Interesting fact, Tal. Thanks for bringing it up. I found a nice link that discussing this aspect of
Byrd's past.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd's new memoir reveals...the unlikely inspiration that helped launch his own political career: A Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
It is refreshing to see someone admit to mistakes in his past and discuss them, don't you agree?
It's a mistake he has paid for time and again, the only significant scandal ever attached to a man who grew up in Wolf Creek Hollow and who next June stands to become the longest-serving senator in U.S. history.
Hmm. The only significant scandal? So it would appear that this one aspect to Sen. Byrd's past should be judged in the context of his career, don't you think? At any rate, this is a serious charge. What does Sen. Byrd have to say about it?
It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me, and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career and reputation.... I displayed very bad judgment, due to immaturity and a lack of seasoned reasoning.
So are we then to use this incident to judge the man today? Aren't people allowed to have mistakes, even serious mistakes, in their pasts?
But why would have joined such an organization, anyway?
As a boy, he watched a parade of white hoods in Matoaka, learning years later his father had been among them. Back then "many of the 'best' people were members," he says, and Byrd was vulnerable to the anti-Communism rhetoric. [Emphasis added.]
Whoa! It was anti-Communism that led Byrd to join such a disreputable group! By the logic I have seen in other threads, this would seem to indicate that anti-Communism is bad, and that anti-Communism should be suppressed -- perhaps by placing onerous record-keeping requirements on organizations that are anti-Communist!
Interesting fact, though -- it does seem that I have heard about this before.
At any rate, what does a admitted mistake made by a man whose subsequent record has shown that he has repudiated that mistake have to do with the OP? Or even the post to which you are replying?