January 13, 2003

DEPENDS WHAT THE MEANING OF RACIST IS (via Crow Blog):

Sen. Byrd: I Didn't Lynch and Wasn't Racist While in the Klan (NewsMax, Jan. 13, 2003)
A spokesman for West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd said Monday morning that the top Senate Democrat has told him he never participated in lynchings, cross burnings or other hate crimes against African-Americans while he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s. And he insisted that his boss wasn't a racist even during the time he belonged to the anti-black hate group. [...]

In another letter, Byrd outlined his opposition to integrating the Armed Forces in the late 1940s. In that missive, the future Senate leader was quoted describing blacks as "race mongrels" and vowing that he would rather "die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again" than fight "with a Negro by my side." Asked about the quotes, Gavin said, "Again, he finds the comments in those letters to be deplorable and he doesn't recall writing them."


Democrats like to say that Byrd's racism isn't an issue because he's not in a Leadership position anymore. However, if the 4th hijacked plane had crashed into the White House during a meeting involving the President, VP, and Dennis Hastert, Robert Byrd would have become President of the United States on 9-11-2001. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 13, 2003 8:35 PM
Comments

I believe him, yes I do! I mean really. Has he ever lied before? He's a learned constitutionalist. I've heard him say so. Many times. Really. Many, many times. He carries a copy of it in his pocket ... to flourish on cue. So that's it!

Posted by: Genecis at January 13, 2003 8:10 PM

Earlier Byrd said he "would not dispute" the letter. His excuses for joining the Klan throughout the year have run the gamut. A man whose dishonesty about his bigoted past has finally, today, become obvious to all but the most partisan, does not belong in the Senate.

Posted by: Henry Hanks at January 13, 2003 9:02 PM

He was elected and it's not like these are secrets being revealed. People are entitled to vile representatives.

Posted by: oj at January 13, 2003 9:20 PM

Fortunately he'll retire soon.

Posted by: pj at January 13, 2003 9:58 PM

PJ - Byrd, like Kennedy, Biden, Leahy, and the other Democrat senators for life won't retire unless completely incapacitated. Strom has set a record they will all try and beat.

Posted by: AWW at January 14, 2003 8:47 AM

The mainstream press has spread the myth that Byrd admitted 100% to his racist past and has completely disavowed it, even after his remarks on Fox News Sunday in 2001. Byrd's denial of the obvious is more clear than ever, but don't look for the mainstream press to point it out.

Posted by: Henry Hanks at January 14, 2003 9:15 AM

I'd think that this kind of looking the other way on behalf of the Democrats has got to be having some effect on how blacks view the party. Or am I engaging in wishful thinking?

Posted by: Buttercup at January 14, 2003 12:27 PM
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