Both CNN and the Politico are reporting that Sen. Robert Byrd suffered a fall that required medical attention:
Ambulances and fire trucks were dispatched to the Northern Virginia home of Sen. Robert Byrd Tuesday morning.
A neighbor of the 91-year-old West Virginia Democrat said several ambulances were outside his residence in McLean, Va., and a Byrd spokesman said the senator suffered a fall in his home.
Update: From NPR:
A spokesman for the senator is quoted as saying:
Byrd apparently stood up too fast this morning in his home and fell down. To err on the side of caution his caregiver called an ambulance. He was taken to the hospital where he is currently being checked out. At this point in time there is no indication that he will be admitted.
NPR’s David Welna points out that Byrd failed to deliver his annual Constitution Day floor speech last Thursday. He adds, "I think the last time he spoke on the floor was when he delivered a tearful eulogy to Ted Kennedy."





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Hope he’s ok
It’s great that he is still well enough to serve in the Senate at his advanced age. Health to Sen. Byrd!
He is very fragile now but what a giant mind. I hope he is as well as can be expected at his age.
Edited on Tue Sep-22-09 09:20 AM by babylonsister
Mike Ross Raises Eyebrows With Healthy Haul
by Marcus Stern, ProPublica – September 22, 2009 5:00 am EDT
This story was co-published <1> with Politico and appeared in that paper on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009.
Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross — a Blue Dog Democrat playing a key role in the health care debate — sold a piece of commercial property in 2007 for substantially more than a county assessment <2> (PDF) and an independent appraisal <3> (PDF) say it was worth.
The buyer: an Arkansas-based pharmacy chain with a keen interest in how the debate plays out.
Ross sold the real estate in Prescott, Ark., to USA Drug for $420,000 — an eye-popping number for real estate in the tiny train and lumber town about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock.
“You can buy half the town for $420,000,” said Adam Guthrie, chairman of the county Board of Equalization and the only licensed real estate appraiser in Prescott.
But the $420,000 was just the beginning of what Ross and his pharmacist wife, Holly, made from the sale of Holly’s Health Mart. The owner of USA Drug, Stephen L. LaFrance Sr., also paid the Rosses $500,000 to $1 million for the pharmacy’s assets and paid Holly Ross another $100,000 to $250,000 for signing a non-compete agreement. Those numbers, which Ross listed on the financial disclosure reports he files as a member of Congress, bring the total value of the transaction to between $1 million and $1.67 million.
And that’s not counting the $2,300 campaign contribution Ross received from LaFrance two weeks after the sale closed.
more…
http://www.propublica.org/arti…..fam…
Well, darn. He is getting Up There, and falls are especially bad at his age.
White Light being sent from here to Senator Byrd.
Why didn’t he get a ride to the hospital from one of his fellow KKK members?
My sentiments exactly…
I don’t know whether to hope he’s okay or not.
Never let it be said that all progressives are classy.
What makes you think those 2 are classy? Whenever they appear, it’s from under the bridge……
Ooops, I forgot to check under there…
I’m tired of you Libs and progressives playing the damn race card, when in fact you have a Klan member within your party and I never hear anything about him…
Participation in the Ku Klux Klan
Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan when he was 24 in 1942. His local chapter unanimously elected him Exalted Cyclops.[6]
According to Byrd, a Klan official told him, “You have a talent for leadership, Bob… The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation.” Byrd later recalled, “suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities! I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did.”[6] Byrd held the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops.[6]
In 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo:[9]
“ I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side… Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds
Well for one thing, Byrd has repeatedly apologized for his past and has worked to over come that past.
Ok, so let me get this straight, you have a know ex klan member and not a peep, but wilson says the president lied and now he is the biggest racist in the world….
Dude, don’t you know the score? Being to the Left of the Kaiser means having to say you’re sorry forever, prove it with every action for many years, and redemption is still a distant dream.
Strom Thurmond, Chief Justice Rehnquist and their ilk, however…
Get a grip.
well done.
When Byrd went after the War hawks to a petrified of jingoism invertebrate Congress he had my full out respect. I can’t endorse his past or even all of his present choices, but no one got it more right than he did, or maybe Feingold, about the Iraq con… and that was a massive con.
I am praying for him.