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No Apologies From Dem Klan Defender
Nearly four months after the Senate's most influential Democrat, former majority leader Robert Byrd, defended the Ku Klux Klan in his autobiography, Byrd has yet to offer an apology - and fellow Democrats have not asked him to make one. "Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields" hit bookstores in June - and featured Byrd's firsthand account of his days as an up-and-coming member of the nation's most notorious anti-black terrorist group. According to the eight-term West Virginia Democrat, the Klan he remembers was "a fraternal group of elites – doctors, lawyers, clergy, judges and other 'upstanding' people." At no time, said Byrd, did he hear his fellow Klansman preach violence against blacks, Jews or Catholics.
Story Continues Below Byrd recalls that his admiration for the racist organization began early, when he was a little boy watching his father march in KKK parades. "Watching from the window, young Byrd saw people dressed in white hoods and robes and wearing white masks over their faces. Some years later, he wrote, he learned that his father had been a member of the Klan and took part in the parade" - according to a Washington Post synopsis of Byrd's book. By the age of 25, the top Democrat saw the Klan as an opportunity to prove his mettle. After joining up in 1942, Byrd rose quickly through the organizational ranks, earning his stripes within months as a Kleagle - the Klan term for recruiter. Byrd excelled in the role - boasting in his book that he'd recruited at least 150 new Klansman. The feat helped him get elected to the position of "Exalted Cyclops" - a race Byrd proudly notes that he won "unanimously." Klan Grand Dragon Joel Baskin said Byrd's performance was so impressive that he personally urged him to enter politics. "The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation," Byrd remembers the Grand Dragon telling him. In recent years, the West Virginia Democrat has made obligatory-sounding comments about his Klan membership being the "biggest mistake of his life." But Byrd's book makes it plain he still looks back on his Klan days with a measure of nostalgia. During his first congressional race in 1952, Byrd defended his decision to join the Klan, saying membership in the group "offered excitement." Five decades later Byrd was still using the "N"-word in national TV interviews. His lingering fondness for the Klan nothwithstanding, top Democrats have remained mum on Byrd's characterization of its membership as "upstanding people." Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Ted Kennedy and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton continue to rely on Byrd as a key ally in tough political battles - and sometimes refer to him as "the conscience of the Senate."
Editor's note:
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