What's In A Name?
(CBS)
What's in a name? Billions of dollars. At least when it comes to the name of Sen. Robert C. Byrd.
This November will mark the 50th anniversary of his first election to the Senate, where he's held office longer than anybody else in history. He's spent much of that time as head of the Senate's most powerful spending committee ... with extraordinary control over earmarks. Earmarks are Congressional grants of money without the normal public review.
With that power, Byrd has been able to bring a disproportionately large amount of "earmarked" tax dollars to projects in his home state. Many of them named ... after him. All that money has certainly made his supporters in West Virginia happy, and has helped keep him in office all these years.
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