50 years in office isn't an accomplishment it's a disease

[Tinker]

Good riddance Robert Byrd. I am sickened by the fact that you held on until you died rather than stepping down after your third term.

[Semtext]

I don't find anything anything about what Byrd did with the system the slightest bit more corrupt or moribund than the system itself already is.

[Tinker]

Seniority itself is corruption. It is anti-Democratic because it encourages us to keep people in office for the simple fact that they've already been in office. So if you make it past 10 years in office then it's hard to get you out because the voters lose the committee appointments that come with Seniority. So it really has little to do with Robert Byrd it has to do with being in office that long.