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.

[Prime Choice]

[PISANO]

A slight difference being the compliment by Lott was treated with FUROR by the PRESS/MEDIA. The DODD statement has received NO ATTENTION whatsoever. (Other than Rush etc)

Also I believe Strom made SOME amends for his previous bigotry in the last 20 years of his life. From Byrd's RECENT N-WORD use I doubt he has.

Result is DODD gets a pass and a cocktail, Lott gets slammed and looses his job as leader. Hence the difference in TREATMENT between LIBS and Conservatives in Washington DC.

[Rocky]

Hypocrites in the press give Dodd a free pass but demand Lott's job. And they claim they aren't biased. What weasels.

[jocko12]

Looks like dodd knows how to do the flip=flop also.

[Qwinn]

"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."

There was nothing "specific" about Lott's statement that implied it was the segregationist aspect of Thurmond's campaign that appealed to him. It was, however, easily inferred. If that's true, then CERTAINLY Dodd's comment that Byrd would have been the right man to lead during the -Civil War- is -just- as "specific", and racist intent just as clearly inferred.

The bias in this article is staggering, and the massive double standards at work is nauseating.

Qwinn