Sen. Leahy Notes Sessions/Republicans - Racism

[QueEx]

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Q-Blog
July 19, 2009


Appearing this morning on John King's State of the Union segment on CNN with Senator Jeff Sessions, Senator Patrick Leahy noted that some Senators had the gall during the past week's Senate Confirmation Hearings to question Judge Sotomayor's past activities with a Puerto Rican activist group. Leahy, pointing out to Sessions that Sotomayor was not a member of the group but rather one of its attorneys, stated (paraphrasing here):

Its unfortunate that it looks like some people in the Senate want
to engage in the "racial" politics of the past; that he would hope
that we're not returning to the days, as in our recent past, when
Black nominees to the Supreme Court were questioned about their membership in the, get this: NAACP Additionally, in case you didn't
know, the NAACP was considered by many whites to be a subversive
activists group.
​

Yes, the NAACP! - was considered by many to be radical. And, for those who may not know, the nominee that Leahy was referring to was the late Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall.

Of course, Jeff Sessions was sort of caught. He tried to make the point that the members of the Senate Republican wing had not engaged in racial politics with Judge Sotomayor. On the other hand, Leahy said what many have witnessed and come to believe, over the past week: the racist inuendo of Jeff Sessions, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

QueEx

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[jackjacklooklook]

A large segment of the republican party are still acting like confederates. They are disgraceful and mentally sick with their racism.

The black and hispanic republicans are traitors and water carriers. Lets all hope they keep showing their true face (nut case racist smiling and being evil)
BGOL KEEP SHINING A LIGHT ON THE MICHAEL STEALS,SESSIONS, GRAHAMS ETC.....

 

[QueEx]

`

You don't think that Michael Steele's belief in Republican ideals is genuine ???

Are those ideals racist - or - are some of the people who espouse the ideals, racist ???

Hell, many of those in the Republican party who are suspected bigots were once in the
Democratic Party.

Is it Party or is it People ???

QueEx

 

[jeanzy5342]

Maybe its people LOYAL to their party..... Just a thought

 

[Gunner]

A large segment of the republican party are still acting like confederates. They are disgraceful and mentally sick with their racism.
The black and hispanic republicans are traitors and water carriers. Lets all hope they keep showing their true face (nut case racist smiling and being evil)
BGOL KEEP SHINING A LIGHT ON THE MICHAEL STEALS,SESSIONS, GRAHAMS ETC.....

http://realdemocrathistory.wordpres...was-the-terrorist-wing-of-the-democrat-party/

May 15, 2008 at 1:01 pm | In Democrat Party, K.K.K | 1 Comment
Our nation’s top historians reveal that the Democratic Party gave us the Ku Klux Klan, Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws and other repressive legislation which resulted in the multitude of murders, lynchings, mutilations, and intimidations (of thousands of black and white Republicans). On the issue of slavery: historians say the Democrats gave their lives to expand it, the Republicans gave their lives to ban it.

The Democrats:
Democrats fought to expand slavery while Republicans fought to end it.
Democrats passed those discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws.
Democrats supported and passed the Missouri Compromise to protect slavery.
Democrats supported and passed the Kansas Nebraska Act to expand slavery.
Democrats supported and backed the Dred Scott Decision.
Democrats opposed educating blacks and murdered our teachers.
Democrats fought against anti-lynching laws.
Democrat Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, is well known for having been a “Kleagle” in the Ku Klux Klan.
Democrat Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, personally filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for 14 straight hours to keep it from passage.
Democrats passed the Repeal Act of 1894 that overturned civil right laws enacted by Republicans.
Democrats declared that they would rather vote for a “yellow dog” than vote for a Republican, because the Republican Party was known as the party for blacks.
Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, reintroduced segregation throughout the federal government immediately upon taking office in 1913.
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first appointment to the Supreme Court was a life member of the Ku Klux Klan, Sen. Hugo Black, Democrat of Alabama.
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s choice for vice president in 1944 was Harry Truman, who had joined the Ku Klux Klan in Kansas City in 1922.
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt resisted Republican efforts to pass a federal law against lynching.
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt opposed integration of the armed forces.
Democrat Senators Sam Ervin, Albert Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd were the chief opponents of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Democrats supported and backed Judge John Ferguson in the case of Plessy v Ferguson.
Democrats supported the School Board of Topeka Kansas in the case of Brown v The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas.
Democrat public safety commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, in Birmingham, Ala., unleashed vicious dogs and turned fire hoses on black civil rights demonstrators.
Democrats were who Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the other protesters were fighting.
Democrat Georgia Governor Lester Maddox “brandished an ax hammer to prevent blacks from patronizing his restaurant.
Democrat Governor George Wallace stood in front of the Alabama schoolhouse in 1963, declaring there would be segregation forever.
Democrat Arkansas Governor Faubus tried to prevent desegregation of Little Rock public schools.
Democrat Senator John F. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil rights Act.
Democrat President John F. Kennedy opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King.
Democrat President John F. Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI.
Democrat President Bill Clinton’s mentor was U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright, an Arkansas Democrat and a supporter of racial segregation.
Democrat President Bill Clinton interned for J. William Fulbright in 1966-67.
Democrat Senator J. William Fulbright signed the Southern Manifesto opposing the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision.
Democrat Senator J. William Fulbright joined with the Dixiecrats in filibustering the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964.
Democrat Senator J. William Fulbright voted against the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Southern Democrats opposed desegregation and integration.
Democrats opposed:

The Emancipation Proclamation
The 13th Amendment
The 14th Amendment
The 15th Amendment
The Reconstruction Act of 1867
The Civil Rights of 1866
The Enforcement Act of 1870
The Forced Act of 1871
The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Freeman Bureau
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1960
The United State Civil Rights Commission
Republicans gave strong bi-partisan support and sponsorship for the following
legislation:

The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The 1968 Civil Rights Acts
The Equal Opportunity Act of 1972
Goals and Timetables for Affirmative Action Programs
Comprehensive Employment Training Act of 1973
Voting Rights Act of Amendment of 1982
Civil Rights Act of 1983
Federal Contract Compliance and Workforce Development Act of 1988
The Republicans:
Republicans enacted civil rights laws in the 1950’s and 1960’s, over the objection of Democrats.
Republicans founded the HBCU’s (Historical Black College’s and Universities) and started the NAACP to counter the racist practices of the Democrats.
Republicans pushed through much of the ground-breaking civil rights legislation in Congress.
Republicans fought slavery and amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom, citizenship and the right to vote.
Republicans pushed through much of the groundbreaking civil rights legislation from the 1860s through the 1960s.
Republican President Dwight Eisenhower sent troops into the South to desegregate the schools.
Republican President Eisenhower appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision.
Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois, not Democrat President Lyndon Johnson, was the one who pushed through the civil rights laws of the 1960’s.
Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois wrote the language for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois also crafted the language for the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which prohibited discrimination in housing.
Republican and black American, A. Phillip Randolph, organized the 1963 March by Dr. King on Washington.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act Roll Call Vote: In the House, only 64 percent of the Democrats (153 yes, 91 no), but 80 percent of the Republicans (136 yes, 35 no), voted for it. In the Senate, while only 68 percent of the Democrats endorsed the bill (46 yes, 21 no), 82 percent of the Republicans voted to enact it (27 yes, 6 no).

Thaddeus Stevens, a Radical Republican that introduced legislation to give African Americans the so-called 40 acres and a mule and Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the bill.

During the Senate debates on the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, it was revealed that members of the Democratic Party formed many terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to murder and intimidate African Americans voters. The Ku Klux Klan Act was a bill introduced by a Republican Congress to stop Klan Activities.

History reveals that Democrats lynched, burned, mutilated and murdered thousands of blacks and completely destroyed entire towns and communities occupied by middle class Blacks, including Rosewood, Florida, the Greenwood District in Tulsa Oklahoma, and Wilmington, North Carolina to name a few.

History reveals that it was Abolitionists and Radical Republicans such as Henry L. Morehouse and General Oliver Howard that started many of the traditional Black colleges, while Democrats fought to keep them closed. Many of our traditional Black colleges are named after white Republicans.

After exclusively giving the Democrats their votes for the past 25 years, the average African American cannot point to one piece of civil rights legislation sponsored solely by the Democratic Party that was specifically designed to eradicate the unique problems that African Americans face today.

 

[Gunner]

http://hnn.us/roundup/12.html

Roundup: Media's Take

The Racist History of the Democratic Party

Wayne Perryman, an inner city minister in Seattle and the author of Unfounded Loyalty, in an editorial circulating on the Internet (Feb. 2004):

Most people are either a Democrat by design, or a Democrat by deception. That is either they were well aware the racist history of the Democrat Party and still chose to be Democrat, or they were deceived into thinking that the Democratic Party is a party that sincerely cared about Black people.
History reveals that every piece of racist legislation that was ever passed and every racist terrorist attack that was ever inflicted on African Americans, was initiated by the members of the Democratic Party. From the formation of the Democratic Party in 1792 to the Civil Rights movement of 1960's, Congressional records show the Democrat Party passed no specific laws to help Blacks, every law that they introduced into Congress was designed to hurt blacks in 1894 Repeal Act. The chronicles of history shows that during the past 160 years the Democratic Party legislated Jim Crows laws, Black Codes and a multitude of other laws at the state and federal level to deny African Americans their rights as citizens.

History reveals that the Republican Party was formed in 1854 to abolish slavery and challenge other racist legislative acts initiated by the Democratic Party.

Some called it the Civil War, others called it the War Between the States, but to the African Americans at that time, it was the War Between the Democrats and the Republicans over slavery. The Democrats gave their lives to expand it, Republican gave their lives to ban it.

During the Senate debates on the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, it was revealed that members of the Democratic Party formed many terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to murder and intimidate African Americans voters. The Ku Klux Klan Act was a bill introduced by a Republican Congress to stop Klan Activities. Senate debates revealed that the Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party.

History reveals that Democrats lynched, burned, mutilated and murdered thousands of blacks and completely destroyed entire towns and communities occupied by middle class Blacks, including Rosewood, Florida, the Greenwood District in Tulsa Oklahoma, and Wilmington, North Carolina to name a few.

After the Civil War, Democrats murdered several hundred black elected officials (in the South) to regain control of the southern government. All of the elected officials up to 1935 were Republicans. As of 2004, the Democrat Party (the oldest political party in America) has never elected a black man to the United States Senate, the Republicans have elected three.

History reveals that it was Thaddeus Stevens, a Radical Republican that introduced legislation to give African Americans the so-called 40 acres and a mule and Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the bill. Today many white Democrats are opposed to paying African Americans trillions of dollars in Reparation Pay, money that should be paid by the Democratic Party.

History reveals that it was Abolitionists and Radical Republicans such as Henry L. Morehouse and General Oliver Howard that started many of the traditional Black colleges, while Democrats fought to keep them closed. Many of our traditional Black colleges are named after white Republicans.

Congressional records show it was Democrats that strongly opposed the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. These three Amendments were introduced by Republicans to abolish slavery, give citizenship to all African Americans born in the United States and, give Blacks the right to vote.

Congressional records show that Democrats were opposed to passing the following laws that were introduced by Republicans to achieve civil rights for African Americans:

Civil Rights Act 1866
Reconstruction Act of 1867
Freedman Bureau Extension Act of 1866
Enforcement Act of 1870
Force Act of 1871
Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Civil Rights Act of 1960

And during the 60's many Democrats fought hard to defeat the

1964 Civil Rights Act
1965 Voting Rights Acts
1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act

Court records shows that it was the Democrats that supported the Dred Scott Decision. The decision classified Blacks and property rather than people. It was also the racist Jim Crow practices initiated by Democrats that brought about the two landmark cases of Plessy v Ferguson and Brown v. The Board of Education.

At the turn of the century (1900), Southern Democrats continued to oppress African Americans by placing thousands in hard-core prison labor camps. According to most historians, the prison camps were far worst than slavery. The prisoners were required to work from 10-14 hours a day, six to seven days a week in temperatures that exceeded 100 degrees and in temperatures that fell well below zero. The camps provided free labor for building railroads, mining coal-mines and for draining snake and alligator invested swamps and rivers. Blacks were transported from one project to another in rolling cages similar to the ones used to transfer circus animals. One fourth of the prison populations were children ages 6 to 18. Young Cy Williams age 12, was sentenced to 20 years for stealing a horse that he was too small to ride. Eight-year old Will Evans was sentenced to 2 years of hard labor for taking some change from a store counter and six-year old Mary Gay was sentenced to 30 days for taking a hat. While authorities sent whites to jail for the same offenses, they sent blacks to the prison camps with much longer sentences. Thousands died from malaria, frost bites, heat strokes, shackle poisoning, others were buried alive in collapsing mines, or blown to pieces in tunnel explosions, and still others drowned in swamps or were beaten and shot to death. Every southern black citizen was a potential prisoner for any alleged small offense, including violating evening curfews. Through the prison camp system, southern owners of railroads, mines and farms had an unlimited source of free labor. The black prisoners played a major role the South's economic development. Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, said, in his opinion, "the prison camps were a new form of slavery, but far more inhumane."

History reveals that it was three white persons that opposed the Democrat's racist practices who started the NAACP.

Dr. Martin Luther King, several Civil Rights leaders and many historians reported that during the first two years of his administration, President John F. Kennedy ignored Dr. King's request for Civil Rights. The chronicles of history reveal that it was only after television coverage of riots and several demonstrations did President Kennedy feel a need to introduce the 1963 Civil Rights Act. At that time, experts believe the nation was headed toward a major race war.

History reveals that it was Democratic Attorney General, Robert Kennedy that approved the secret wire taps on Dr, Martin Luther King Jr., and it was Democratic President Lyndon Johnson that referred to Dr. King as " that ****** preacher." Senator Byrd referred to Dr. King as a "trouble maker" who causes trouble and then runs like a "coward," when trouble breaks out.

Over the strong objections of racist Republican Senator Jessie Helms, Republican President Ronald Reagan, signed into law, a bill to make Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday. Several Republican Senators convinced President Reagan this was the right thing to do.

Congressional records show after signing the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act and issuing Executive Order 11478, Richard Nixon, a Republican, that started what we know as Affirmative Action.

On December 15, 1994, federal Judge David V. Kenyon issued a court order to the Clinton Administration in the Case of Fairchild v Robert Reich Secretary of Labor (#CV92-5765 Kn). The order demanded that Secretary Reich and the Clinton Administration force 100 west coast shipping to develop an Affirmative Action plan to stop discrimination against, African Americans, Hispanics, Female and Disabled Workers. Female employees were being sexually harrassed, Hispanic were being denied promotions and training, Disable Workers were being laid off, and African Americans were being force to work in an environment where they had job classification called " ****** Jobs." Clinton left office six years later and never complied with the court order. The companies still do not have an Affirmative Action Plan.

President Clinton sent 20, 000 troops to protect the white citizens of Europe's Bosnia, but sent no troops to Africa's Rwanda to protect the black citizens there. Consequently over 800,000 Africans were massacre

During the 2003 Democratic Primary debates, the Rev. Al Sharpton, said the Democrat take the black vote for granted and treat African American like a mistress. They [Democrats} will take us to the dance, but they don't want to take us home to meet mama."


On December 3, 2002, President Clinton spoke to Democratic Leadership Council in New York regarding the future of the Democratic Party and how they could retake the White House. At no time did he address Civil Rights issues for blacks or doing things to improve the conditions of African Americans. His only reference to Civil Rights was Civil Rights for Gays. His only reference to improving communities was his recommendation to revisit the Marshall Plan to re-build communities in other countries. His entire speech was aired on C-Span.

After exclusively giving the Democrats their votes for the past 25 years, the average African American cannot point to one piece of civil rights legislation sponsored solely by the Democratic Party that was specifically designed to eradicate the unique problems that African Americans face today. Congressional records show that all previous legislation (since 1964) had strong bi-partisan support, even though some Democrats debated and voted against these laws.

After reviewing all of the evidence, many believe America would have never experienced racism to the degree that it has, had not the Democrats promoted it through:

Racist Legislation
Terrorist Organizations
Negative Media Communications
Bias Education
Relentless Intimidation
And Flawed Adjudication.

The racism established and promoted by members of the Democratic Party affected and infected the entire nation from 1856 with the Dred Scott decision, to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case. But they never offered or issued an apology.

Today both parties must remember their past. The Democrats must remember the terrible things they did to Blacks and apologize and the Republicans must remember the terrific things they did for Blacks and re-commit to complete the work that their predecessors started and died for.

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Posted on Friday, February 13, 2004 at 6:12 PM | Comments (0) | Return

 

[Gunner]

Racism is alive and well on both sides. But never forget the dems wrote the book on bigotry.

 

[Lamarr]

This should be interesting, I shall remain silent but willing to learn

 

[thoughtone]

Racism is alive and well on both sides. But never forget the dems wrote the book on bigotry.

No, conservatives did!

 

[Gunner]

No, conservatives did!

Defend, qualify or challenge the above articles. Anything else is pointless. So this is how you defend the democrat's track record? Pick a point made by the authors above and dispute it.

 

[QueEx]

Defend, qualify or challenge the above articles. Anything else is pointless. So this is how you defend the democrat's track record? Pick a point made by the authors above and dispute it.

Why would anyone defend EITHER party ? ? ?

Why would anything other than defending either party be, pointless ? ? ?

QueEx

 

[Gunner]

Why would anyone defend EITHER party ? ? ?

Why would anything other than defending either party be, pointless ? ? ?

QueEx

Waiting for you to post democracts who have fallen short. I never stated that the republicans were perfect. My point of my post was to convey to the reader a history of deeds not rhetoric. All perspectives should be presented so that one can make an informed decision. Not just " republicans don't like black people ". So if a black man robs a 7-11 are all black men thugs?

 

[QueEx]

Waiting for you to post democracts who have fallen short. I never stated that the republicans were perfect. My point of my post was to convey to the reader a history of deeds not rhetoric. All perspectives should be presented so that one can make an informed decision. Not just " republicans don't like black people ". So if a black man robs a 7-11 are all black men thugs?

You don't need to wait for me to post ANYTHING in a back in forth as to which party is best/worst, good/bad, etc. George Wallace once said, "Republican, Democrat, there's not a dime worth of difference between them." If you would actually read my commens above (instead of engaging in MY Party vs. Your Party, parochial analysis) you would have noticed that.

QueEx

 

[Gunner]

 

[Gunner]

If there is no difference, why do you generally side with the left?

 

[QueEx]

Thats your uninformed impression and deep and oppresive obsession with having to label people left or right, with you or against you, -- which typically leads one to engage in meaningless pigeon-holing instead of meaningful analysis and understanding of the issues.

QueEx

 

[Gunner]

Thats your uninformed impression and deep and oppresive obsession with having to label people left or right, with you or against you, -- which typically leads one to engage in meaningless pigeon-holing instead of meaningful analysis and understanding of the issues.

QueEx

There you go again, shifting your argument at me instead of what I asked you. I really don't care what you are!! But don't hide that fact that you are a liberal at heart.

 

[Gunner]

Stand up for what you believe. In one breath you claim to be non partisan, then in another you defend to the death the left. Furthermore, when you can't respond, you climb on your cross and take the moral high ground stance. Give me a frickin break.

 

[Ruff Ryder]

Is it Party or is it People ???

It always comes down to the people.

 

[thoughtone]

Defend, qualify or challenge the above articles. Anything else is pointless. So this is how you defend the democrat's track record? Pick a point made by the authors above and dispute it.

Most whites were racist back in the day, the question is, who has changed. These people are not ancient history.

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Want more?

 

[Gunner]

Mr. Thought I will not deny that both parties have their downfalls or closet racists. My argument centers around those who claim that it is only the republicans who are racists.
There was already a civil rights bill passed prior to the policy signed into law during the 60's. That being said, southern democrats didn't honor it.

The gentlemen you cited above, may very well be racist. If they are, to hell with them. I'd never defend a known racist no matter his leanings. I defend principles and sound ideology.

 

[thoughtone]

Mr. Thought I will not deny that both parties have their downfalls or closet racists.

My argument centers around those who claim that it is only the republicans who are racists

.
There was already a civil rights bill passed prior to the policy signed into law during the 60's. That being said, southern democrats didn't honor it.

The gentlemen you cited above, may very well be racist. If they are, to hell with them. I'd never defend a known racist no matter his leanings. I defend principles and sound ideology.

My argument centers around those who claim that it is only the republicans who are racists

Conservatives!!!

 

[Gunner]

Who changed? Just a few years ago Robert Byrd was a president pro tempore of the United States senate!!!! Were you outraged then, or does he get a pass if he's a democrat?

 

[Gunner]

Conservatives!!!

Can you please provide for me, as I have provided for you some substantial policy other than midnite basketball that has advanced the plight of our people?

Thanks I'm a proud conservative. I knew you were a cool dude!!!

 

[thoughtone]

Who changed? Just a few years ago Robert Byrd was a president pro tempore of the United States senate!!!! Were you outraged then, or does he get a pass if he's a democrat?

Even Malcolm X changed, can’t Byrd change too? However, evidently conservatives don’t want to change. So drop this republican canned argument.

source: Politico

Sen. Robert Byrd endorses Obama

The Charleston Gazette reports an endorsement deep with symbolism: West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd is endorsing Barack Obama.

"Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support," Byrd says.

He said he has "no intention of involving myself in the Democratic campaign for President in the midst of West Virginia's primary election. But the stakes this November could not be higher."

Byrd, 91, a master of Senate rules and Iraq war foe, has spent much of his political career repenting the racism of his youth. He's acknolwedged having joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1942, and campaigned against civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
In The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote of meeting Byrd, and their joint awareness of the past; his endorsement is a note of reconciliation that underscores Obama's message.

Obama wrote of meeting Byrd as new senator in one of his book's most compelling passages:

Listening to Senator Byrd I felt with full force all the essential contradictions of me in this new place, with its marble busts, its arcane traditions, its memories and its ghosts. I pondered the fact that, according to his own autobiography, Senator Byrd had received his first taste of leadership in his early twenties, as a member of the Raleigh County Ku Klux Klan, an association that he had long disavowed, an error he attributed—no doubt correctly—to the time and place in which he'd been raised, but which continued to surface as an issue throughout his career. I thought about how he had joined other giants of the Senate, like J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and Richard Russell of Georgia, in Southern resistance to civil rights legislation. I wondered if this would matter to the liberals who now lionized Senator Byrd for his principled opposition to the Iraq War resolution—the MoveOn.org crowd, the heirs of the political counterculture the senator had spent much of his career disdaining.

I wondered if it should matter. Senator Byrd's life—like most of ours—has been the struggle of warring impulses, a twining of darkness and light. And in that sense I realized that he really was a proper emblem for the Senate, whose rules and design reflect the grand compromise of America's founding: the bargain between Northern states and Southern states, the Senate's role as a guardian against the passions of the moment, a defender of minority rights and state sovereignty, but also a tool to protect the wealthy from the rabble, and assure slaveholders of noninterference with their peculiar institution. Stamped into the very fiber of the Senate, within its genetic code, was the same contest between power and principle that characterized America as a whole, a lasting expression of that great debate among a few brilliant, flawed men that had concluded with the creation of a form of government unique in its genius—yet blind to the whip and the chain

 

[QueEx]

Stand up for what you believe. In one breath you claim to be non partisan, then in another you defend to the death the left. Furthermore, when you can't respond, you climb on your cross and take the moral high ground stance. Give me a frickin break.

Just shows you have difficulty understanding complexities, in people and issues.

QueEx

 

[Gunner]

Even Malcolm X changed, can’t Byrd change too? However, evidently conservatives don’t want to change. So drop this republican canned argument.

source: Politico

Sen. Robert Byrd endorses Obama

The Charleston Gazette reports an endorsement deep with symbolism: West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd is endorsing Barack Obama.

"Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support," Byrd says.

He said he has "no intention of involving myself in the Democratic campaign for President in the midst of West Virginia's primary election. But the stakes this November could not be higher."

Byrd, 91, a master of Senate rules and Iraq war foe, has spent much of his political career repenting the racism of his youth. He's acknolwedged having joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1942, and campaigned against civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
In The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote of meeting Byrd, and their joint awareness of the past; his endorsement is a note of reconciliation that underscores Obama's message.

Obama wrote of meeting Byrd as new senator in one of his book's most compelling passages:

Listening to Senator Byrd I felt with full force all the essential contradictions of me in this new place, with its marble busts, its arcane traditions, its memories and its ghosts. I pondered the fact that, according to his own autobiography, Senator Byrd had received his first taste of leadership in his early twenties, as a member of the Raleigh County Ku Klux Klan, an association that he had long disavowed, an error he attributed—no doubt correctly—to the time and place in which he'd been raised, but which continued to surface as an issue throughout his career. I thought about how he had joined other giants of the Senate, like J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and Richard Russell of Georgia, in Southern resistance to civil rights legislation. I wondered if this would matter to the liberals who now lionized Senator Byrd for his principled opposition to the Iraq War resolution—the MoveOn.org crowd, the heirs of the political counterculture the senator had spent much of his career disdaining.

I wondered if it should matter. Senator Byrd's life—like most of ours—has been the struggle of warring impulses, a twining of darkness and light. And in that sense I realized that he really was a proper emblem for the Senate, whose rules and design reflect the grand compromise of America's founding: the bargain between Northern states and Southern states, the Senate's role as a guardian against the passions of the moment, a defender of minority rights and state sovereignty, but also a tool to protect the wealthy from the rabble, and assure slaveholders of noninterference with their peculiar institution. Stamped into the very fiber of the Senate, within its genetic code, was the same contest between power and principle that characterized America as a whole, a lasting expression of that great debate among a few brilliant, flawed men that had concluded with the creation of a form of government unique in its genius—yet blind to the whip and the chain

Why wouldn't a democrat endorse a democrat???????

Let it be known that Klansmen get a pass with Mr. Non-Thought
So in your next post if David Duke agrees with Obama, he'll get a pass as well never mind the negroes he may have killed. Pathetic.

 

[Gunner]

Just shows you have difficulty understanding complexities, in people and issues.

QueEx

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[Lamarr]

Even Malcolm X changed, can’t Byrd change too? However, evidently conservatives don’t want to change. So drop this republican canned argument.

Dawg, Are you giving a pass to "Sheets" Byrd?

 

[thoughtone]

Dawg, Are you giving a pass to "Sheets" Byrd?

explain