It's pretty clearly a different type of comment.
Lott was saying that a viciously segregationist president would have been a great thing in 1948 and the benefits of such policies would be felt to the present day. Clearly he is endorsing the segregationist candidate's platform.
Dodd was saying that a senator who has served long and hard would have been of service to the country in any period of its history. Clearly he is endorsing the senator's long years of service in Washington.
I have seen no one say, nor am I saying, that Byrd's participation in the KKK forty-plus years ago was anything but disgraceful.
Dan
I've heard about this on the radio for a few days now, and thought for sure it would leak into at least a pg. 18 blurb in the "mainstream" media.
What with Lott's birthday party comment culminating in such outrage and all and his eventual demise as majority leader in the Senate, you would think that Dodd's comments (official comments on the Senate floor) praising Byrd would merit SOME mention??
Sen. Dodd accused of making racist comment
In a speech on the Senate floor last Thursday marking Sen. Robert Byrd's 17,000th vote in the body, Dodd said the West Virginia Democrat, member of the Ku Klux Klan before taking office and opponent of the 1964 Civil Right Act, "would have been right during the great conflict of Civil War in this nation."
Dodd's comments struck some as similar to remarks made by former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., that led to his losing the position.
The comments were made as part of large praise of Byrd's great service as a Senator, which Dodd said, "would have been right at anytime."
I don't know about racist, but "anytime" would sure include the time Byrd was an admitted KKK member.
Where's the outrage now Democrats?
Sen. Robert Byrd, the longstanding Democrat from West Virginia, cast his 17,000th vote in the chamber last week. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) saw fit to mark the occasion with a rousing tribute in which he proclaimed, "There is no one I admire more. There is no one to whom I listen more closely and carefully when he speaks on any subject matter than Sen. Byrd."
For obvious reasons, Dodd neglected to mention that Byrd is a former Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan. Nor did Dodd dwell on the fact that Byrd voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or that Byrd broadcast his racial insensitivity by using the N-word during a 2001 appearance on Fox News.
Instead, Dodd simply praised the former Klansman from West Virginia as a gifted legislator and a stout defender of the Constitution.
This is somewhat puzzling considering that when Sen. Trent Lott remarked that the country would have been better off if former segregationist Strom Thurmond had won his 1948 bid for presidency, the Democrats demanded his ouster. And rightly so. Lott's racially-insensitive remarks were indicative of his upbringing in "a time and a place" that regarded blacks as inferior. Lott's remarks suggested that he just didn't get it, that he had no ability to truly empathize with what it means to be a minority in this country. The Democrats understood this. Flanked by the Congressional Black Caucus, they pumped their fists at Lott and demanded that he vacate his post.
Yet, they say nothing when one of their own praises a former Klansman. They haven't even asked Dodd to issue an apology. This is an outrage. Some things should not be explained away, like Byrd's affiliation with an organization that has a long history of hanging blacks from trees.
And yet, there is Dodd, on the Senate floor, demanding that Sen. Byrd "would have been a great senator at any moment. He would have been right at the founding of this country. He would have been in the leadership crafting this Constitution. He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this Nation. ."
The double standard on racism from and within the Democratic party is just mind boggling.
Evie 
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