At least Robert Byrd apologized. What’s your excuse, David Duke?
Republicans of all stripes were right to clobber Donald Trump for his failure to disavow support from David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan. But some Trump supporters are so desperate to somehow prove that Democrats also harbor racists that they are dredging up the name of the late senator Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.)
Nice try. And a pathetic one at that.
Yes, Byrd was a member of the Klan. Even worse, as he wrote in his 2005 book, he formed a chapter of the domestic terrorist organization in the 1940s. Then, Byrd went into politics. Several times during his 57 years in Congress, Byrd’s Klan connection threatened to upend his career. But here is where Byrd is no Duke.
He admitted his mistake and atoned for it in public and in policy.
In his memoir, Byrd wrote, “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.”