Thursday, November 24, 2005
Barack Obama Won't Admit Byrd Error
Sen. Barack Obama is blasting President Bush for not admitting alleged mistakes he made in waging the Iraq war.
But the up-and-coming black Democrat still has yet to acknowledge his own mistake in endorsing and raising campaign funds for notorious one-time Ku Klux Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd.
On the Iraq war, Obama told the Washington Post on Tuesday:
"Straight answers to critical questions. That's what we don't have right now. Members of both parties and the American people have now made clear that it is simply not enough for the president to simply say 'We know best' and 'Stay the course.' "
But Obama still hasn't given a straight answer about his endorsement for the former Grand Cyclops, who, until recently, was still using the "N"-word in television interviews.
In a fundraising letter issued on Byrd's behalf earlier this year, the celebrated black Democrat declared:
"In 2006, Senator Byrd will be the target of Republicans because he stands up for what he believes. Will you join me in supporting Senator Byrd's campaign for re-election?"
And just what does Sen. Byrd believe?
After leaving the Klan in 1946 the West Virginia Democrat remained an unabashed admirer of the anti-black terror group. "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth," he urged in a letter to the group's Grand Imperial Wizard later that year.
Byrd led the filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and called notorious white supremacist Sen. Richard B. Russell, who was chiefly remembered for blocking anti-lynching legislation, "my mentor." In 1972 Byrd sponsored legislation to name the Senate's main office building after Russell.
Still, the West Virginia Democrat's well-documented history of racism hasn't fazed the Senate's lone black Democrat. Obama's springtime fundraising pitch saved Byrd's flagging campaign, raising a record $823,000 for the ex-Klansman in just 48 hours.
If Sen. Obama is having any second thoughts about supporting the man who once compared his people to "the darkest specimens of the wilds," he has yet to express them publicly.
Sen. Barack Obama is blasting President Bush for not admitting alleged mistakes he made in waging the Iraq war.
But the up-and-coming black Democrat still has yet to acknowledge his own mistake in endorsing and raising campaign funds for notorious one-time Ku Klux Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd.
On the Iraq war, Obama told the Washington Post on Tuesday:
"Straight answers to critical questions. That's what we don't have right now. Members of both parties and the American people have now made clear that it is simply not enough for the president to simply say 'We know best' and 'Stay the course.' "
But Obama still hasn't given a straight answer about his endorsement for the former Grand Cyclops, who, until recently, was still using the "N"-word in television interviews.
In a fundraising letter issued on Byrd's behalf earlier this year, the celebrated black Democrat declared:
"In 2006, Senator Byrd will be the target of Republicans because he stands up for what he believes. Will you join me in supporting Senator Byrd's campaign for re-election?"
And just what does Sen. Byrd believe?
After leaving the Klan in 1946 the West Virginia Democrat remained an unabashed admirer of the anti-black terror group. "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth," he urged in a letter to the group's Grand Imperial Wizard later that year.
Byrd led the filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and called notorious white supremacist Sen. Richard B. Russell, who was chiefly remembered for blocking anti-lynching legislation, "my mentor." In 1972 Byrd sponsored legislation to name the Senate's main office building after Russell.
Still, the West Virginia Democrat's well-documented history of racism hasn't fazed the Senate's lone black Democrat. Obama's springtime fundraising pitch saved Byrd's flagging campaign, raising a record $823,000 for the ex-Klansman in just 48 hours.
If Sen. Obama is having any second thoughts about supporting the man who once compared his people to "the darkest specimens of the wilds," he has yet to express them publicly.
