[Sub-Driver]

Now I've heard everything........

[dila813]

“elected leader of his local chapter”

And he joined just to get elected.........yea right!

[Finalapproach29er]

Trent Lott never was forgiven for buttering up strom on his 100th b’day.

[FourPeas]

Billy Jeff should stick to fake crying.

[ETL]

Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, Ex-Klansman
by Michelle Malkin (March 8, 2001)

Ex-Klansman Robert Byrd, the senior senator from West Virginia, casually used the phrase "white nigger" twice on national TV this weekend. Enraged civil rights groups organized a protest campaign against Sen. Byrd and demanded that he undergo sensitivity training ... not.

The ex-Klansman, you see, is a Democrat. Democrats can join hate groups and utter the ugliest racial slurs and get away with it because they are Democrats. They belong to the party of racial tolerance and understanding. They're paragons of virtue, and the rest of us are bigoted rubes.

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."
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=383
__________________________________________________________

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

In 1942, 24-year-old Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), whose parades in Matoaka, West Virginia, he had witnessed in his childhood. He was unanimously elected Exalted Cyclops, or leader, of his local chapter.[8]

Byrd, in his autobiography, attributed the beginnings of his political career to this incident, although he lamented that they involved the Klan. According to Byrd, a KKK official told him "You have a talent for leadership, Bob... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation." Byrd recalls that "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."[4] He participated in the KKK during World War II, holding the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops [the top officer in the local Klan unit]. He did not serve in the military during the war, working instead as a welder in a Baltimore, Maryland shipyard, where he helped build warships.[citation needed]

Byrd commented on the 1945 controversy about racially integrating the military. Byrd, when he was 28 years old, wrote to segregationist Senator Theodore Bilbo, of Mississippi, vowing never to serve in such a military:

"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.[5]"

He had earlier written "I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side".[6][7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd#Participation_in_the_Ku_Klux_Klan
__________________________________________________________

YouTube - Senator Robert Byrd says "white niggers" on TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FIBJt-c2o0
__________________________________________________________

From the Washington 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, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.."..."

"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."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801105_pf.html

[ExNewsExSpook]

Correct me if I’m wrong...didn’t Byrd organize a new chapter of the KKK—one reason he quickly became a leader? If so, that indicates his area wasn’t exactly a hotbed of Klan activity, so membership wasn’t exactly a prerequisite for elected office.

Also, there’s that little matter about ol’ “Sheets” losing interest in the KKK. I seem to recall that Byrd was sending out recruiting letters for the Klan in 1946, and copies of those documents still exist to this day. Not exactly a disinterested participant. Of course, this is the same “progressive” who was filibustering the Civil Rights Act 20 years later, and made that famous remark about “White N-——s” just nine years ago.

[Sic Parvis Magna]

I’m sure getting elected had something to do with it, but you don’t become a leader in the KKK “just to get elected.”

[OrangeHoof]

Byrd had a “fleeting association” with the Klan the way Ted Kennedy had a fleeting association with bodies of water.

[ColdOne]

So it is OK now!?

[Gator113]

Oh good. So it wasn’t for his hatred of blacks and Jews. Right.

[Moonman62]

Lying, cheating, stealing. It’s all justified as long as it’s done to get elected. So says Bill Clinton the psychopath.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

"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.

It means Clinton doesn't know the meaning of the word "fleeting" in addition to the meaning of the word "is". Byrd was an Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan, which apparently meant he led the local chapter (150 strong), initiated new members and presided over meetings. Those 150 members elected him unanimously, by the way.

[saganite]

So Clinton is saying 2 things here. The old whore, Byrd, was a whore when he was young and it’s a career enhancement for a Democrat to be a member of the KKK. Thanks Bill, glad we cleared that up.

[katana]

What a relief. I was just thinking of joining a terrorist organization and am so glad to find out that if I run for city council first it will make things all hunky dory. Guess I’ll have to run as a Democrat, though. Damn!

[BlueAngel]

I think that every Democrat is born with an excuse in his hand for every occasion. The Spin Meister at work. Ha!

[DBrow]

“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. “

Well DUH! He was a Southern Democrat!

As for “fleeting”, I don’t think the Klan handed out “Grand Kleagle” titles like Crakerjack toys.

[10Ring]

Attn: Rand Paul...take notes (supreme sarc).

[PGR88]

“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,”

Wonderful. It means you had an unprincipled politician willing to associate with, and such up to anyone to get elected.

Once again for the Clintons, all morals are situational.

[Our man in washington]

Why would a politician do that? Would a politician get his wife to change her name so he could get elected? Would a politician take time out of his campaign to oversee the execution of a mentally retarded man to get elected?

Oh, right. Clinton did both those things. Clinton has grown up with this idea that anything is all right if it helps you get elected. It’s very disturbing.

[chippewaman]

What it means is if Byrd were a Republican be would have been forced out of office.

[Yo-Yo]

"The things we do for votes (the things we do for votes.)"

(Sung to the tune of The Things We Do for Love.)