Dodd apologizes if Byrd tribute offended anyone [Spin, spin, spin....]

WCBS880.COM ^

[Sub-Driver]

Dodd apologizes if Byrd tribute offended anyone Wednesday April 14, 2004 By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. Christopher J. Dodd apologized Wednesday, saying he was sorry if anyone was offended by his tribute to a fellow senator who once voted against civil rights legislation.

Dodd, D-Conn., has been criticized by some conservative broadcast and Internet commentators for saying April 1 that Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., would have been a great senator and leader at any time in history, including the Civil War.

Byrd, who at one time was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He has repeatedly apologized for his brief KKK membership and said his vote against the civil rights bill was one of only two votes that he regrets having made during his 45 years in the Senate.

``Words can sting and hurt,'' Dodd told The Associated Press Wednesday. ``If in any way, in my referencing the Civil War, I offended anyone, I apologize.''

He said he was trying to make the point that Byrd would have been a good senator at any point, and ``I was not thinking of the KKK or his vote against the civil rights act.''

Some conservative commentators said Dodd's remarks were similar to those of Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who lost his leadership post after making what many considered racially insensitive comments during a 100th birthday celebration for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.

During the 2002 party, Lott specifically endorsed Thurmond's candidacy for president in 1948 on a segregationist platform, saying ``we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years'' if the country had voted as a majority in Mississippi did that year.

Lott stepped down as his party's leader but remained in the Senate after his remarks were criticized by President Bush, Al Gore and Jesse Jackson.

Dodd offered only a general praise of Byrd and did not specifically mention any of Byrd's votes, views or acts. The occasion was Byrd casting his 17,000th vote. Other senators in both parties also paid tribute to him then, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

[Sub-Driver]

both should resign IMO............

[cyborg]

Er... this doesn't cut it. Byrd drops the n-bomb whenever possible and in national media no less without apology. Please!

[San Jacinto]

Dodd, D-Conn., has been criticized by some conservative broadcast and Internet commentators

Oh, my, it's a FIRESTORM. And all he did was praise a fellow senator. I'll bet if a Republican senator ever did anything like that, nobody would say a word.

right, Trent?

[Keith in Iowa]

That whazoo-aperture Dodd should tell it to Trent Lott, and then lead the call for Lott to be restored to his leadership postion...Lott wouldn't be any worse than Frist...they've both done thier part to make Republican senate Leadership an oxymoron...

[Argus]

Dodd probably thinks Byrd actually was a Senator during the Civil War, and who can blame him?

[OPS4]

So the Trent Lott issue was the big news for weeks as the Liberal Media attacked over his speech when Strom Thurmond retired.

Dodd should be hung out to dry by the media now! He should resign all major committee posts he has.

I for one will email this to all outlets of Media!
Ops4 God Bless America!

[Free ThinkerNY]

Byrd on "race mongrels." "[I will] never submit to fight beneath that banner [the American flag] with a Negro by my side. Rather would I 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." 1947 letter by Robert Byrd. Byrd also filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which he then voted against along with 20 other Senate Democrats.

[stylin19a]

not good enough Sen. Dodd. you must make the apology tour...NAACP,BET, etc....

[Sub-Driver]

didn't think of that tacit....maybe he bring the old "senator along" to set the story straight.....hee hee....double standard still exists.....

[OldFriend]

Oh I see, we're to forget his 'white niggers' comments recently.

The man is a despicable bigot and so his Senator Dodd.

[Cubs Fan]

(Byrd) has repeatedly apologized for his brief KKK membership and said his vote against the civil rights bill was one of only two votes that he regrets having made during his 45 years in the Senate.

Typical liberal bias trying to minimize Byrds KKK membership as much as possible

Dodd offered only a general praise of Byrd and did not specifically mention any of Byrd's votes, views or acts.

and Lott never specifically mention any of Thurmond's votes, views or acts either.

The media is so liberal anymore its a joke.

[Carolinamom]

Byrd never did apologize for HIS remark about "white Negroes" and "black Negroes". (The often used "N word" appellation to denote a legitimate race of people is PC.)

[plain talk]

Right, he makes the apology tour. But even that isn't enough, so he must then resign from any Senate leadership or committee posts.

[feedback doctor]

The occasion was Byrd casting his 17,000th vote.

Should read:
The occasion was Byrd casting his 17,000th wrong vote.

[small voice in the wilderness]

The apology tour. WITH the hair-shirt. AND the large contribution to The Rainbow Coalition. WITH the Congressional Black Caucus riding him daily, until the pressure is just too much. And he does the only right thing, under the circumstances. Resigns in total and complete humiliation. A broken man.

...we're waiting...

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

The Democrats justifiablly laugh like hell everytime they can goad weak-kneeyed Republicans into over-reacting to one of their fabrications.

[speekinout]

Did anyone beside me notice that Dodd had a significant pause in his speech? At one point he said that Byrd would have been good during the Civil (pause) War. I think he had been going to say Civil Rights Era, but he caught himself in time.

[Go Gordon]

He said he was trying to make the point that Byrd would have been a good senator at any point, and ``I was not thinking of the KKK or his vote against the civil rights act.''

Very Kerry-esque

[anonymous_user]

The Democrats justifiablly laugh like hell everytime they can goad weak-kneeyed Republicans into over-reacting to one of their fabrications.

*ding* *ding* *ding* "That's correct. Don Pardo, tell him what he's won!"

[Homer1]

He has repeatedly apologized for his brief KKK membership

brief? wasn't he a grand keagle?