Illinois Dem: KKK Membership OK for Congress

sean hannity show ^ | 9/26/02

[finnman69]

Thursday Sept. 26, 2002; 5:14 p.m. EDT

Illinois Dem: KKK Membership OK for Congress

Rep. Jan Schakowski, D-Ill., said Thursday that Ku Klux Klan members should be allowed to serve in Congress as long as they had resigned from the domestic terror group and had publicly renounced its beliefs.

Asked if she thought leading Senate Democrat Robert Byrd's past Klan membership should have disqualified him from serving in the Senate, Schakowski told nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity, "No, not if you've totally rejected it - my goodness."

"I think (Byrd) would agree that participation in the KKK is pretty bad," the Illinois Democrat argued, before contending that former Klan members were fit to serve in the Senate as long as they currently disavowed the organization.

Initially Schakowski tried to defend Byrd's Klan membership by falsely claiming that Republican Senators Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms had also once belonged to the KKK.

But the ploy was short circuited when Hannity told Schakowski she was wrong.

The Illinois Democrat offered her controversial defense of politicians who were once in the Klan during an exchange about Sen. Byrd's opposition to the Bush administration's war plans for Iraq.

HANNITY: You heard Daschle's meltdown on the Senate floor yesterday. And then you heard Sen. "KKK" Byrd on the Senate floor yesterday - you don't mind if I say that. Don't you think that anybody, if you're ever in the Ku Klux Klan, has no business serving in public office? I really feel strongly about it.

SCHAKOWSKI: Well, so then, maybe if Strom Thurmond.....

HANNITY: He's done. He's finished.

SCHAKOWSKI: ....and Jesse Helms and....

HANNITY: Helms was never in the Ku Klux Klan. I don't think Thurmond was either. But Robert Byrd was. Don't you find that so obnoxious?

SCHAKOWSKI: I think he would agree that participation in the KKK is pretty bad.

HANNITY: But shouldn't that preclude you from being a U.S. Senator later in your life?

SCHAKOWSKI: No, not if you've totally rejected it - my goodness. (End of Byrd-KKK exchange)

As the segment was ending, Hannity reiterated that neither Sen. Thurmond nor Sen. Helms had ever belonged to the Klan.

[finnman69]

She did NOT give the right response on this question. I heard the interview and she really hemmed and hawed answering this one.

[finnman69]

Someone send this to Jesse Jackson.

[aristeides]

I wonder if she thinks the same is true of former Nazis. What about former members of al Qaeda?

[mhking]

...but Jesse, she's a Democrat -- whaddaya mean you aren't gonna challenge her on what she said!!!

[dfwgator]

David Duke, there's an opening in the Democratic Party.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Mayor Stapleton of Denver was once a KKK member, later quit the organization.

[dead]

Actually, I'd go even further.

I think active membership in the KKK should not disqualify a person from serving in congress if he garners enough votes in his district.

Ignorant assholes have as much a right to representation as anybody else. This is America.

[hoosierboy]

bump to read later

[SES1066]

Illinois Dem: KKK Membership OK for Congress

Ah, but the key question is what is her view on electing Republicans to Congress?

[ArcLight]

Nonsense, dead. Membership in a known terrorist organization should be disqualification for holding public office. But ex-membership? I don't see why. Byrd admitted his mistake. Case closed. Hannity should give it a rest.

[republicman]

Why not Robert Byrd was in the KKK?

Of course most people don't know that because the mianstream media never points it out. After all if you have a D by your name, it excuses every bad deed you've ever done or ever will do.

[pulaskibush]

As I recall, Robert Byrd wasn't just in the Klan. He was a person of authority within the organization.

As I also recall, he has never publicly separated/condemned himself from this organization. Which would not make it ok even if he had.

[rohry]

"Initially Schakowski tried to defend Byrd's Klan membership by falsely claiming that Republican Senators Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms had also once belonged to the KKK.

But the ploy was short circuited when Hannity told Schakowski she was wrong."

We need to get her to come on more shows. She seems to play loose with the facts. She was on another show where she claimed that "Sadam's Bombmaker" was discredited before her House committee. She later retracted that charge.

[dead]

How many members of PETA are in congress? They support domestic terrorism.

And people could use that same justification to forbid people who are active in anti-abortion organizations from serving.

We're throwing the word "terrorism" a little too lightly these days.

I am aware of the KKKs past, but currently, I see them as nothing more than a sort of Elk's club for fat ignorant white hillbillies.

[hattend]

Rep. Jan Schakowski, D-Ill., said Thursday that Ku Klux Klan members should be allowed to serve in Congress as long as they had resigned from the domestic terror group and had publicly renounced its beliefs.

If you did the latter (repudiate the organization) why would you be the former (a member)? Or did she mean "former" memebr?

[republicman]

To my knowlegde Byrd has never renounced his membership in the KKK.

Shakowski is a true Stalinist, as long as you are in the party, no offense is too eggregious to warrant condemnation.

[Scruffy]

While the KKK, Black Nationalists, etc., are all groups that I don't care for, the term, "domestic terror group", is something that scares me even more. Once the government can have authority over thought, speech, or association, they can control anything; thought, speech, and associations.

[hchutch]

Get this air time, and broadcast it!

[Nick Thimmesch]

m

[concerned about politics]

No, not if you've totally rejected it - my goodness. .........("Everybody does it" - Clinton defence)