branches, then provided the means for each branch of government to defend itself against encroachment by the other branches. But now comes the Bush Administration, which in its quest for raw political power considers The Constitution of the United States an annoyance and continuously tries to ignore it and evade it.