Does this mean there are no more Klansmen in the Senate?

[Al B. Sure!]

Let's get something clear about Byrd... he wasn't just in the Klan... he was a recruiter for the Klan and was unanimously elected by his chapter of the clan to the position of Exalted Cyclops. This isn't like the Pope being in the Hitler Youth. Byrd was all up in the Klan and then some.

[MrFun]

And yet even Obama was willing to eulogize Byrd for making a dramatic life-changing turn around later in life.

[Al B. Sure!]

Strom Thurmond did the same although he didn't get props for that. And Thurmond was supporting extensions of Voting Rights Act and the MLK Jr federal holiday in the 1970's. Byrd didn't have his conversion til 19 ****ing 82!

Thurmond also kept his illegitimate black daughter a secret his whole life but did support her financially... so on the one hand, he kept her secret, but on the other hand, he apparently was willing to have sex with a black woman in the 1920's and support their child financially even paying for her college education in the mid-1940's while he was campaigning on a segregationist platform.

I guess it's like a family values Republican ending up being gay... a segregationist turned out to have a black daughter.

[Wernazuma III]

Thurmond also kept his illegitimate black daughter a secret his whole life but did support her financially... so on the one hand, he kept her secret, but on the other hand, he apparently was willing to have sex with a black woman in the 1920's and support their child financially even paying for her college education in the mid-1940's while he was campaigning on a segregationist platform.

Could that have been a hush money? And bigotry is a common phenomenon.

[Al B. Sure!]

I suppose it worked out for his daughter. Not too many Black women were graduating college in the 1940's. She could have done a lot worse than being a segregationist politician's love child.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp201...Jun28-s.html#1

I think the more important question now is, who gets his seat.

What was thought a governor appointed replacement looks to now be a special election

W.Va. AG: Special election OK for Byrd's seat
By LAWRENCE MESSINA (AP) – 1 hour ago

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia's attorney general says Gov. Joe Manchin can put the late Robert C. Byrd's Senate seat on the ballot this November.

Manchin requested a legal opinion from Attorney General Darrell McGraw, who issued it Thursday.

Manchin says he doesn't want voters to wait until 2012, when Byrd would have faced re-election.

The iconic Democrat died last week after more than a half-century in the Senate. The 92-year-old had just over 30 months left in his term.

Manchin may now call a special legislative session to settle details such as candidate filing and party nomination deadlines.

Manchin will appoint someone to fill the vacancy in the meantime. The Democrat says he may run for Byrd's seat, but won't have himself appointed.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h_tF0Yhl58sJdSF4uGC7m_vYoh1AD9GR2BK00