Basic Instincts: Not The President’s Man
4 min readFeb 25, 2019
By J. Michael Willard
The late US Senate Democratic Leader Robert Byrd let it be known from the start: “I am the President’s friend — but not the President’s man.”
This was his declaration to the Democratic Caucus in 1977 that elected him Senate Leader. In case it was not clear, he repeated it at his weekly, Saturday news conference.
