Robert Byrd was NOT a racist - and Clinton isn't covering for him

"He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected," former President Bill Clinton said of Sen. Robert Byrd. More here:

Yes, if by "fleeting association" you mean "full blown member with officer duties" then yes, he had a fleeting association.

Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1942 when he was 24. His local chapter unanimously elected him the top officer of its unit..

According to Byrd, a Klan official told him, "You have a talent for leadership, Bob ... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation." Byrd later recalled, "suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities! I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did."Byrd held the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops.

In 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo:[17]
“ I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side ... 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. ”

— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944,
From Wikipedia

Well, there's two things to learn and love about this whole thing.

1 - Democratics are never ... EVER, racists ... even if they are members of the KKK.

2 - Republicans are always racists no matter what.

Remember this little episode?:

Political controversy ensued following remarks Lott made on December 5, 2002 at the 100th birthday party of Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Thurmond ran for President of the United States in 1948 on the Dixiecrat (or States' Rights) ticket. Lott said: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either. More at Wikipedia:

Of course, Lott had to resign because he's not a Democratic ... he's a Republican and the media would have hounded him until he did so.  The reason it's perfectly ok to say what Clinton said is that he's a Democratic and, as such, cannot be a racist.  The media know this very well and won't say anything more about it.  'Nuff said - nudge nudge - wink wink.

Oh, let's not forget this little nugget by the "Democratic"  majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid. (Bold is mine)

A book about the 2008 Obama campaign, ‘Game Change’ written by Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin and New York magazine’s John Heilemann is creating a proverbial political storm in Washington, D.C. The book airs the dirty-laundry of many in Obama’s inner political circles during his campaign for the Presidency. Among the revelations in the book (and there are many) is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was anxious for Obama to run for president because he’s ‘light-skinned’ and ‘doesn’t have a Negro dialect unless he wants to’. From here

What?  This guy is a HUGE racist -- no, wait -- Ohhhhh, sorry -- he's a "Democratic" and, as such, is immune from being accused as a racist -- no matter WHAT he says.  The media will let him slide.

Anyway, I think we get the idea.  Only Republicans can be racists ... and let's face it, all of them are.