Posted on 07/02/2010 12:51:36 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Clinton says Byrd joined KKK to help him get elected By Eric Zimmermann - 07/02/10 02:58 PM ET
Former President Bill Clinton explained the late Sen. Robert Byrd's (D-W.V.) membership in the Ku Klux Klan Friday by claiming Byrd was simply trying to get elected.
Speaking at Byrd's funeral in Charleston today, Clinton seemed to criticize newspaper eulogies that dwelled on Byrd's association with the Klan.
"They mention that he once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, and what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means," Clinton said. "He was a country boy from the hills and hollows of West Virginia. He was trying to get elected. And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that's what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There certainly are no perfect politicians."
Byrd joined the KKK in 1942 and was elected leader of his local chapter. Byrd later claimed to have become "disinterested" after about a year.
Byrd vigorously opposed the integration of the military, and wrote in 1946 that the KKK was "needed today as never before."
Doesn’t that pretty much admit that this makes Democrats racists???
Just more BS from another corrupt politician.
Actually Bubba is admitting that Democrats will say anything, do anything to get elected and that that is ok.
Same excuse Obama used to join Rev Wright’s black liberation society.
What about Strom Thurmond you moron!!! You guys crucified him without mercy. The depth of hypocrisy is stunning! The media laps it up and reports whatever they say like the litttle pathetic butt-buddies they are. SEDITION!!!!!!!
I wonder if he’d be that generous with Strom Thurman.
But if Strom Thurman had been elected, . . .
Bubba is the only politician in America who can pull this off....
“”What does that mean? It means he was a country boy from the hills and hallows of West Virginia, he was trying to get elected”
Ku Klux Klan
Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1942 when he was 24. His local chapter unanimously elected him the top officer of its unit.[10]
According to Byrd, a Klan official told him, “You have a talent for leadership, Bob ... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation.” Byrd later recalled, “suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities! I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did.”[10] Byrd held the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops.[10]
In 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo:[17]
“ I shall never fight in the armed forces 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. ”
— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944, [10][18]
In 1946 or 1947 Byrd wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard stating, “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 nation.”.[19
Stain is lying again.
Anyone have Byrd’s letter where he said he wanted to see the American Flag trampled in the dirt before he would serve side by side with an “animal” from the jungles of Africa?
He didn’t just join a club to be popular, this guy was a hater.
And Obama denied being a Muslim and a “I hate whitey” dude to get elected.
I though that the title meant that Byrd joined the KKK to get him (Clinton) elected! I laughed! I thought Bill C. had made a ridiculous gaffe!
That is about 100 times as lame as "I was only following Orders".
Now, why wasn't this tried in every other state?
Are West Virginians more racist than the electorate in every other state in the Union?
Please explain, Bill.
It irritated the hell out of me to see republicans speaking at the klan memorial today.
Trent Lott was run out of town for saying something nice about an old man on his 100th birthday.
Today democrats praise the grand dragon and insult the voters in one fell swoop and not a peep.
>claiming Byrd was simply trying to get elected
There’s a lot of that going around.
Anyone can pull it off if the media never calls them on their b.s...
The funny thing is that the klan reached the peak of their power in Illinois during the Wilson administration.
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