RIP Sen. Robert Byrd

The NY Daily News reports: The nation's longest-serving senator has died. Sen. Robert Byrd, the controversial 92-year-old from West Virginia, passed away earlier this morning.

The politician, who had served more than 50 years in Congress, had been suffering failing health for years and died at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va, according to a spokesman for the family.

Byrd, a Democrat, was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, his condiction considered "seriously ill."

In November, Byrd broke the record for congressional service that had been set by Democrat Carl Hayden of Arizona, who served in the House and Senate from 1912 to 1969. He was the Senate's majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

A former member of the Ku Klux Klan, he was known to recite poetry, quote the Bible, discuss the Constitutional Convention and detail the Peloponnesian Wars — and frequently did in Senate debates.

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