Sen. Byrd's Jungle Fever

The one time "Exalted Cyclops" of the Ku Klux Klan, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) took a break from mailing the federal government back to the Mountaineer State piece by piece to weigh on the pressing question of jungles foreign and domestic:

"One's life is probably in no greater danger in the jungles of deepest Africa than in the jungles of America's large cities," he writes. "In my judgment, much of the problem has been brought about by the mollycoddling of criminals by some of the liberal judges who have been placed on the nation's courts in recent years."

Whole thing here.

In the same interview, he boldly endorses Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, thus putting Jacob Sullum's sympathetic analysis of the judge to a brutal is-the-friend-of-my-friend-really-my-enemy test.

Comments

Ruthless | July 22, 2005, 8:47pm | #

Glad you put this thread here for a perverted white invader of the inner city to comment upon.

Good sound bites never come from the mouths we all wish they would. It doesn't mean I'm endorsing democracy. It just means I'm statin' the facts.

Most of what Mr. KKK laments is the result of his and WWW's KKK-ish Wur on Durgs.

What is Mr. KKK's latest take on Mr. WWW's Crusading? (As if we cared.)

As an anarchist, you give the nutcases plenty of line and let them tucker themselves out... or die.
Yes, I've given myself plenty of line, and I'm plenty old.

Ruthless | July 22, 2005, 9:02pm | #

Just occurred to me that the gentlest Ku Klux upside that turd's haid would be enough to send him to his 72 voigins.

Douglas Fletcher | July 22, 2005, 10:00pm | #

Ruthless, you're a wildman. Why don't you take a stroll along Minnesota Ave SE in DC tonight & see if you don't meet a few lions tigers and bears.

Ruthless | July 22, 2005, 10:23pm | #

Got plenty of lions, etc. coming out of the walls of the attic here.

Don't worry about me, howsomever.

Dynamist | July 22, 2005, 10:34pm | #

As a tourist, I've seen the lions in Ruthless' neighborhood. He must be suffciently crazy in person to keep them all a bit afraid.

Ruthless: You're not an invader. You're just reclaiming the bricks laid by those stout and stoic Germans over a century ago. Or maybe you are an invader, since you're on the Union side of the Ohio. Oh hell, you can be whatever you want.

Dynamist | July 22, 2005, 10:54pm | #

Now that I've rtfa, I'm thinking that even in Anarchtopia, we would need judges (or mediators). And I would rather hire a mediator inclined toward a strict reading of the contract over one who wanted to achieve the outcome he thought best.

It feels creepy, but there's some value in what I can take from Senator KKK's words. Ignoring the racist part, he's talking about holding people accountable for their actions. With the racist part, he's a scary old freak on parallel with the mullahs who can't say that some things are just plain wrong.

joe | July 23, 2005, 11:31am | #

Eek! Stick to Senate traditions and separation of powers, you old hick.

Eddy | July 23, 2005, 11:53am | #

Got scary?

Future Congressman David Duke | July 23, 2005, 3:54pm | #

That there Bobby Byrd is one f-i-i-i-i-i-ne American...

Born Again Iconoclast | July 23, 2005, 4:01pm | #

The Democratic Party in a nut shell. Reactionary Byrd-brains and bleeding heart Obama-nations ...

stubby | July 23, 2005, 5:35pm | #

Born again: I haven't read a lot about Obama, cept for when he was making the Dems swoon in Boston, but I thought he wasn't a typical bleeding heart leftie? I thought he was one of the calmer centrists.

I've never understood how the same people who loathed (the completely loathable) Strom Thurmond could treat Byrd seriously and with respect.

Mo | July 23, 2005, 6:54pm | #

stubby,
The same way people who loathe (the completely loathable) Byrd treated Thurmond seriously and with respect.

joe | July 23, 2005, 8:11pm | #

Go back to the runup to the war in 2002 and 2003. Byrd's efforts to get the US Senate to stop prostrating itself and show a little self respect is what got him the brownie points.

I know there are a lot of Constitutionalists around here, and I think you'd appreciate what he had to say.

Also, while Byrd renounced his support for segregation, Thurmond never did. That counts for something.

Ken Hagler | July 23, 2005, 9:16pm | #

stubby, you see that letter 'D' after his name? That's how.

TWC | July 24, 2005, 8:51pm | #

Also, while Byrd renounced his support for segregation, Thurmond never did. That counts for something.

No, it doesn't. I'm not a christian, I don't forgive a man who once signed up people for cross burnings at ten bucks a pop. BTW, Byrd wasn't just in the KKK, he was in a postiion of authority. For the record, I don't forgive Nazi prison camp guards either.

joe | July 24, 2005, 9:57pm | #

The Klan was a very large organization, TWC. All of the "franchises" shared their repellent racist ideology, but not all of them were involved in violent atrocities. There was once a Klan march in western Massachusetts that drew an estimated 200,000 people, and yet there was never a lynching committed in the history of the commonwealth.

Which is to say, it's a little overwrought to compare Byrd to an SS guard unless you've got specific evidence of him, or the immediate group he was in, committing crimes against people. Do you?

paul | July 25, 2005, 10:45am | #

whatever joe. your leftism's got you defending the klan. get some self respect.

joe | July 25, 2005, 11:45am | #

Well, you're a poo poo head.

Come back when you've got an argument, kid.

paul | July 25, 2005, 12:22pm | #

touche joe, you got me again. but i think i'm going to stick to my position that klansmen are assholes and not defenders of the constitution.

ChicagoTom | July 25, 2005, 4:46pm | #

paul,

is it your position that people never change? Who you were and what you thought 10, 20,30,50 years ago never change? You are free to forgive or not forgive whatever you want, but do you honestly believe that once a always a .

Id like to believe that most people tend to grow and evolve in their thinking/beliefs/reasoning whatever.

I'm not going to defend the Klan, but if someone was a member of a bad group, and then turns around and denounces that group and what they stand for I will defend that person from attacks like yours. People can change, and I challenge you to prove otherwise.

It's the closed minded like you that are, in my humble opinion, the "assholes".

And what are your beliefs on Mr. Thurmund by the way?

paul | July 25, 2005, 6:39pm | #

was not a fan of thurmond or any klansman, and i've felt that way for over 40 years. guess that makes me a closed-minded asshole, but at least i've been consistent. i don't know what's in the exalted cyclops heart and i don't care. i don't need any byrds or killens or thurmonds or dukes. it's an embarrasment to west virginia, the democrat party, and america that this old turd is in the senate, but i guess i'm being closed-minded and too judgemental. i guess you got me too chitom as your defense of the old klansman is too strong. i can't prove he's a racist as of this moment so you win. it' been months since i've heard the old byrd use the n-word on tv. as long as your vouching for him, i'll accept that.