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."
bttt
So I guess billy-boy would be okay when Lynard Skynard drops the rebel flag in their concerts? After all, they are just good ole boys. Actually, they are, or were now that there is little left of them.
Here's my list of oval office squatters: 1. obambi 2. carter 3. clinton 4. FDR 5. Wilson
Nope. You'll here more from these bastards. They will say anything to further their marxist ideals. Doesn't matter who did what or who is saying what or who won't release records or who will lie or who will compromise or who will spend your money or who will kill capitalism through their spending or who will take your money or who will just piss up your leg, and tell you it's raining. You ain't seen nothing, yet.
Thanks for your Secret Service, shipmate. I was Aviation Navy on Gator flight decks. I was asked to do sub duty, but I couldn't do it. You have my undying gratitude. Attack or Boomer? Either way, I'm impressed.
It proves what hypocrites they are. David Duke was quickly shoved out of the RNC.
Even as late as 2001, he used the ‘n’ word.
He was clearly racist up to 1982, as noted by Rush yesterday and this:
Sen. Byrd Sainted by Mainstream Media [Human Events]
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37745
[fair sized snippet coming up]
Sen. Byrd Sainted by Mainstream Media [Human Events]
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37745
[Links to fawning media coverage and then ...]
To remember the 92-year-old longest serving senator fairly, takes looking at his life as a whole.
Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1940s and held leadership positions in the group. He later said the KKK was the albatross around his neck.
In protest of President Trumans efforts to integrate the military, Byrd wrote a letter to segregationists Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D.-Miss.) that he would never fight in the armed forces “with a Negro by my side.” He also wrote that hed 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.” (1945)
“The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia,” Byrd wrote in a letter to a KKK leader (1946).
Byrd opposed the landmark Civil Rights Act, going so far as filibustering in the senate for more than 14 hours. (1964) He later claimed his biggest regret was voting against this law.
He voted against the nomination of liberal Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice (1967). He also voted against the only other black justice, conservative Clarence Thomas (1991).
Byrd claimed that he only stopped thinking whites were superior to blacks after the death of his grandson. “I came to realize that black people love their children as much as I do mine,” he said (1982).
He advised young people to go into politics but advised: “Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don’t get that albatross around your neck. Once you’ve made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena.” (1997)
When asked about race relations, Byrd told Fox News Tony Snow: “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. 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.” (2001)
Knowing his racism, would the MSM have written such glowing obituaries for Robert Byrd if he had been a Republican? I doubt it. [unquote]
Back then all the southern states were horrifying. I could not imagine the fear the African Americans felt living down there. Thank God they were able to sneak up North. My family is from Pennsylvania thank goodness. The South has gotten better but still will have that dark cloud that was earned.
Maybe Bubba really did have a stroke. Of course, fantastic lies are one of his specialties.
Billy, Billy, Billy... Hitler was just trying to get elected too...
Young Bill probably went to a few rallies himself during his days in Hot Springs ARK
You have to love Bubba...
Betcha Byrd has saved a nice warm seat for Bubba ... between him and Teddy Kennedy.
Compare that with the “Shameful” treatment at Sen. Strom Thurmond's Funeral. Most of his Senate colleagues, save a couple of them showed up, certainly President Bush did not go to the funeral although Dick Cheney was there.
I do not know whether Byrd tried to make amends during the latter part of his career but I do know that Thurmond did and gave a lot of opportunities to Blacks when he could.
Clinton's remarks on their face are ridiculous, naive and certainly disingenuous. Byrd was a an embarrassment and given that Fox interview he did several years ago I doubt he really had changed that much.
Clinton and the rest of Democrats showed their Hypocrisy and the Stench of Mendacity was God Awful at that Funeral.
“And maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up.”
“Making it up” alright.
Byrd joined the KKK in 1942. His first elective office was a seat in the WV House of Delegates, which he won in '46, 4 years later. In fact, it wasn't until AFTER Byrd was in the KKK that politics dawned on him. From Wiki: 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."
And as for Clinton's claim that Byrd's participation in the Klan was "fleeting", or Byrd's own statement that he became disinterested in the Klan after about a year, this is what Byrd wrote 4 or 5 years after he joined (again from Wiki): 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."
good info, thanks
is there ANY Clintonista story that is not a big lie??
The Clintons spew out their fantasies and expect everyone to believe anything
Most of the time, given a servile leftist media, it works
When anyone actually digs a tiny bit, the tissues of fabrication fall away
It’s pretty amazing that being in an organization whose members wear pointy white sheets over their heads, burn crosses, give each other weird and ridiculous titles like “Exalted Cyclops,” and after all that still think that they are superior to everyone else, would make a person more electable.
Whenever BJ starts something with, “I’ll tell you...”, you know that BS will follow.
“Byrd vigorously opposed the integration of the military, and wrote in 1946 that the KKK was “needed today as never before.”
So he spent the rest of his life, after about four years of virulent racism during a war against a virulently racist lunatic and his army of virulent racists, making up for his “fleeting association” with the KKK? Clinton reveals more about himself than he intended to.
And Byrd quit the klan to get RE-elected.
...but he stayed in for what the chicks? The top quality dental plan?
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