Remembering Robert Byrd

The Change
Wholeheartedly supporting the war in Vietnam and working to trim Welfare assistance rolls, Byrd was considered conservative enough to get a place on Richard Nixon's list of possible Supreme Court nominees. By 1971, however, Byrd had won the position of Majority Whip and tempered his views to better represent his new, broader constituency. As such, he tended to vote as a liberal on housing, unemployment benefits and Social Security, among other issues.

• Byrd Obit
• TIME's 1978 Cover Story on Byrd and Congress