Senator Robert KKK Byrd

One thing that I have not understood for as long as I have been following politics is how some people can be driven out of town for past transgressions (Rep. Gingrich for an affair, Sen. Lott for a comment about Sen. Thurmond) but others get a free pass.

Sen. Robert Byrd, Democrat from West Virginia, is one of those who have gotten a free pass for far too many things. According to The Washington Post Sen Byrd has a new book coming out tomorrow. In it he minimizes his role in organizing almost single-handedly a chapter of the Klu Klux Klan. Not only did he organize the chapter in his mid-20's but the "Grand Dragon" of the mid-Atlantic states was impressed.

As Byrd recalls now, the Klan official, Joel L. Baskin of Arlington, Va., was so impressed with the young Byrd's organizational skills that he urged him to go into politics. "The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation," Baskin said.

And thus began the long career in politics that belongs to Sen. Robert N-word Byrd. That last reference was to his comment a few years ago when he was being interviewed by Tony Snow and said the following,

"I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us ... . I just think we talk so much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that. There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time; I'm going to use that word."

So this jerk gets a free pass from the leaders of race communities...and in fact he gets praise from them. This jerk gets a free pass from the left. The very same wing of American politics that are Nazi-like in rooting out offensive words let this KKK organizer go without tar & feathering him. And it is all because he has a "D" after his name.

For regular readers of this blog that is no surprise. So what is this posting for? His new book tries to say that the reason for organizing a chapter of the KKK in the 1940s was strictly for networking purposes.

Byrd says he viewed the Klan as a useful platform from which to launch his political career. 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.

I cannot believe that people let him get away with this. This is like someone starting a chapter of the Black Panthers in the 1970s and saying that it was only a social group to learn about the animal. What lies. This is like someone joining the Symbionese Liberation Army and claiming they were starting a fireworks fan club.

Everyone makes mistakes. Do they correct their ways? If so then they ought to be forgiven. Considering Byrd's continued insensitivity to the dynamics of his race relations remarks I would say that he has not corrected his ways and hope that these things dog him through the remainder of his life. A fitting legacy for Byrd considering his attempt to still run from his racist KKK-chapter-starting days by letting it be entirely his lasting legacy.

Senator Robert KKK Byrd's new book will be published tomorrow and is called "Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields". Wish they had changed the "C" to "KKK" as it it should be.

UPDATE 6/20/05
Gerry Daly has a great posting about this WaPo article. He has a slightly different conclusion: that Byrd cannot be happy about the treatment in the article. I still maintain that Byrd is getting a free pass from the MSM.

Gerry includes some great tidbits from the article further prooving that Byrd's legacy should be all about his ties to the KKK which he tries to dismiss rather than correct his ways. From Gerry's post:

Byrd said in the Dec. 11, 1945, letter – which would not become public for 42 more years with the publication of a book on blacks in the military during World War II by author Graham Smith – that he would never fight in the armed forces “with a Negro by my side.” Byrd added that, “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.” [Gerry- Emphasis mine.]…

Byrd won the primary, but during the general election campaign, Byrd’s GOP opponent uncovered a letter Byrd had handwritten to Green, the KKK Imperial Wizard, recommending a friend as a Kleagle and urging promotion of the Klan throughout the country. The letter was dated 1946 – long after the time Byrd claimed he had lost interest in the Klan. “The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia,” Byrd wrote, according to newspaper accounts of that period. Byrd makes no mention of the letter in his new book…

Emphasis again mine. Not only would this letter be long after the time where Byrd had said he had lost interest in the Klan, so was the 1945 letter about blacks in the military.

Given his demonstrated history for lying about this timeframe, why should the rest of his explanations be given any credence?

Four years later, Byrd’s Klan past became an issue again when he joined with other southern Democrats to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Byrd filibustered the bill for more than 14 hours as he argued that it abrogated principles of federalism. He criticized most anti-poverty programs except for food stamps. And in 1967, he voted against the nomination of Thurgood Marshall, the first black appointed to the Supreme Court…

And, I will add, he voted against the nomination of Clarence Thomas, and more recently against the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown and for the filibuster of Miguel Estrada.

My question is this: I read the article at the same link last night and it was only 1-part, much shorter and did not include the stuff that Gerry had in it. This morning it is a 3-part article and a bit more damning. Is that normal?