Treasury's O'Neill, Senator Byrd Trade Barbs
Thu Feb 7, 3:00 PM ET
By Glenn Somerville

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A routine Senate hearing took a strange twist on Thursday when an infuriated Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill traded barbs with Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of U.S. Congress, over who grew up poorer.

Photos

Reuters Photo


But when asked later about a report that there were tears in his eyes during the heated exchange with the 84-year-old West Virginia Senator, O'Neill shot back: "That was fire."

The spat began when Byrd took offense to a cartoon in the Bush administration's 2003 budget document, released on Monday, showing Gulliver tied down by Lilliputians, which the West Virginia senator said implied the interests of ordinary people were too minor to warrant consideration.

The silver-haired Byrd, renowned for his insistence that the White House show respect for Congress, then snapped: "I've been here for 50 years (and) we're here to represent the interests of the people."

Byrd labeled the cartoon's inclusion in the glossy, photo-filled, flag-emblazoned budget document -- a departure from the usual plain-paper, plain-cover plan the White House usually produces -- "nonsense" and added: "A lot of us were here before you. You're not Alexander Hamilton."

Hamilton was the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, who served from 1789 until 1795 and who established basic economic policy for the United States.

O'Neill, a wealthy former industrialist, was clearly agitated by Byrd's manner and fired back: "I've dedicated my life to doing what I can to getting rid of rules that limit human potential and I'm not going to stop."

Sitting ramrod straight at the witness desk, O'Neill rejected any implication that he lacked empathy for ordinary working Americans and said his own beginnings were humble.

A LADDER WITHOUT RUNGS

"I started my life in a house without water or electricity so I don't cede the high moral ground to you of knowing what life was like in a ditch," O'Neill said in a tightly controlled voice.

Byrd was swift with a riposte. "I started out in life without any rungs in the bottom of the ladder...I've had that experience and I can stand toe-to-toe with you," he said.

The West Virginia Senator then threw in a reference to an early controversy involving O'Neill, who initially resisted putting his huge personal stock holdings into a trust when he was appointed Treasury secretary but eventually did so.

"I haven't walked in any corporate boardrooms. I haven't had to turn millions of dollars into trust accounts -- I wish I had those millions of dollars." Byrd said.

"I grew up in a coal-miner's home and I married a coal-miner's daughter, so I hope you don't want to start down this road and talk about our backgrounds and how far back we came from," he added.

NOT THE FIRST TIME

Even after the normal committee business resumed, the touchiness between O'Neill and Byrd occasionally flared.

As Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore), led O'Neill through a series of gentle questions and said he hoped the Treasury secretary hadn't felt "demeaned," he noted that O'Neill clearly didn't need the job.

Byrd quickly interjected. "I don't need to serve here either. I could retire and get more money," he said tartly.

The exchange came at the start of O'Neill's fourth appearance on Capitol Hill this week to discuss and defend the Bush budget proposals, but it was by far the liveliest. Veterans of the Senate Budget Committee took it in stride, though, especially Sen. Byrd's participation in it.

"He's skewered witnesses before," a Senate aide said afterward. "This is not a first."

Nor is it the first tense moment between Byrd and the Treasury secretary, whose fondness for plain speaking has landed him in hot water with Congress before.

During a Senate Budget panel hearing last March, Byrd, a vocal guardian of Senate etiquette, took O'Neill sharply to task for interrupting Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, as she questioned the Treasury chief about Bush's tax-cut plan.