WASHINGTON — The Senate convened Monday with white roses on an empty desk in the second row where Robert Byrd last sat, an institutional vacancy that will not soon be filled even after his successor is named.
When the nine-term Democratic senator from West Virginia spoke, Washington listened. He commanded attention in a way that no other modern lawmaker does, leaving the question: Who will guide the chamber now?
“The first answer to that is nobody,” said Norman Ornstein, a constitutional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “There’s nobody who knows the rules the way he knew the rules. Nobody who knew the history the way he knew the history. You don’t have a protector of the institution the way he was.”
With flags at half-staff across the capital, leaders conferred to determine the route forward.
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin is widely seen as the top Democrat to replace Byrd, but the popular governor is unlikely to make an appointment to fill the vacancy for several days. Manchin is expected to name a caretaker to hold the seat until an election is held in 2012.
Republicans, sensing an opportunity for an electoral gain, will push the Democratically controlled state legislature to allow voters to vote in November for the person who will fill out the remainder of Byrd’s term.
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a popular five-term Republican congresswoman, is widely seen as the GOP’s top contender for the post.
A number of Democrats are believed to be possible temporary appointees, including outgoing state party leader Nick Casey, who was nominated by President Barack Obama for a federal judgeship; West Virginia Commerce Secretary Kelley Goes; and Larry Puccio, Manchin’s longtime chief of staff and the newly chosen state Democratic Party chairman.
Yet few seem able to match the institutional savvy of Byrd, especially after the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy and the upcoming retirement of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. The mantle appeared to fall Monday to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, 85, who was sworn in as Byrd’s successor as the Senate’s president pro-tempore.
