Jeanine Pirro Blasts Hillary's Party for Ex-Klansman
New York Senate hopeful Jeanine Pirro is blasting 2008 presidential hopeful Hillary
Clinton for throwing a birthday party for Ku Klux Klansman-turned-Senator Robert Byrd at
the home of a civil rights pioneer.
"It's outrageous and shocking that Senator Clinton and her Democrat colleagues would
choose Frederick Douglass' house to honor Senator Robert Byrd, who has a history of
involvement with hate groups and has used racial slurs publicly," Pirro spokeswoman
Andrea Tantaros told the Associated Press.
"Any person who has made racially insensitive comments and participated in groups
that promote ethnic prejudice - Republican or Democrat - does not deserve support from a
United States senator, especially the senator from New York, at a landmark that is so
cherished by those who respect and honor racial equality," Pirro's spokeswoman added.
Byrd joined the Klan in 1943 and rose the level of Kleagle before being unanimously
elected to the office of Grand Cyclops. He claims to have resigned a few months later. But
in 1946 Byrd wrote the Klan's Grand Imperial Wizard to express his support.
"Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth," the
top Democrat urged.
Byrd led the filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and called notorious white
supremacist Sen. Richard B. Russell, who was chiefly remembered for blocking anti-lynching
legislation, "my mentor." In 1972 Byrd sponsored legislation to name the
Senate's main office building after Russell.
As recently as 2001, the West Virginia Democrat was still using the N-word in television
interviews.
Mrs. Clinton's spokesman, Howard Wolfson, defended her tribute to the longtime racist,
saying Pirro's criticism was off base
and avoided explaining why Mrs. Clinton was honoring the one-time nightrider.
The former first lady's tribute to Byrd is sure to spark comparisons with Sen. Trent Lott,
who had to resign his Senate leadership post after he praised the late Senator Strom
Thurmond at his 100th birthday party. Though Thurmond was once a pro-segregationist
Dixiecrat - he never joined the Klan.
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