Robert Byrd handing over the reins

Now that Robert Byrd is stepping down as chairman of the all-important Senate Appropriations Committee, it's time to change another role that Byrd fills. Byrd is going to be 91 years old this month. As the senior member of the majority party, he serves as President pro tempore of the Senate. Since 1947, the President pro tempore of the Senate is the 3rd in line in succession to the presidency behind the Speaker of the House and the Vice President. Since, by custom, the president pro tem is the longest serving member of the majority party, we have had a procession of frail old men in the line of succession. Byrd entered the Senate in 1959. It's one thing to give him the ceremonial role of presiding over the Senate when the Vice President isn't there so that he can bang the gavel and then hand it off to more junior members to sit in the big chair. It's another thing entirely to have him in the line of succession. If the thought of having 90-year old Robert Byrd in that position doesn't appall you, how about centenarian Strom Thurmond when the GOP controlled the Senate? And he was replaced by the repellent Ted Stevens. Why should anyone in the line of succession be someone whose main qualification is longevity? Harry Reid is not my idea of decent presidential material any more than Nancy Pelosi is. But it makes a lot more sense to put the Majority Leader in the line of the succession than it does to have a nonagenarian there. If the people of West Virginia want to keep returning Byrd to the Senate despite his obvious frailty, that's their prerogative. But there is no reason why he should have a more national role in the unlikely case that we should have a national tragedy that would entail invoking the law of presidential succession.