** FILE ** Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., is shown during a press conference in Charleston, W.Va., Sept. 9, 2005. Byrd, the dean of the Senate and its resident constitutional expert, counts only a few regrets in his 48-year Senate career: filibustering the 1964 Civil Rights Act, voting to expand the Vietnam War, deregulating airlines. Add to the list a new one from this century: supporting the anti-terror USA Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (AP Photo/Bob Bird, File)