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See Bonus Coverage at foot: Barnicle accuses Jesse Jackson of "corporate blackmail." Two venerable members of the Senate, two entirely different treatments from Andrea Mitchell. Reverence for Ted Kennedy; derision for Strom Thurmond. Guest hosting in Mika Brzezinski's spot on Morning Joe today, Mitchell, emotion in her voice, hailed Ted Kennedy as "valiant" and a "hero." As for Strom Thurmond, Mitchell scoffed that he wasn't alive even when he was in the Senate. View video here.

On Dec. 12, 2002, Obama, then serving as an Illinois state senator and filling in as host of the Cliff Kelley radio show on WVON, challenged the Republican Party to demand Lott's resignation. "It seems to be that we can forgive a 100-year-old senator for some of the indiscretion of his youth, but, what is more difficult to forgive is the current president of the U.S. Senate (Lott) suggesting we had been better off if we had followed a segregationist path in this country after all of the battles and fights for civil rights and all the work that we...

A half-century ago today, Strom Thurmond ended what remains the longest filibuster in the long-winded history of the U.S. Senate. Thurmond, nine years removed from a campaign for president undertaken to protect segregation, spoke against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes. His filibuster irked even his fellow segregationists in the Senate, who had succeeded in watering down the act's most important protections for black voting rights. But Thurmond went on his one-man stand against the bill anyway, condemning it as an attack on the Constitution and in the process he re-established himself as one...

It was probably the most shocking thing in my life. It’s chilling. It’s amazing.” - The Rev. Al Sharpton, on learning that his enslaved ancestors were once owned by relatives of Sen. Strom Thurmond. I am a big-time Strom Thurmond-basher from way back. Before his “death” in 2003 (due, it is speculated, to the failure of the Disney animatronics used to maintain the illusion of motion), I repeatedly begged my fellow South Carolinians to stop embarrassing themselves by re-electing this unreconstructed fossil. After Thurmond passed, I noted that he did so having never publicly rejected - or even acknowledged -...

Genealogists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Daily News said professional genealogists, working at the newspaper’s behest, recently uncovered the ancestral ties between one of the nation’s best known black leaders and a man who was once a prominent defender of segregation. “I have always wondered what was the background of my family,” the newspaper quoted Sharpton as saying. “But nothing — nothing — could prepare me for this.” “It’s chilling. It’s amazing.” Some of Thurmond’s...

Al Sharpton's Ancestors Were Slaves Owned by Strom Thurmond's Relatives February 25, 2007 New York - Genealogists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Daily News said professional genealogists, working at the newspaper's behest, recently uncovered the ancestral ties between one of the nation's best-known black leaders and a man who was once a prominent defender of segregation. "I have always wondered what was the background of my family," the newspaper quoted Sharpton as saying. "But nothing...

Friday, Jan. 6, 2006 11:10 a.m. EST Clinton NSA Wiretapped Top Republican During the 1990's under President Bill Clinton, the National Security Agency conducted random telecommunications surveillance of millions of phone calls daily under a top secret program known as Echelon. But according to at least two people familiar with the spy operation at the time, some of the surveillance was far from indiscriminate. In a February 2000 interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," NSA operator Margaret Newsham revealed that the agency's listening post in Great Britain was involved in monitoring the phone calls of at least one top Republican on...

GOP's Control of South Is No Sure Bet by Robert Novak Posted Dec 26, 2005 Text Size: S M L printer-friendly email to a friend respond to this article Ex-FISA Judge Is Liberal, Partisan Hack Dems: We're Losing the War and Our Economy Stinks Live and Let Spy Rumsfeld Sends Signals He'll Stay at Defense Trent Lott within the next week plans to decide between seeking a fourth term in the U.S. Senate from Mississippi or retiring from public life. That could determine whether Republicans keep control of the Senate in next year's elections. For the longer range, Lott's retirement...

I laughed so hard, I couldn't stand it. That's the exact term used when a smart senator prepares himself for an extended filibuster -- 'Taking to the Diaper.' Whah, whah, whah . . . that's all we've heard, and now I know why. Diapers and babies go together - how appropriate for this group of screaming liberals. So please, let's give them what they want and be done with this mess. This could actually be the humor we need in our lives today. If we have to hear Harry Reid give his sermon one more time on keeping the tradition...

Whether viewed as a vital tool of democracy or a rock obstructing progress, the filibuster has been part of the American legislative process since its inception, wielded for purposes from the profound to the petty. The ability of a minority to endlessly delay a vote desired by the majority has been a testament to the all-American fear of unfettered majority power. Seeking to encourage deliberate lawmaking, American legislators from the outset have been willing to accept inefficiency rather than let a majority ram through laws. SnipThe efforts by Southern senators to resist civil rights legislation produced filibuster records. Sen. Strom...

I have received a letter from Pat Cohen Esquire, Christian and US citizen notifying me that I am a beneficiary of $750,000 from Strom Thurmond's estate because of all the good deeds I've done (apparently not anonymously enough). It is being held in Wellington House in Cambridge by FX International ROYAL AND SCOTTISH GROUP. (RSG Fiduciaries or the RSG Fiduciary Bank in London. I am waiting instructions for how to transfer the funds, but I think I'd rather just pick them up in person. It says I may be released the money by any means I desire.

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...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- "I always thought I had a fairly normal childhood, until I found out my parents weren't who I thought they were." So begins the autobiography of Essie Mae Washington Williams, the daughter of longtime U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and a 16-year-old black maid who worked at his family's home. Williams, now 79, came forward a year ago, after Thurmond's death, with the secret she had held for more than 70 years. Her upcoming book, "Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond," deals frankly with her relationship with the one-time segregationist who privately acknowledged...

Strom Thurmond Continued: The Known World of Ms. Washington-Williams By BRENT STAPLES Published: July 17, 2004 If newspapers reach the afterlife, then Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina is having a fitful time in that great Senate chamber in the sky. Mr. Thurmond, who died last year at the age of 100, spent half of the 20th century fending off the rumor that he had fathered a child of Carrie Butler, a black maid who worked in his family's home during the 1920's. He had been dead less than a year when Ms. Butler's daughter, a retired teacher named Essie...

Thurmond's biracial daughter earned her spot on monument. With little fanfare, Essie Mae Washington Williams, accompanied by her daughter, returned three months ago to her roots in Edgefield County. According to a front-page article in the weekly Edgefield Advertiser ... she visited the grave of her late father, U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, and paid calls on relatives and friends of both her parents. Last week, her name was added to that of the four other Thurmond children on the senator's monument on the State House grounds in Columbia. What also should be recorded for posterity is what a remarkable woman...

There was a story that the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond never tired of telling his fellow members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It was about how, in April 1865, after the tattered survivors of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army stacked their rifles in surrender at Appomattox, his grandfather, George Washington Thurmond, walked more than 300 miles back to his farm in Edgefield County, S.C. Now, Thurmond's mixed-race daughter, Essie Mae Washington Williams, is taking action to claim her share of that heritage. She's planning to apply to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a 109-year-old organization whose...

Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a biracial woman who stepped forward last year to acknowledge that she was the daughter of the late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, now wants to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, an organization of descendants of soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. Evidently she is eligible: Senator Thurmond, once a fierce segregationist, was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for men. Ms. Washington-Williams, a 78-year-old retired teacher who lives in Los Angeles, also plans to apply for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution...

The biracial daughter of the late Strom Thurmond is pursuing membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy - a group founded to honor the memory of those who fought for the South in the Civil War. Essie Mae Washington-Williams will make the application based on her relationship to Thurmond, whose ancestors fought for the Confederacy. Male members of her family also will seek to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans, of which Thurmond was a member, said Frank Wheaton, her attorney. "Through my father's line, I am fortunate to trace my heritage back to the birth of our nation...

<p>The top Senate Democrat yesterday defended a colleague's assertion that Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Klansman, would have been a great leader during the Civil War.</p> <p>Sen. Tom Daschle said there was "no parallel" between Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's praise of Mr. Byrd and Republican Sen. Trent Lott's praise of former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond.</p>

A Vietnam veteran who plotted to kill members of Congress in 1971 is reportedly ready to accept a position working in the presidential campaign of John Kerry. Leaders of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, including John Kerry, debated a plot to assassinate congressmen in November 1971, according to a report in the New York Sun. The Kerry campaign denies the senator and presidential candidate was present at the meeting, saying he quit the organization prior to the heated session in Kansas City, Nov. 12-15, 1971. However, Randy Barnes of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, disputes that account. Barnes participated in...

The anti-war group that John Kerry was the principal spokesman for debated and voted on a plot to assassinate politicians who supported the Vietnam War. Mr. Kerry denies being present at the November 12-15, 1971, meeting in Kansas City of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and says he quit the group before the meeting. But according to the current head of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, Randy Barnes, Mr. Kerry,who was then 27,was at the meeting, voted against the plot, and then orally resigned from the organization. Mr. Barnes was present as part of the Kansas City host chapter for the...

State Senate Gives Approval To Add Essie Mae To Thurmond Monument Columbia - Essie Mae Williams moved one step closer to joining her brothers and sisters on a Statehouse monument honoring their late father, US Senator Strom Thurmond. The state Senate (website) gave key approval to adding the name of Williams, Thurmond's biracial daughter. The Senate gave second reading to the bill sponsored by state Senator Robert Ford of Charleston. Williams came forward last year and announced she is the daughter of the late senator. Her mother was a black 16 year old housekeeper who worked in the Thurmond...

                                    U.S. Senate                                 Committee on Armed Services,                                Washington, DC, October 9, 1998.       The President,       The White House, Washington, DC.           Dear Mr. President: We are writing to express our concern        over recent developments in Iraq.           Last February, the Senate was working on a resolution        supporting military action if diplomacy did not succeed in        convincing Saddam Hussein to comply with the United Nations        Security Council resolutions concerning the disclosure and        destruction of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. This        effort was discontinued when the Iraqi government reaffirmed        its...

It was a historic moment for the Grand Old Party: At the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, black conservatives took center stage, delivered speeches in prime time, raised their voices in a gospel choir and locked hands with the white men who, by an overwhelming majority, run the party. By the end of the convention, the future national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, had emerged as black conservative stars, and a concerted effort by Republicans "to invent new black leaders" -- as former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) once put it -- was...

Hypocrisy: Strom Thurmond's bastard and Jesse Jackson's - Martha Zoller - December 24, 2003 http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | For as long as there have been men and women, older more powerful men have taken "liberties" with younger women. So when the confirmation of the long whispered rumor about the bi-racial child of Strom Thurmond and a black teenager, Carrie Butler, who worked for his parents surfaced last week, the power issue came back into full swing. Any child conceived out of wedlock is the responsibility of both parties. This situation occurred generations ago and in those days, the only way to handle...

"What difference does it make?" the man at the gym said, reacting to the news that Sen. Strom Thurmond had an illegitimate mulatto daughter. "The man's dead and buried. Why dig this stuff up?" It's a common reaction among many jaded Americans, who believe that "revelations" are inextricably attached to greed. Essie Mae Washington-Williams must be after something, they reason. She must want money, they figure. She must want her 15 minutes of fame. Of course if Washington-Williams wanted any of those, she would not have waited more than 60 years to disclose that the segregationist senator, who once warned...

Because though men, white men, created her, God did not stop it. He planted the seed which brought her to flower -- the white blood to give the shape and pigment of what the white man calls female beauty, to a female principle which existed, queenly and complete, in the hot equatorial groin of the world long before that white one of ours came down from trees and lost its hair and bleached out . . . -- "Absalom, Absalom" by William Faulkner It is the feigned surprise that vexes me most -- the stunned silence, the equivocation, the angry...

Racial differences don't matter unless your roots are 'bigoted' - By Barbara Amiel (Filed: 22/12/2003) When he was 21 and the 20th century was nearly 25 years old, Strom Thurmond, scion of a South Carolina family, made love to a young black maid who worked in his parents' home. Did she respond willingly to the pale young man, who was taking a degree in horticulture at Clemson College? The maid was no slave. Her sexual desires were her own to satisfy, if she had any. But what did that mean to the 16-year-old? Her "place" in Southern society was fixed....

There may not have been a more lowly and vulnerable position in Edgefield, S.C., in 1925 than that of a teenage black maid. But that was how Essie Mae Washington-Williams's mother, Carrie Butler, was employed when she and a young Strom Thurmond, the scion of a powerful white family, had what Mrs. Williams described as "an affair." Affair? That's the language many people have used to refer to the liaison after Mrs. Williams broke a lifetime of silence last week and revealed that she was the mixed-race daughter of one of the South's most powerful and segregationist politicians. But some...

For God's sakes. O'Reilly apparently got Strom's grandson on--a black American who is Strom's grandchild through Essie Mae Washington-Williams. The man had nothing bad to say about Strom...he said it was kept quiet because there was no reason to say anything, and that the family viewed Strom in a favorable light.He even said he was a Republican who supported the President and will vote for him again.Bill's response? I'll paraphrase: "I'm glad all this is coming out. It shows your grandfather to be a massive hypocrite. Don't wanna hurt your feelings, but your grandad was a hypocrite." The guy (sorry...

CENTRALIA, Wash. -- Following his mother's lead, a 53-year-old doctor in Onalaska has come forward to talk openly about his heritage as the mixed-race grandson of the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, a former segregationist. Dr. Ronald Williams, an emergency room physician at Morton General Hospital, spoke proudly about his grandfather in an interview with The Chronicle of Centralia and said he regrets he wasn't closer to Thurmond. "I can't imagine not being able to claim your own father," Williams told the paper in a copyright story published Wednesday. "It was even hard for us not to acknowledge it,...

Strom's daughter shows what class — not race — is all about Kathleen Parker - December 19, 2003 http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | COLUMBIA, S.C. Ask most thoughtful South Carolinians what they think about Essie Mae Washington-Williams - Strom Thurmond's biracial daughter who publicly identified herself Wednesday - and you'll most likely hear: "It's complicated." Commentary doesn't get any more Southern than that. In the land of manners, you don't look directly at a thing. You avert your eyes from "unpleasantness." And you don't talk directly about people, which would cast doubt upon the quality of one's upbringing. So that when a 22-year-old...

<p>"I never wanted to do anything to harm him or cause detriment to his life or to the lives of those around him," Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a 78-year-old retired schoolteacher said at a news conference in Columbia, South Carolina.</p> <p>"My father did a lot of things to help other people, even though his public stance appeared opposite.</p>

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The oldest son of the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond says he is ready to meet the mixed-race half sister whose relationship to the family his father, a onetime segregationist, had kept secret for nearly eight decades. Strom Thurmond Jr., the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, says his family will not contest the claim of Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a 78-year-old retired teacher living in Los Angeles. Williams says Thurmond fathered her when he was 22 and living in his parents' home in Edgefield. Her mother, Carrie Butler, 16 at the time, worked as a maid in the...

<p>Thurmond, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, died in June at age 100. His illegitimate daughter's story was published Sunday by the Washington Post.</p> <p>Essie Mae Washington-Williams, now 78 and a retired school teacher in Los Angeles, publicly revealed her relationship to the former segregationist after a lifetime of silence.</p>

Thurmond's Family 'acknowledges' Black Woman's Claim as Daughter By Amy Geier Edgar Associated Press Writer Published: Dec 15, 2003 COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family on Monday said it "acknowledges" a California woman's claim that she is his illegitimate mixed-race daughter. "As J. Strom Thurmond has passed away and cannot speak for himself, the Thurmond family acknowledges Ms. Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim to her heritage. We hope this acknowledgment will bring closure for Ms. Williams," the family's lawyer, J. Mark Taylor, said in a brief statement. Contacted at his office, Taylor confirmed he was speaking for...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family on Monday said it acknowledges a California woman's claim that she is his illegitimate mixed-race daughter. Her lawyer said the statement brought her "a sigh of relief.""As J. Strom Thurmond has passed away and cannot speak for himself, the Thurmond family acknowledges Ms. Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim to her heritage. We hope this acknowledgment will bring closure for Ms. Williams," the family's lawyer, J. Mark Taylor, said in a brief statement.Contacted at his office, Taylor confirmed he was speaking for the Thurmond family but refused to give detail or answer...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 78-year-old retired schoolteacher is coming forward after years of silence to claim she is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, her attorney said Saturday.</p> <p>Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who lives in Los Angeles, had long been rumored to be the daughter of the one-time segregationist, who died June 26 at the age of 100. She is coming forward now at the urging and encouragement of her children, attorney Frank K. Wheaton said.</p>

A 78-year-old retired Los Angeles schoolteacher said she is breaking a lifetime of silence to announce that she is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of former U.S. senator James Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), once the nation's leading segregationist. In an interview, the woman said that Thurmond privately acknowledged her as his daughter and provided financial support since 1941. Essie Mae Washington-Williams described her claims in a lengthy telephone interview last week, saying she protected Thurmond because of their mutual "deep respect" and her fears that disclosure would embarrass her and harm his political career. Thurmond, who died in June at age 100,...

EDGEFIELD, S.C. - A compromise to keep Strom Thurmond High School's Rebel nickname but scrap the mascot that looks like an old Southern aristocrat may be challenged in court. Strom Thurmond High graduate Nora Korrek thinks the Edgefield County School Board's recent vote to get rid of her school's colonel mascot threatens the Rebel nickname. "This is a steppingstone to doing away with the 'Rebel' name," said Korrek, who is talking to lawyers about filing suit to regain the old mascot. Calling the issue a matter of principle, Korrek said the school board's action violated a 1973 court order involving...

Strom Thurmond and the Death of Dixie by Shelton Hull It’s ironic, in the least funny of ways, that Jacksonville, Florida's new Mayor was inaugurated last July 1, the same day on which Strom Thurmond was buried in his home state of South Carolina. Ironic because as surely as Thurmond represented the past, Mr. Peyton represents the future of the American south, a region that shall never again have as staunch a defender as Strommy, the contrarian. Further ironic because Strom died within hours of Maynard Jackson, who as the first black mayor of Atlanta did something that no black...

When Strom Thurmond and Lester Maddox died at the end of June, I was making my way through "Reporting Civil Rights," the Library of America's new two-volume anthology of American journalism -- newspaper stories, magazine pieces, book excerpts, and other writings -- on what has been called the Second American Revolution: the 20th-century struggle for racial freedom and justice in the United States. One doesn't have to read up on the civil rights movement to know that the South Thurmond and Maddox departed from last month is utterly changed from the South in which they grew up. But it's one...

Tom Moss of Orangeburg, SC - better known by the title "First black staffer hired by a Southern senator" - recently hosted a fundraiser for Al Sharpton.

From the March 1999 American Spectator: Florence King's review of Ol' Strom: An Unauthorized Biography of Strom Thurmond by Jack Bass and Marilyn W. Thompson (Longstreet, 359 pages). IN HIS 1969 BOOK, Gothic Politics in the Deep South, Robert Sherrill noted that Strom Thurmond lives in a world of metaphysical absolutes: "It is a world of one Eden, one Hell, one Heaven, one Right, one Wrong, one Strom." South Carolina's 96-year-old senior Senator is proof of the biblical injunction that the last shall be the first. No matter which way you slice him -- powerbroker of both major political parties...

"I want to tell you, ladies and gentleman, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches."— Strom Thurmond, 1948. "Yes, I do."— Strom Thurmond, answering the question "Do you still think the Dixiecrats were right?", in 1998. OUR STROM In 1996, during my days as a Republican flak, I developed a political strategy designed to do the unthinkable: defeat Strom Thurmond in the GOP primary. I spent months on it, analyzing voter...

Strom's Skeleton The late segregationist's black daughter. By Diane McWhorter Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2003, at 12:11 PM PT In all the words spent on Strom Thurmond's life and times since his death last week, I have seen no acknowledgment of the most interesting of his sundry racial legacies. She is Essie Mae Washington Williams, a widowed former school teacher in her 70s, living in Los Angeles. Presumably she did not show up for any of the obsequies even though Strom Thurmond was almost certainly her father. Williams is black. http://slate.msn.com/id/2085087/

Strom Thurmond Near Death, Family at his Side By: Alex Marcelewski Count on 2 News Thursday, June 26, 2003 Tonight, Strom Thurmond is near death at an Edgefield hospital. We have been asking questions about the senator's condition all day. The senator has been listed in serious condition since his arrival at the special hospital room built for him in his hometown of Edgefield. The 100 year-old retired in 2002. Sources tell Count on 2 News that the Thurmond family members have been called to the hospital today, and that his son, US Attorney Strom Thurmond, Jr., has been at...

How did The Today Show exploit the death of Strom Thurmond to promote the liberal cause? By beginning its segment on Thurmond's death with a rehash of the fiasco surrounding Trent Lott's ill-fated statements on the occasion of Strom's 100th birthday. That's right. Of all the events in the record-setting career of this former Presidential candidate and longest-serving member of the Senate, the Today Show chose to open its segment not with anything Thurmond had said or done, but with the words of Trent Lott at the celebration of Thurmond's 100th birthday.

Strom Thurmond, the only centenarian senator in American history, is dead, and in a day or two we'll see whether the undertakers have successfully dealt with a potential problem that might, ah, arise: in the words of a favourite Washington aphorism (coined, I think, by the late John Tower), "When ol' Strom dies, they'll have to beat his pecker down with a baseball bat in order to get that coffin lid closed."There's the epitaph a lot of us guys would like. Some eulogists will speak about his heroism in war. Others will deplore his 1948 presidential campaign as the segregationist...

Strom Thurmond, R.I.P. by Reality Featured Writer: W. James Antle III This is an article I am genuinely surprised to be writing. A hundred years is a long time to live and the likelihood is that a person who has reached such an advanced age will die sooner rather than later. Yet you come to expect some people to always be around, especially when they have been a part of the nation’s public life as long as Strom Thurmond. You know it is irrational to regard any human being as a permanent fixture on this planet, yet at a certain...