SENATOR ROBERT W. BYRD: RACISM AND CYNICISM

This series on Democratic Senators who are members of what I call the "Scum of the Earth Club" will feature (today) Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, (tomorrow) Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, and (Sunday) Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. Actually, the list could be almost endless, but I'll focus for now on these three individuals.

On November 20 of this year, Robert Carlyle Byrd will celebrate his 90th birthday. He's the senior Senator from West Virginia (Jay Rockefeller is the junior) and has held his office since 1959 -- the year I graduated from high school. He's the longest-serving -- and the oldest -- current member of the U.S. Congress. Unfortunately, he both looks and acts his age.

If, God forbid, President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and Speaker Pelosi were to be killed in a terrorist attack, Robert Byrd -- as President pro tempore of the Senate -- would become President of the U.S.

Byrd is the last of the old-line segregationist Democrats. However, as the years have gone on, he's modified his positions on segregation and may be seen now -- by those with short memories -- as a minor champion of civil rights. When circumstances call for a change in his position, Byrd is quick to adjust.

Most people know that, many years ago, Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. In the media, this unfortunate element of Byrd's past gets portrayed as a short relationship reflecting some youthful indiscretion. However, that was not exactly the case.

In 1942, at the age of 24, Byrd joined the KKK. Soon after, he was elected -- unanimously -- as Exalted Cyclops, or leader, of his local Klan chapter. In his autobiography, Byrd saw that "election" as the beginning of his career in politics.

A local Klan leader, a man named Joe Baskin, told Byrd the following: "You have a talent for leadership, Bob. . . . The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation."

How did Byrd react to this high praise? As he describes it, "Suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities. I was only 23 or 24, and the thought of a political career had never struck me. But strike me that night, it did."

During World War II, Byrd -- always skillful in self-protection -- didn't serve in the military. However, when he was 28, he wrote to notorious Mississippi race-baiter Theodore Bilbo his views about an integrated military: "Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

In the 1950s, Byrd began the long process of attempting -- with limited success -- to disassociate himself from the Klan. He said then that he'd been interested in the Klan from 1942 through 1943 not because of its racist views but rather "it was strongly opposed to communism."

In 1997, at age 80,he said he's advise young people with political ambitions NOT to join the Klan -- by then only a tiny element in American society. Why precisely should they avoid the KKK? Because if one didn't, "it would inhibit [his or her] operations in the political arena." Not exactly a ringing denunciation of the Klan.

Years later, at age 88, Byrd sought once again to explain his associations with America's most notorious racist organization. He said, "I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions." He added, "I know NOW I was wrong." Now? At age 88? Talk about a slow learner.

A cynic (or a realist) would describe Byrd's relationship with the Klan in these terms. When an association with the group helped his political career, he was for it. When it hurt his career, he was against it. He's a political narcissist, nothing more.

Presumably, Byrd will leave the Senate feet-first. When he runs for re-election, as he will, he'll win again in a landslide, as he always does. He'll capture something like 90% of the Black vote -- cast by people who have little knowledge of the character (or lack thereof) or history of this thoroughly odious man.

Stephen R. Maloney
Ambridge, PA