what's the deaL w/ sen. robert byrd?

[sniffa]

everytime i hear anything good about the guy (quite a bit), the person spouting it has to answer charges that byrd is a racist member of the kkk.

i'm not up to speed on his history, but my understanding is used to be a member a Long time ago?

i aLso just read a charge that he dropped the n-bomb on the senate fLoor onLy 3 years ago. is that true?

any heLp wouLd be muchLy appreciated.

[xchrom]

1. much ado about not very much

byrd has catured the very essence of a stolen election, and the absolute abuse of power by bushco.
byrds sin has been that he's human, and therefore something less than perfect.

[still_one]

2. Yes, he was a member of the kkk years ago

but whether he can be forgiven for that or not, the real point is that he was correct about what we were doing in Iraq by going into a pre-emptive war

The issue is not the person who delivers the message but the message itself!

[sangh0]

3. Byrd is no longer a bigot, but

Byrd has been an enemy of the environment, and has not been supportive of the party. He was willing to vote for Clinton's impeachment in the Senate if Clinton wouldn't allow mining companies to take the tops off of mountains and dump them in streams. Clinton agreed to allow mountaintop mining and so Byrd voted against Clinton's impeachment. Later on, to his credit, Clinton went back on his word and fought to prevent mountaintop mining.

Byrd has also been an advocate of "clean coal", dishonestly billed by energy corps as an environmentally friendly way to provide energy.

[LuminousX]

4. Byrd was once a member of the KKK

but renounced it a long time ago and has been an able defender of civil rights since.

There are no excuses for his past racist affiliation, but he has atoned and atones daily. The GOP openly embrace people like David Dukes and other openly bigoted/racist individuals who have never atoned and will never atone for their history, yet disparage people like Byrd who have rejected their past.

Typical of hypocrits.

[AntiCoup2K4]

5. The Busheep can't argue against anything Byrd has said in the last 3 years

...so instead they have to drag out something that happenned before any of them were born.

As for what Byrd said 3 years ago, he used the phrase "white nigger", and it was not on the Senate floor, but on a Sunday morning talk show. I saw the interview, but don't remember the exact context, nor which show it was. It was a stupid thing for Byrd to say, and he deserved condemnation for it, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the man has been 100% accurate in his condemnation of the Bush/PNAC war agenda, and the fact that so few of his fellow "Democrats" in the Senate have been willing to stand against this bullshit.

[Jack The Tab]

6. Byrd voted with Zell on the Marriage debate....

which disappointed me greatly.

That said, his rhetoric and passion denouncing the war and this administration was really amazing.

[sniffa]

9. that's actuaLLy the topic of discussion

"West Virginia’s Democratic senators said Wednesday that they oppose amending the Constitution to ban gay marriages.

However, Sen. Robert Byrd was one of three Democrats to side with Republicans to limit debate and allow a Senate vote on the amendment.

He said he chose the 48-50 losing side of the procedural vote for different reasons than the Republicans, arguing that he wanted to call the GOP’s political bluff. Republicans failed to muster even a simple majority let alone the 60 votes needed before the Senate could move to a straight up-or-down vote on the amendment."

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2004/July/15/LNtop2.htm

some of cnuts posted:

"Maybe he thought he was voting on a measure to provide federal funding to his old organization, the KKK; or maybe he thought the measure had an amendment to just get it over with a rename the state of West Virginia after him, and now he's backpedalling on his vote."

"He can also tell you the best way to light a cross on fire or how to make a fun halloween costume out of a sheet.

I believe he's also the last person to use the "N" word on the Senate floor.

Oh, but he doles out the cash, so he's great."

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. Byrd apologized on National TV

for having been a KKK member.....in his youth. Look at his voting record on Civil Rights issues. That should tell you more about the man.

[BurtWorm]

8. About the n-bomb

It was on Tony Snow's Fox news show, not the Senate Floor. His actual words were "There are white niggers." He was forced to apologize.



http://www.why-war.com/encyclopedia/people/Robert_Byrd/


Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan for a period of time in the early 1940s. In a letter he wrote in 1946, he said, "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia." However, by the time he ran for Congress in 1952, he announced, "After about a year, I became disinterested, quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization. During the nine years that have followed, I have never been interested in the Klan."

2001 racial remark controversy
On March 4, 2001, an interview with Fox News Sunday host Tony Snow was aired. In the interview Byrd was asked about race relations: "They are much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime," Byrd said. "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." Then Byrd warned: "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time; I'm going to use that word.

"We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."

Byrd's office later issued an apology.

"I apologize for the characterization I used on this program. The phrase dates back to my boyhood and has no place in today's society. As for my language, I had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone of another race."

American conservatives have pointed to Byrd's comments as evidence of a double standard in the treatment of Democratic and Republican political figures in regards to controversial statements about race (see Trent Lott, Rush Limbaugh).