Sen. Byrd is a Liar
Monday, June 20, 2005
I do not use those words lightly, but the senator's explanation stretches all credulity to the breaking point.From the (free sub. req.) Akron Beacon Journal:
Sen. Robert C. Byrd's new memoir reveals both his encyclopedic knowledge of political history and the unlikely inspiration that helped launch his own political career: A Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
It was a Klan leader who motivated the young Byrd during his short-lived tenure in the racist organization - something he writes was "an extraordinarily foolish mistake" that has haunted him for 40 years.
"It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me, and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career and reputation," the West Virginia Democrat says in an autobiography being released Monday. "I displayed very bad judgment, due to immaturity and a lack of seasoned reasoning."
It's a mistake he has paid for time and again, the only significant scandal ever attached to a man who grew up in Wolf Creek Hollow and who next June stands to become the longest-serving senator in U.S. history.
As a boy, he watched a parade of white hoods in Matoaka, learning years later his father had been among them. Back then "many of the 'best' people were members," he says, and Byrd was vulnerable to the anti-Communism rhetoric.
He recruited 150 members, and when Grand Dragon Joel L. Baskin came to a meeting in Crab Orchard, Byrd was unanimously elected Exalted Cyclops.
Of course the Beacon Journal is wrong, Mr. Byrd HAS NOT paid for his sins. He has served in the senate for too many years to count, transferring the federal government to West Virginia brick by brick.
What I object to the most is Sen. Byrd's to attempt to cover his racist sin under the cloak of anti-communism (pun intended.) Mr. Bryd has been caught more than once uttering that certain unkind word to describe black people. Are we to believe that the West Virginia senator is just a noble anti-communist, caught up in the hate of the KKK?
Please!
