A Senator's Shame ("Sheets" Byrd)

Washington Post ^ | 6/19/2005 | Eric Pianin

[T-Bird45]

In the early 1940s, a politically ambitious butcher from West Virginia named Bob Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to form a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. After Byrd had collected the $10 joining fee and $3 charge for a robe and hood from every applicant, the "Grand Dragon" for the mid-Atlantic states came down to tiny Crab Orchard, W.Va., to officially organize the chapter.

As Byrd recalls now, the Klan official, Joel L. Baskin of Arlington, Va., was so impressed with the young Byrd's organizational skills that he urged him to go into politics. "The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation," Baskin said.

[Nasty McPhilthy]

Where is that Confederate Battle Flag? All I see is the Stars & Stripes.

[freebilly]

Byrd went on the radio to acknowledge that he belonged to the Klan from "mid-1942 to early 1943," according to newspaper accounts. He explained that he had joined "because it offered excitement and because it was strongly opposed to communism."

As opposed to the political party he belongs too which is strongly opposed to anti-communism....

[SteveMcKing]

The communists were our ALLIES in '42 and '43! How does he get away with this?

[Smartass]

Troubling isn't it!   The pic doesn't appear to be that old.

[onyx]

Because we were on Commie hunts in our country. Sheets is trying to absolve his sorry self of everything bad the KKK did. What's a few years here and there to him? He can claim senility and say he and his KKK were "onto" the Rosenberg's and all other Jews who were working against our country out of some twisted loyalty to the mother country Russia. Always remember that we spy on friends too and they do the same to us.

[BillyBoy]

>> Where is that Confederate Battle Flag? All I see is the Stars & Stripes.

""The original Ku Klux Klan was organized by ex-Confederate elements to oppose the Reconstruction policies of the radical Republican Congress...and to maintain “white supremacy.” After the Civil War, when local government in the South was weak or nonexistent and there were fears of black outrages and even of an insurrection, informal vigilante organizations or armed patrols were formed in almost all communities... It was organized at Pulaski, Tenn., in May, 1866...dressed in flowing white sheets, their faces covered with white masks, and with skulls at their saddle horns, posed as spirits of the Confederate dead returned from the battlefields. Although the Klan was often able to achieve its aims by terror alone, whippings and lynchings were also used, not only against blacks but also against the so-called carpetbaggers and scalawags...A general organization of the local Klans was effected in Apr., 1867, at Nashville, Tenn. Gen. N. B. Forrest, the famous Confederate cavalry leader, was made Grand Wizard of the Empire and was assisted by ten Genii. Each state constituted a Realm under a Grand Dragon with eight Hydras as a staff; several counties formed a Dominion controlled by a Grand Titan and six Furies; a county was a Province ruled by a Grand Giant and four Night Hawks; the local Den was governed by a Grand Cyclops with two Night Hawks as aides. The individual members were called Ghouls...The Klan was particularly effective in systematically keeping black men away from the polls, so that the ex-Confederates gained political control in many states."
-- http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0859144.html

That answer your question about the Klan's confederate "hertiage"? I don't see any union vets from the war between the states showing up at their grand opening.

[CyberAnt]

The WP is dumping on Sheets .. Whooo Hoooo! What brought this on ..??

[onyx]

He agreed to their interview because his damn book is being published tomorry.

[dancusa]

When he dies they'll wire him for sound and send him out on tour with Jimmy Hoffa.

When he dies they undoubtedly re-name West Virginia, Byrdland.

[D-fendr]

I think we have a new nickname for Sheets:

When it came time to choose the "Exalted Cyclops" … Byrd won unanimously.

[D-fendr]

so glad to see the WaPost "revealing" that:

"he joined with other southern Democrats to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Byrd filibustered the bill for more than 14 hours"

[Mind-numbed Robot]

The fact that the NAACP has never targeted Byrd for removal...is a total mystery. The only senator who openly was racist...and admitted such...yet they won't even attempt to go and bring this dude down.

I am reminded of January 20, 1993 when Clinton was being inaugurated one of his minions was offended at the Air Force traditional flyover and cursed the military. His companion said, "Remember, those are now OUR planes now."

The Democrats have no values. They are opportunists who seek only power. They will pander to any groups, the blacks, women, homosexuals, whomever, just to gain and keep power. They have no problem with hypocrisy as long as it gains and keeps power. Byrd a Klansman? Who cares? He is THIER klansman. The NAACP? They don't care, he votes the way the left wants him too.

Byrd is and always has been an egotistic self-promoter. Rewriting history as he goes is a time accepted tool of the left. Byrd, LBJ, and Slick Willie have a lot in common. He brags about bringing a lot of pork to W.V. but notice he names it all after himself. The first four lane divided highway he takes credit for? Part of Eisenhower's (Republican) national highway system. We must understand the left and quit judging them by our standards of decency.

[graycamel]

From the US Senate's website: When Condi Rice was confirmed, only 13 voted against her. Look who one of those 13 was.

NAYs ---13
Akaka (D-HI) Bayh (D-IN) Boxer (D-CA) Byrd (D-WV) Dayton (D-MN) Durbin (D-IL) Harkin (D-IA) Jeffords (I-VT) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Levin (D-MI) Reed (D-RI)

[M. Espinola]

The Dems redneck poster boy.

[CyberAnt]

Well .. no book is going to save his sorry behind.

[beyond the sea]

ROFL ............

Time for a smoke break, kids.

[leprechaun9]

"To imagine someone who was a member of the Klan in his youth who managed to become the majority leader of the Senate, it's really quite striking," said congressional scholar Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution.

NOT REALLY! The ideals of the KKK became an integral part of the essence of the Democrap Party - THE POLITICS OF FEAR, DIVISION, and HATRED!

This was manifested this week with the HATE-THE-UNITED-STATES and the MILITARY statements of Senator Dickhead Turbin.

[pageonetoo]

WV: Capito Reportedly Considering Challenge To Byrd

The Hill (3/8, Savodnik) reports WV2 Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) "is mobilizing for a possible challenge next year to Sen. Robert Byrd...getting a head start on fundraising and making top-level personnel changes. At a luncheon last week in Charleston that included 40 to 50 state GOP and business leaders, Capito stressed that she is keeping her options open for 2006, a West Virginia Republican who attended the event said." The Republican "added that two guests at the event particularly caught his attention — representatives from the West Virginia Automobile and Truck Dealers Association and the West Virginia Manufacturers Association." Ruth Lemmon, "executive vice president of the automobile and truck dealers association, who attended the event, said Capito indicated that she would run for reelection to the House in 2006. But in a sign that the association might back a Capito Senate bid, Lemmon said: 'We think that having her in Washington in whatever capacity she ever chooses would certainly benefit West Virginia.'"

If you have some spare change, send it to draft Shelly...

Click the pic, to know more about her.

[leadpenny]

The host of C-SPAN just read much of the WP article and is taking calls now on the subject.

[leadpenny]

Kind of funny. The host, who is a WP staff writer in his other life, just cut off a caller on the Republican line who was blaming Republicans for getting this article on the front page of the WP.