Dodd Apologizes for Byrd Tribute

Sen. Christopher Dodd said Wednesday 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 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 act 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 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 for Thurmond.

Lott stepped down as his party's leader after his remarks were criticized by President Bush, former Vice President Al Gore and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. Lott remains in the Senate.

Dodd offered only 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, including Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., also paid tribute to Byrd.

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