Senator Robert Byrd, who died this morning, embodied the profound changes that the American South underwent during the last 100 years. As a youth, he was a member of the KKK (in his state a primarily anti-Catholic group) and opposed Civil Rights legislation but he went on to endorse Barack Obama who would become the United States' first African-American president. He was a fierce defender of Constitutional separation of powers and while generally a hawk on military matters he became one of the primary opponents of the Iraq War, a conflict he saw as being misguided and mismanaged. As close friend of Senator Edward Kennedy, he cast one of the deciding votes in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, "a historic piece of legislation that will expand health insurance coverage to millions of Americans and put an end to the worst insurance industry practices." I did not always agree with Senator Byrd on the issues but history will judge him as one of the great senators of our time and an honorable man who loved his state and nation.