[paulv]

Nope.

"I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened." -- Robert Byrd

"Senator Byrd reflects the transformative power of this nation," stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. "Senator Byrd went from being an active member of the KKK to a being a stalwart supporter of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and many other pieces of seminal legislation that advanced the civil rights and liberties of our country.

"Senator Byrd came to consistently support the NAACP civil rights agenda, doing well on the NAACP Annual Civil Rights Report Card. He stood with us on many issues of crucial importance to our members from the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, the historic health care legislation of 2010 and his support for the Hate Crimes Prevention legislation," stated Hilary O. Shelton, Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau and Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy."

http://www.snopes.com/clinton-byrd-photo-klan/

[Turing_Machine]

Strom Thurmond also repudiated his earlier racism, but that didn't stop the OP from using him as a litmus test.

Why is that?

[purephase]

You'll need to source that. Despite some evidence in his later actions, Strom never vocally repudiated his earlier racism. I couldn't find any sources on it.

His filibuster against the Civil Rights Act put him in this position. Had he succeeded, his impact would have been far more detrimental to the rights of those protected under the act today then anything Byrd had/has done.

Both are disagreeable sorts, but Strom's lasting impact would have been much, much worse.

[Turing_Machine]

"You'll need to source that."

See the actual text that paulv selectively quoted out of context below.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/1998/07/13/met_233245.s...

Second sentence: "U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., no longer supports racial segregation."

Actual quote from Thurmond below:

"I may have said some things that I could have left off because I favor everybody receiving equal treatment," Mr. Thurmond said. "Race should not enter into it. It's merit that counts."

And in a (probably futile) attempt to stave off another misstatement of my position: I don't believe Strom Thurmond stopped being a racist. I don't believe that Robert Byrd stopped being one either.

[Turing_Machine]

"His filibuster against the Civil Rights Act put him in this position."

"His"? Singular?

Both Byrd and Thurmond attempted to filibuster the Civil Rights Act, so I don't know where you're getting "anything Byrd had done" from.

[purephase]

I should have been more specific. The 24 hour marathon filibuster, the longest in history, put him in this position. There were others who filibustered the Civil Rights Act bills, but none of them made such a dramatic show of it.

[Turing_Machine]

Byrd filibustered for 14 hours. Sorry, that might demonstrate that Thurmond had better bladder control, but that's about it.

[paulv]

When was it that he repudiated his racism? Because he said in a 1998 interview when asked if he wanted to apologize for running as a Dixiecrat. He said "I don't have anything to apologize for," and "I don't have any regrets." He was also asked if he thought the Dixiecrats were right and said "Yes, I do."

Presumably the OP thought Strom Thurmond was still a racist, which, as those quotes prove, is clearly true.

[Turing_Machine]

Ah, now we're playing the "selective quoting out of context" game. He said that he had based his Dixiecrat views on state's rights, not racism.

Why do you believe Byrd and not him?

Edit: given that they've both been dead for quite a while, I doubt that either Thurmond or Byrd is involved in much racist activity today.

[paulv]

No, we're playing the "you moved the goalposts" game. This started with your intellectually dishonest claims about Hillary Clinton and Robert Byrd.

"States' rights" is a dog whistle phrase for racism.

[Turing_Machine]

No, I did not.

Why don't you provide the full quotes, in context? You didn't even provide a source for your quotes. Convenient.

You have absolutely no room to be calling someone else "intellectually dishonest".

Edit: if this "1998 interview" exists, Google appears to have no knowledge of it.

[ceejayoz]

> Edit: if this "1998 interview" exists, Google appears to have no knowledge of it.

It's always interesting to me how technologically literate HNers suddenly forget how to use a search engine when they don't want to acknowledge a point. It took me like 15 seconds to Google. Bottom half of the page:

https://books.google.com/books?id=UjO6L2hv0mIC&pg=PA341&lpg=...

[paulv]

> You have absolutely no room to be calling someone else "intellectually dishonest".

* You did know that Clinton called Byrd a "friend and mentor" but didn't know that Byrd repeatedly & profusely apologized for his racism.

* You did know that Thurmond "apologized" for his racism but didn't know that Thurmond didn't really mean it.

* You call me out for not providing a source (which ceejayoz provided below) but ignored purephase's request for you to provide a source above.

Not to mention that we started this thread with your (incorrect) claims about Byrd + Clinton but now we're talking about Thurmond.

Convenient. Maybe next time you should try googling for a few minutes before you press submit.