Called to Meet His Sausage-Maker

They say you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, so I'll keep this brief.

I wish I could say that the King of Pork's passing will leave the U.S. Treasury a bit more secure from congressional plundering, but Sen. Robert Byrd taught his proteges in both parties well. Don't apologize for pigging-out, he taught them -- be damn proud of it.

By helping to turn fiscal vice into political virtue, he made pork-barrel politics not just respectable, but admirable. It's a darker part of his "legacy" that our grandchildren will be paying for.