WASHINGTON — The biracial daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond more than once confronted her father over his racist politics, but cherished their relationship and ignored pleas from her family that she expose her parentage. "For all his bluster, for all his racist campaign posturing, I somehow couldn't dislike him the way I wanted to," writes Essie Mae Washington-Williams, 79, in "Dear Senator," an autobiography to be released next month. The daughter of the longtime champion of segregation and his family's black maid has refrained from speaking publicly since she revealed the secret of her birth. That was a...