Posted on 05/08/2003 11:29:13 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Former Ku Klux Klansman Sen. Robert Byrd is angry at President Bush - not because he spent taxpayer dollars to pay a congratulatory visit to an aircraft carrier bearing the men and women who helped defeat Saddam Hussein.
But instead, says one civil rights leader, Bryd's pique was provoked because the ship in question bore the name of America's Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln.
That's the contention from Kevin Martin, spokesman for the African-American Republican Leadership Counsel, who served during the Gulf War aboard the USS Lincoln's sister ship.
"Senator Byrd has a long association with the Klan that sought to oppress minorities in America, just as Saddam Hussein’s government oppressed and killed thousands of Iraqi minorities during his reign of terror," complained Martin, in a statement issued Tuesday.
The Washington, D.C.-based civil rights activist was also incensed that Byrd had the temerity to criticize Bush's aircraft carrier speech by invoking Lincoln's Gettysburg address.
"For Senator Byrd to invoke the words of President Lincoln, given his long association to one of the nation’s oldest homegrown terrorist group and his opposition to the most basic of civil rights for minorities in America, is a slap in the face to those of us who are veterans and who stand up for real civil rights," he complained.
Another element of Bush's visit to the Lincoln which likely rankled the ex-Klansman, says Martin, is America's fully integrated military - a development that Byrd vehemently opposed, which was on full display during the president's speech.
"I believe that Senator Byrd.... who for the longest time tried to paint President Bush as a racist, was angered at the diversity of the men and women that they saw surrounding the commander-in-chief on that flight deck," Martin noted.
Years after Byrd supposedly left the Klan, he wrote a letter to the group's Imperial Grand Wizard where he invoked the ugliest of terms to describe his opposition to integrating the armed forces.
"I should die a thousand times and see old glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen of the wilds," the West Virginia Democrat said.
Byrd said through a spokesman earlier this year that, even during his Klan days, he was never a racist, but instead he joined the cross-burning, night-riding group to fight communists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.