Posted 10:04 PM by Floyd

Instantman quoted a pro-Klan letter that the Washington Times used to smear Senator Robert Byrd (D-KKK). Because it was so nasty and spiteful, and because the words "Washington Times" probably make millions of people break out in hives, I repeat it here entirely:

Rather I should die a thousand times, and see old Glory in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours be degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.

I did hear a news clip this morning in which Byrd criticized Bush for taking a joyride on a military plane. And I swore at my radio and changed the channel. But tonight I got to thinking about why Byrd is so despicable. It's not this latest issue; I agree with Byrd more than not. It's not Byrd's party or his politics. It's not even that Byrd was a Grand Kleagle or whatever sixty years ago; if I live for another 50 years I expect to accumulate some baggage.

What is distasteful about Byrd is that he manages to combine all the worst traits of a US Senator: Vanity, insincere bipartisan guestures, mock gravitas and senility. Whenever Byrd utters something like

I do not begrudge his salute to America's warriors aboard the carrier Lincoln, for they have performed bravely. But I do question the motives of a desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech.

I get the impression that he looks around him imperiously as he speaks these words, trying to catch a glimpse of an awestruck historian recording his words for future generations.