Robert Byrd Dies

Robert Byrd has passed away.

While obituaries refer to Byrd's Ku Klux Klan past, he's forgiven by the Left, just as he was in life.

Would a Republican with a similar history have been cut such slack?

No way.

From the New York Times:

Robert C. Byrd, who used his record tenure as a United States senator to fight for the primacy of the legislative branch of government and to build a modern West Virginia with vast amounts of federal money, died at about 3 a.m. Monday, his office said. He was 92.

...Mr. Byrd’s death comes as Senate Democrats are working to pass the final version of the financial overhaul bill and win other procedural battles in the week before the Independence Day recess. In the polarized atmosphere of Washington, President Obama’s agenda seemed to hinge on Mr. Byrd’s health. Earlier this year, in the final days of the health care debate, the ailing senator was pushed onto the Senate floor in his plaid wheelchair so he could cast his votes.

Mr. Byrd served 51 years in the Senate, longer than anyone in American history, and with his six years in the House, he was the longest-serving member of Congress. He held a number of Senate offices, including majority and minority leader and president pro tem.

...Mr. Byrd’s political life could be traced to his early involvement with the Ku Klux Klan, an association that almost thwarted his career and clouded it intermittently for years afterward.

In the early 1940s, he organized a 150-member klavern, or chapter, of the Klan in Sophia, W.Va., and was chosen its leader at a meeting. After the meeting, Joel L. Baskin, the Klan’s grand dragon for the region, suggested that Mr. Byrd use his “talents for leadership” by going into politics.

“Suddenly, lights flashed in my mind!” Mr. Byrd later wrote. “Someone important had recognized my abilities.”

Mr. Byrd insisted that his klavern had never conducted white-supremacist marches or engaged in racial violence. He said in his autobiography that he had joined the Klan because he shared its anti-Communist creed and wanted to be associated with the leading people in his part of West Virginia. He conceded, however, that he also “reflected the fears and prejudices” of the time.

His opponents used his Klan membership against him during his first run for the House of Representatives in 1952; Democratic leaders urged him to drop out of the race. But he stayed in and won, then spent decades apologizing for what he called a “sad mistake.”

He went on to vote for civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960, but when the more sweeping Civil Rights Act was before Congress in 1964, he filibustered for an entire night against it, saying the measure was an infringement on states’ rights. He backed civil rights legislation consistently only after becoming a party leader in the Senate.

...In 1960, he backed Johnson for president and campaigned against John F. Kennedy in the West Virginia primary. Kennedy’s forces retaliated by bringing up Mr. Byrd’s Klan connection. Kennedy won the primary. That summer, Mr. Byrd voted for the 1960 Civil Rights Act, a Johnson measure that allowed federal judges to appoint referees to register voters after discrimination had been proved in court.

But in 1964, with Johnson now president and no longer a force in the Senate, Mr. Byrd sided with Senator Richard B. Russell Jr. of Georgia, the leader of Southern Democrats, and filibustered against the much stronger civil rights bill of that year, a measure that would open restaurants and hotels to blacks, ban discrimination in employment and enable the Justice Department to register black voters in Deep South states. Mr. Byrd also opposed the 1965 Voting Rights Act and its renewal in 1970, which he considered infringements on states’ rights.

Robert Byrd's association with the Ku Klux Klan was forgiven, and for the most part, conveniently forgotten by Leftists. The fact that he was the longest-serving member of the Senate is testament to that.

The Times even seems to accuse Byrd's political opponents for using "his Klan membership against him during his first run for the House of Representatives," as if that had been inappropriate.

It wasn't. Remnants of Byrd's KKK past echoed through his career as an elected official.

In 2001, Byrd was still using racially offensive language with impunity.

For example, as a U.S. senator, in March 2001, while appearing on FOX News Sunday, Byrd made bigoted comments with no reprimand from his liberal cohorts.

ROBERT BYRD: 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.

In June of 2006, the Washington Post ran a tribute to Byrd when he became the longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate.

It made a passing reference to Byrd's Ku Klux Klan days, but quickly dismissed it as a young man's folly with Byrd calling it "the greatest mistake of my life."

Not surprisingly, The Post failed to mention Byrd's March 2001 "white nigger" comment.

Michelle Malkin wrote an article in March 2001, detailing parts of the honorable Senator Byrd's past, parts that weren't honorable.

She discusses Byrd's 2001 appearance on FOX News Sunday.

Malkin writes:

The ex-Klansman showed his true colors when asked by Fox News Sunday morning talk show host Tony Snow about the state of race relations in America. Sen. 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."

The ex-Klansman, famed for Beltway blowhardism, should have quit talking a lot sooner. Why any prominent politician in his right mind would publicly and deliberately use the poisonous epithet "nigger" -- which most daily newspapers refuse to spell out, no matter the context -- is beyond comprehension.

Certainly, political correctness was ruling public discourse by 2001; yet Byrd was given a pass.


It's beyond comprehension that Byrd's Ku Klux Klan history was excused by the Democrats.

Malkin continues:

The ex-Klansman's admirers praise his historical knowledge, mastery of procedural rules, and outspokenness. They refer to the Senate's senior Democrat as the "conscience of the Senate." They downplay his white-sheet-wearing days as a "brief mistake" -- as if joining the Klan were like knocking over a glass of water. Oopsy.

This ex-Klansman wasn't just a passive member of the nation's most notorious hate group. According to news accounts and biographical information, Sen. Byrd was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head. He said he joined because it "offered excitement" and because the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values." Nothing like the thrill of gathering 'round a midnight bonfire, roasting s'mores, tying nooses, and promoting white supremacy with a bunch of your hooded friends.

The ex-Klansman allegedly ended his ties with the group in 1943. He may have stopped paying dues, but he continued to pay homage to the KKK. Republicans in West Virginia discovered a letter Sen. Byrd had written to the Imperial Wizard of the KKK three years after he says he abandoned the group. He wrote: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

The ex-Klansman later filibustered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act -- supported by a majority of those "mean-spirited" Republicans -- for more than 14 hours. He also opposed the nominations of the Supreme Court's two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas. In fact, the ex-Klansman had the gall to accuse Justice Thomas of "injecting racism" into the Senate hearings. Meanwhile, author Graham Smith recently discovered another letter Sen. Byrd wrote after he quit the KKK, this time attacking desegregation of the armed forces.

The ex-Klansman vowed never to fight "with a Negro by my side. 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, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

So, we honor the honorable Senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd.

The ex-Klansman.

The Kleagle.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act filibusterer.

Byrd devoted the majority of his life to public service, an admirable thing. Nonetheless, I think we need to be honest about the nature of his career and his supporters' willingness to excuse the reality of Byrd.