WHY IS THIS GUY STILL A SENATOR!!!!!

[EvilMonkey]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8272822

 

 

After reading this, it seems like he tries to make the Klan out as a Rotary Club or something :

He described it essentially as a fraternal group of elites -- doctors, lawyers, clergy, judges and other "upstanding people" who at no time engaged in or preached violence against blacks, Jews or Catholics, who historically were targets of the Klan.

 

tries to make himself seem like a victim who was simply just forced to be a racist,

His parents and the boarders who lived with them inculcated Byrd in "the typical southern viewpoint of the time," he wrote. "Blacks were generally distrusted by many whites, and I suspect they were subliminally feared

 

and lies about how long he was involved with the Klan

Byrd's book offers a truncated description of his days with the Klan that does not completely square with contemporaneous newspaper accounts and letters that show he was involved with the Klan throughout much of the 1940s, and not merely for two or three years.

 

Trent Lott merely tries to say something nice about a retiring collegue during a speech and he gets run out of the majority party's leaders post, while Byrd has said things like

"Rather I should die a thousand times, and see old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels."

and voted against the Civil Rights Act (filibustering it for 14 hours even!), still gets elected.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

All political parties have idiots. But he's figured out that his Klan idiocy was him being a f***ing moron and he is trying to better himself with what he can do now.

 

But hey, if we can have a C student ex-cokehead as President then Byrd can still be a Senator. And I dunno how "nice" Lott's comment was (essentially saying that if we voted for the pro-segregationist Strom we would have had less issues to deal with because the 60s civil rights movement wouldn't have taken place) Lott also had a history of actively supporting segregation during college and making similar statements at various points throughout his career. Lott has been tied to the Council of Conservative Citizens (which is essentially a group that was created out of anger against integration) More info about the CCC can be found here http://www.militia-watchdog.org/ccc.asp Hell, Lott said in 1984 that MLK didn't deserve a national holiday for his efforts -- quotes can be found http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/lott.sp.7.html

 

So, we can keep up the tit for tat or just realize that Mark Twain was true when he said: "Suppose I am an idiot. Suppose I am a member of Congress. I repeated myself."

[Rex Kickass]

He said he'd apologized a thousand times and would gladly apologize a thousand times more for being a part of the KKK. I can live with a man who's admitted his mistakes and seeks to correct them.

[EvilMonkey]

He said he'd apologized a thousand times and would gladly apologize a thousand times more for being a part of the KKK. I can live with a man who's admitted his mistakes and seeks to correct them.

How about Trent? He apologized. Even went on BET to do so. But even though Byrd has said he is sorry, he has also consistently lied about his involvement, trying to whitewash it, claim it was for only a few years, etc. These statements are in his book which is just coming out, so even today, he is still lying about it.

[Rex Kickass]

Byrd isn't in a leadership position in the Senate. And he shouldn't be. Nor should Lott, but that doesn't mean he should be impeached from the Senate either - nor should Byrd.

 

I'm all for people apologizing for their mistakes and righting their wrongs.

[Mplssoxfan]

The basic problem we have is that many, many people agree that both houses are full of scoundrels, idiots or whichever derogatory name you can think of, but everyone believes that our own Senator or Representative isn't one of the reprobates. For instance, even though I cannot stand either of my own Senators (Dayton is blah, Coleman is a fraud), I like my Rep. (Sabo). So we get stuck with the same men and women, over and over.

 

I've been in the anti-Byrd camp for a long time, trust me. I still do not understand how this pompous ass continues to get re-elected. Oh, wait a minute, he brought all kind of Federal jobs to the state. Now I get it.

[Balta1701]

How about Trent?  He apologized.  Even went on BET to do so.  But even though Byrd has said he is sorry, he has also consistently lied about his involvement, trying to whitewash it, claim it was for only a few years, etc.  These statements are in his book which is just coming out, so even today, he is still lying about it.

 

Lott lied when he was on BET too. My personal favorite was him saying that he was in favor of affirmative action. No one in their right mind believed him.

 

Lott, BTW, is still one of the Senators who has refused to give his support to the lynching-apology resolution adopted by the Senate. Byrd was one of the co-sponsors.

[EvilMonkey]

Lott, BTW, is still one of the Senators who has refused to give his support to the lynching-apology resolution adopted by the Senate.  Byrd was one of the co-sponsors.

I wonder if Byrd was responsible for any?

[Rex Kickass]

Judging from WV's history of what Klan actions there were, probably not. The Klan was very weak in the Mountaineer State.

[jasonxctf]

the people of WV obviously don't have a problem with what he did over 60 years ago... why do you?

 

in fact i've heard that he's been a long-time, strong advocate for the african american community. in my mind, he's a symbol of how "certain" people can turn their lives around and become decent citizens.

[Soxy]

linky

 

Sen. Robert C. Byrd Laments KKK Connection

 

By VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 20, 3:45 AM ET

 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Sen. Robert C. Byrd (news, bio, voting record)'s new memoir reveals both his encyclopedic knowledge of political history and the unlikely inspiration that helped launch his own political career: A Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

 

It was a Klan leader who motivated the young Byrd during his short-lived tenure in the racist organization — something he writes was "an extraordinarily foolish mistake" that has haunted him for 40 years.

 

"It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me, and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career and reputation," the West Virginia Democrat says in an autobiography being released Monday. "I displayed very bad judgment, due to immaturity and a lack of seasoned reasoning."

 

It's a mistake he has paid for time and again, the only significant scandal ever attached to a man who grew up in Wolf Creek Hollow and who next June stands to become the longest-serving senator in U.S. history.

 

Even now, with the 2006 election more than 18 months away, Republicans are using it in their campaign to oust him. Byrd has not declared whether he will run again, and his book gives no hints.

 

"Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields" chronicles his 87 years, from boyhood to his re-election in 2000. But at 770 pages, the $35 paperback from West Virginia University Press is more weighty tome than light reading.

 

It portrays a man who is religious, socially conservative, respectful and respected — a man for whom a promise is an unbreakable bond. But it is more the chronology of a career than the story of a man, dispassionately detailing virtually every federal dollar brought to West Virginia.

 

According to Citizens Against Government Waste, he's helped secure $1.6 billion for the state just since 1999. But any reader expecting an apology will be disappointed. Byrd is proud of supporting a state that suffered more than most through economic recessions — long exploited for its natural resources and slower than most to attain prosperity.

 

"The Washington critics of 'pork' had a full-time job in trying to keep up with me," he writes.

 

Byrd says the book is intended to tell the story of the place he holds dear, the state he says grew up alongside him as the money trickled in.

 

More than his own, "it's a West Virginia story," he told The Associated Press. "And it's still unfolding. There are still chapters ahead.

 

"I want to try to get our young people to understand that if I can do it, they can do it, too. Poverty doesn't need to hold anyone back," he said.

 

The book reflects Byrd's appreciation for political history, but the private man remains private, revealing little of his heart. One exception lies in his explanation of the folly with the Klan.

 

As a boy, he watched a parade of white hoods in Matoaka, learning years later his father had been among them. Back then "many of the 'best' people were members," he says, and Byrd was vulnerable to the anti-Communism rhetoric.

 

He recruited 150 members, and when Grand Dragon Joel L. Baskin came to a meeting in Crab Orchard, Byrd was unanimously elected Exalted Cyclops.

 

"You have a talent for leadership, Bob," Baskin told him. "The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation."

 

"Suddenly lights flashed in my mind!" Byrd writes. "Someone important had recognized my abilities. I was only 23 or 24, and the thought of a political career had never struck me. But strike me that night, it did.

 

"It was the appealing challenge I had been looking for. Wolf Creek Hollow seemed very near and Washington very far away, with the road in between all uphill," he says. "But I was suddenly eager to climb the mountain."

 

He belonged to the Klan for a year, then moved in 1943 to Baltimore to help build ships.

 

Byrd says he never resented blacks, Catholics or Jews, but he failed to "examine the full meaning and impact of the ugly prejudice behind the positive, pro-American veneer."

 

"My only explanation for the entire episode is that I was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision — a jejune and immature outlook — seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions."

 

Byrd has been married 68 years to high school sweetheart Erma Ora James, who pushed her congressman husband to earn a law degree with 10 years of night school.

 

She has backed Byrd through many careers, from butcher, salesman and welder to his first foray into public life. Byrd won a seat in the House of Delegates in 1946 and has not lost since. In 1952, he was elected to the U.S. House, and he went to the Senate in 1958.

 

The book suggests he deals with his family as he does the world, with reverence and commitment.

 

In 1958, 15-year-old daughter Margie drafted her first "constituent to senator" letter, complaining Byrd had not delivered a dog she had been promised. She gave him a week to make good, threatening to report his failure to the newspapers.

 

That day, she got her dog.

[EvilMonkey]

the people of WV obviously don't have a problem with what he did over 60 years ago... why do you?

 

in fact i've heard that he's been a long-time, strong advocate for the african american community. in my mind, he's a symbol of how "certain" people can turn their lives around and become decent citizens.

He can say he is sorry all he wants, but as long as he keeps trying to equate his Klan membership as 'a fraternal group of elites', he is still lying. That is like a rapist saying 'sorry I raped you, it was just youthfull indescretion that got taken too far. But it really wasn't that bad'. He is sorry, just like Ted Kennedy is sorry about Chappaquidick because it ruined his chance to become President.

Edited June 21, 2005 by EvilMonkey

[EvilMonkey]

Judging from WV's history of what Klan actions there were, probably not. The Klan was very weak in the Mountaineer State.

 

May not have been a 'hotbed', but if he was responsible for even one, wouldn't that be enough?

West Virginia was never considered a hotbed of Klan activity, as were states in the Deep South, but it had its share of violence against blacks and immigrants. Forty-eight people, including 28 blacks, were lynched in West Virginia, mostly during the late 1880s and early 1900s, according to the Tuskegee University archives. The last two reported lynchings occurred on Dec. 10, 1931, in Lewisburg, W.Va.

[Cerbaho-WG]

May not have been a 'hotbed', but if he was responsible for even one, wouldn't that be enough?

 

He's 87 years old, meaning that he was born in 1918. And since it's kind of hard to not report a lynching, Byrd would have been a massive 13 years old during those lynchings. You're trying to make a mountain out of a molehill and being utterly ignorant to numerous Republicans who were vehement racists but seem to be beyond criticism in your book.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

being utterly ignorant to numerous Republicans who were vehement racists

 

 

Any known Klan members among those currently serving in the White House or Congress?

 

Just because they dont submit to the every demand of minority groups does not make them racists.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Any known Klan members among those currently serving in the White House or Congress? 

 

Just because they dont submit to the every demand of minority groups does not make them racists.

 

Yeah but if we want to bring up past alliances etc., then we can easily discuss Lott's association with the CCC (see my earlier post) and past statements like Lott believe that it is wrong to have an MLK Day saying that he wasn't deserving of it (among other things -- again, see my previous post)

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Yeah but if we want to bring up past alliances etc., then we can easily discuss Lott's association with the CCC (see my earlier post) and past statements like Lott believe that it is wrong to have an MLK Day saying that he wasn't deserving of it (among other things -- again, see my previous post)

 

 

Just because Lott doesn't want a MLK day doesn't make him a racist. I suppose if I came out against a Jackie Robinson Day or a Rosa Parks day Id be a racist myself following that logic.