# Another excellent demonstration from the party of tolerance and diversity?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-excellent-demonstration-from-the-party-of-tolerance-and-diversity/276228>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 23, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-excellent-demonstration-from-the-party-of-tolerance-and-diversity/276228 "2004-11-23T03:47:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-excellent-demonstration-from-the-party-of-tolerance-and-diversity/276228/101 "2004-11-24T20:17:32Z")

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> [@Bricker](#):
>
> Given that you took me to task for taking comments from the Board and ascribing them to the Democratic Party, I will say: (a) I acknowledge and appreciate your personal willingness to condemn Byrd for his contemporary remarks, but (b) I’m not really aware of prominent Democrats in the real world doing so. I’d appreciate the opportunity to be educated to the contrary, of course.

It’s awfully hard to find such statements nearly four years after Byrd spewed forth on that topic. It’s also awfully hard to find prominent Republicans who condemned his remarks. All my searching reveals is a lot of right-wing punditry complaining about double standards, which is somewhat ironic given that no prominent Republicans said anything about it until the Tren Lott debacle a year or two later.

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**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-excellent-demonstration-from-the-party-of-tolerance-and-diversity/276228/102 "2004-11-24T23:45:15Z")

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What bothers me is that I was unaware of Byrd’s 2001 racist comment until this thread. Was this covered much in the news?

I don’t care if he wasn’t the Senate Majority Leader. And whether or not Republicans condemned him is irrelevant. He _is_ a leader in the Senate.

I knew about his background in the Klan and that he had put that behind him. But his deliberate choice of the expression “white niggers” is contemptible and reflects something of his mindset that I thought was long gone.

Apologies are fine, but they are also politically expedient. Byrd has been a favorite of mine because of his opposition to the war, but he just went down a few notches in my esteem.

He has freedom of speech and so do I.

~Disgusted~

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