I deliberately waited to see what would would happen after Sen. Chris Dodd’s remarks about Sen. Robert Byrd before blogging about it. As I suspected, not much happened.
It’s been 13 days since Dodd made remarks much more racially insensitive than anything Trent Lott ever said. Where is the liberal outrage and indignation of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)?
Let’s recap:
Date: April 1, 2004
Occasion: Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va) receives a standing ovation on the Senate floor for casting his 17,000th role call vote.
Remark: On taxpayer-funded time, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn) said, “I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia that he would have been a great senator at any moment. Some were right for the time. Robert C. Byrd, in my view, would have been right at any time. He would have been right at the founding of this country. He would have been in the leadership crafting this Constitution. He would have been right during the great conflict of Civil War in this nation.” [emphasis mine]
History: Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s. Does “right at any time” include his KKK tour of duty? In 2001, he twice used the phrase “white nigger” on TV, as in “I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time.” Not a peep was heard from the CBC.
Fallout: Dead air
***
Date: December 6, 2002
Occasion: The late Sen. Strom Thurmond’s (R-SC) 100th birthday party.
Remark: At Thurmond’s private party, Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS): “I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years.”
History: Thurmond was a staunch segregationist. In 1948, he ran for president as a segregationist candidate for the Dixiecrat Party.
Fallout: Lott’s remarks received blanketed coverage, and he was castigated as a racist. Presidential election loser Al Gore said his remarks were “fundamentally racist.” CBC member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said, “It sends a chilling message to all people. Those are the kinds of words that tear this nation apart.”
CBC member “Hurricane” Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tx) said, “It was a shocking, piercing voice through the fabric of black America.”
After Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) accepted Lott’s apology (sort of), CBC member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said, “Daschle spoke very quickly to put the fire out so let him take the heat.”
Read this story for more CBC reaction and my own “Limber Lieberman Breaks a Leg.”
Lott eventually groveled on Black Entertainment Television, trying and failing to convince blacks he was not a racist. Within two weeks, his head rolled. Lott was forced to step down from his post as Senate Majority Whip.
Hypocrisy: The whole thing was an embarrassingly outrageous debacle! Let me be clear, I couldn’t care less what either man said, but the double standard is shockingly obvious. When was the last time you heard anything more about Chris Dodd or Robert Byrd?
Why were the media in a frenzy over Lott’s toast to an old man but not in a frenzy over Dodd’s statements about an old man? What is the difference? The next time you’re tempted to believe black liberals when they whine about racism in America, DON’T BE FOOLED!
I challenge anybody with a left-leaning bone in his body to explain the difference.
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I border on nauseous every time I hear Byrd’s name mentioned. Every time I hear the man speak, I think, He’s completely lost it. FINALLY, people will see that, and we’ll be rid of him. Yet, a lot of people seem to still think the man is infallible.
The double-standard in the way these two men were treated is appalling, but it’s par for the course with Byrd. Even when other liberals in this state are get toasted because of things they’ve done or said, everyone here seems convinced that Byrd is only one tiny step away from perfect. It’s sickening.
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