RUSH: Bill Clinton was at the funeral of Robert Byrd today and said that Robert Byrd joined the Klan to get elected, and that kind of made it okay for a while.
CLINTON: There are a lot of people who wrote these eulogies for Senator Byrd in the newspapers, and I read a bunch of them, and they mentioned that he once had a fleeting association with the Klu (sic) Klux Klan and what does that mean. I’ll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and the hollows of West Virginia. He was trying to get elected, and maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up — and that’s what a good person does.
AUDIENCE: (applauding)
CLINTON: There are no perfect people! There are certainly no perfect politicians.
RUSH: Clinton makes it sound like this is a good old boy from the hollows and the hills in West Virginia. (doing impression) ‘I tell you, a lot of people who wrote these eulogies for Senator Byrd, newspapers. I’ve read a bunch of them — and by the way I said, ‘Klu’ Klux Klan. It’s Ku Klux Klan, I misspoke. Limbaugh can correct me on that. But he was a country boy from the hills and the hollows of West Virginia trying to get elected like all of us were, and he did something he shouldn’ta done.’ He didn’t just go to a couple of meetings, Slick Willie! he was a Grand Cyclops! He got pretty close to the Grand Kleagle. He was an Exalted Cyclops! This was not just a casual association that Senator Byrd had.
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RUSH: Well, this ought to be good but we’re not going to JIP it. Our microphones are there but we’re not going to JIP it. Obama is now speaking at the Robert Byrd memorial. Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a comfortable thing for me to do. The man has passed away, and all that. Yesterday Barack Obama fed the lie that is the Statue of Liberty. In his speech on immigration yesterday, he totally miscast the Statue of Liberty and the Emma Lazarus poem, The New Colossus — and he furthered the misconception that everybody has been taught and raised with in country. It’s as distorted as the real story of Thanksgiving, Statue of Liberty. They make it sound like the Statue of Liberty is the Statue of Immigration, and it’s not. It was never intended to have anything to do with immigration.
Immigrant advocates have appropriated the statue for that purpose. As we said yesterday — and I’m not going to repeat the whole thing, but you ought go to RushLimbaugh.com if you want to find out the real history and truth of the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Statue of Liberty! Liberty means what it means. It’s not the Statue of Immigration. Lady Liberty is stepping forward. The torch of Lady Liberty is guiding the rest of the world to liberty, not providing a beacon to the world’s downtrodden to come to the United States. That lore began as immigrants flooded Ellis Island, and of course you couldn’t get to Ellis Island without passing by the Statue of Liberty. And the lore began, ‘Oh, the Statue of Liberty, that beacon, hope, ‘bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.”
That’s not what it was for. It’s another one of these great institutions and traditions been bastardized to fit into a modern political template created by the American left. So have to do this again today. Bill Clinton. Mike, play this sound bite again that we just played of Bill Clinton at Robert Byrd’s memorial funeral in West Virginia. This is a portion of Clinton’s eulogy.
CLINTON: There are a lot of people who wrote these eulogies for Senator Byrd in the newspapers, and I read a bunch of them, and they mentioned that he once had a fleeting association with the Klu (sic) Klux Klan and what does that mean. I’ll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and the hollows of West Virginia. He was trying to get elected, and maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up — and that’s what a good person does.
AUDIENCE: (applauding)
CLINTON: There are no perfect people! There are certainly no perfect politicians.
RUSH: All right, now the whole purpose here is to try to scrub the truth — and, again, the man has passed away, but if the Democrats are going to continue to do this, I am going to hold them to the facts. Why even bring this up? They coulda gotten away without even mentioning this. I mean, it’s a long ago thing, why even bring it up? They bring it up because they want to continue to distort it, and you’ll find out why when I tell you. He’s described as having a ‘fleeting association’ with the Klan. An Exalted Cyclops means he was a recruiter. Robert Byrd formed a KKK chapter. He didn’t just go to a couple of meetings. A Kleagle was a recruiter, and he was a recruiter for the KKK for years. He formed his chapter in 1943. He was still writing about the ‘vital need’ for the Klan in 1946. Oh, yeah. Fleeting association. Repentant. Making up for it.
Senator Byrd was so ‘repentant’ he opposed every civil rights movement. Senator Byrd filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1965. He voted against both Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. It wasn’t until the death of his son in a car accident in the early 1980s that Robert Byrd said he had to rethink his feelings about black people. He said — in the 1980s — that it ‘finally occurred to [him] that they might love their children, too.’ That’s Robert Byrd that Clinton said had a ‘fleeting association’ with the KKK. Somebody ought to tell Nancy Pelosi that perhaps the greatest American poet of the last century, Wallace Stevens, had a job. He was an insurance executive. He was a Republican. You know, all these people worried about artists not having health care and so forth?
Anyway, Robert Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo, 1944, ‘I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side. Rather, I should die a thousand times, 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 Byrd, 1944. He was a recruiter in the Klan. He did not have a ‘fleeting association.’ What I just read to you is Robert Byrd in a letter to Senator Theodore Bilbo (Democrat-Mississippi) 1944. Now, what does any of that have to do with getting elected, as Bill Clinton said? What does that have to do with getting elected? In 1946 or 1947 Robert Byrd wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan stating, quote: ‘The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation.’
Robert Byrd in 1947. He voted against Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Thomas. He filibustered the Civil Rights Act 1965, and he was a Democrat the whole time. That’s absolutely correct, he was a Democrat the whole time — and he was very close friends with a fellow segregationist, J. William Fulbright, Arkansas senator, a person Bill Clinton has said is his mentor. There is footage of Robert Byrd tearing down Martin Luther King, Jr., on the Senate floor. It’s been totally — What? — scrubbed, expunged, done away with. Nevertheless here is Barack Obama, who while he wasn’t there, his heart was in Selma. He went down there and he said so. He’s giving a eulogy for Robert Byrd who filibustered the ’65 Civil Rights Act, voted against Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. It wasn’t ’til the death of his son in a car crash in the early eighties Byrd said he had to rethink his feelings about black people.
He said it finally occurred to him that they ‘might love their children, too.’ Might. Not sure about it, but they might. Had to rethink it. Well, folks, look. I know the man passed away, and I know that… (sigh) But if these people are gonna lie about the Statue of Liberty, if they’re going to lie about the traditions and institutions that have made this country great, if they’re going to lie about each other — while at the same time accusing all of us of behavior we have never engaged in, of having thoughts we have never had, while covering up some of the most vile acts and thoughts of members of their own party — I’m sorry, I just can’t sit here and let it pass by. The First Lady is not attending. I don’t know why Michelle (My Belle) is not there. But, as has been said by several black civil rights leaders, Obama does not have authentic ‘slave blood.’ But Michelle does. Maybe that’s why. We can only speculate. Maybe she’s at a skybox at a baseball or football game. Who knows?
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RUSH: I have a little sound bite here from the president, Barack Obama, at the Robert Byrd memorial, the funeral. Here’s our president. I want you to hear this. It’s our president defining the quintessential American quality.
OBAMA: As I reflect on the full sweep of his 92 years, it seems to me that his life bent towards justice. Like the Constitution he tucked in his pocket, like our nation itself, Robert Byrd possessed that quintessential American quality, and that is a capacity to change.
RUSH: Did you know that? The quintessential American quality is the capacity to change — and, of course, have health care.
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RUSH: Let’s go back to President Obama at the funeral for Robert Byrd at the state capital in West Virginia today. We played the sound bite with Obama saying that the quintessential American quality is the capacity to change. Let me ask you a quick question: Has Obama changed his views on a single issue since he’s been in the national spotlight? No. I mean not even since he wrote his second autobiography (or somebody wrote it) Audacity to Hope. He’s not changed a single view. ‘The quintessential American quality is the capacity to change.’ That’s like saying that the great thing about Emma Lazarus was that she was an advocate for health care for everybody. The capacity to change? The only thing Obama’s changing is America, and not for the better. Here is The Messiah absolving Robert Byrd for things he said that he regrets.
OBAMA: Our lives are marked by sins as well as virtues.
RUSH: Oh, yes.
OBAMA: Failures as well as successes.
RUSH: Oh, yes!
OBAMA: Weakness as well as strength.
RUSH: Except for you.
OBAMA: We know there are things he said and things he did —
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: — that he came to regret.
RUSH: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
OBAMA: I remember talking about that the first time I visited him.
RUSH: Yeah, I bet he hated that.
OBAMA: He said, ‘There are things I regretted in my youth. You may know that.’ I said, ‘None of us are absent some regrets, Senator. That’s why we enjoy and seek the grace of God.’
RUSH: I’ll bet Obama is absent regrets. I don’t think he regrets anything. So, anyway, he’s absolving Senator Byrd. What was he absolving him of? The fact that he was a Kleagle, a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan. Trent Lott said something relevantly innocent compared to what Byrd had done in his life, and of course Obama demanded Trent Lott resign as a Republican leader in the Senate. Remember, now, 1944 Robert Byrd wrote that segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo: ‘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 see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.’ That’s 1944, Robert Byrd. He was absolved today by Barack Obama.
In 1946 or ’47 Byrd wrote a letter to the Grand Wizard of the Klan saying, ‘The Klan is needed today as never before. I’m anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state of the nation.’ Byrd was the only Senator to have voted against Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, the only two African-Americans to have been nominated to the Supreme Court, and Byrd opposed Thomas… You’ve forgotten this, I’m sure, people, but Senator Byrd opposed Clarence Thomas because Byrd stated he was offended by Thomas’ use of the phrase ‘high-tech lynching’ of uppity blacks in his defense. Byrd said that. Byrd stated that he was offended by the injection of racism into the hearing by Clarence Thomas. Robert Byrd also opposed some of George W. Bush’s judicial and cabinet nominees who were black, notably, Janice Rogers Brown for judge of the US Court of Appeals DC district.
He opposed Condoleezza Rice for secretary of state. Let’s now go to the audio sound bites of Bill Clinton, who also basically said today that Senator Byrd had a youthful indiscretion, a ‘fleeting,’ casual flirtation with the Klan. It could have been worse. It could have been worse! Robert Byrd coulda someday used the word ‘Macaca’ but never did. It could have been worse. (interruption) He never…? Well, he used that term. I’m not going to repeat it. He used that term on Fox, but it could have been worse. He coulda used the term Macaca. That would have really sent people over the edge. But being a Kleagle, and a recruiter? Why, he can be absolved for that. Here’s Clinton. Remember, now Clinton said (doing impression), ‘Hey, we all have things to regret in the past and he went out there and did some things. He joined the Ku Klux Klan, but he spent the rest of his life making up for it and that’s what we all do here.’ I actually think Clinton was not even talking about Byrd. I think Clinton was talking about himself. I think Clinton was trying to excuse himself. But let’s not forget. We are forgiving today, which is fine. The Democrat Party wants to forgive Byrd, fine and dandy. Bill Clinton, April 24th, 1995, Minneapolis.
CLINTON APRIL 24, 1995: We hear so many loud and angry voices in America today whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other. They spread hate. They leave the impression that — by their very words, that — violence is a acceptable. You ought to see — I’m sure you are now seeing the reports of some things that are regularly said over the airwaves in America today. It is time we all stood up and spoke against that kind of (pounding podium) reckless speech and behavior.
FOLLOWERS: (applause)
RUSH: That was Clinton, who made a career linking talk radio to domestic terrorism. He was talking about McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing there, and of course things ‘regularly said over the airwaves in America,’ why, that was directed at me. Talk radio. So he’s forgiving Robert Byrd, a recruiter for the Klan. They were all glancing over the depth of the association Robert Byrd had with the organization. May 1993 White House Correspondents Dinner, here’s Bill Clinton calling me a racist.
CLINTON 1993: Did you like the way Rush took up for Janet Reno the other night on his program? (snickers) He only did it ’cause she was attacked by a black guy.
FOLLOWERS: (applause)
RUSH: White House Correspondents Dinner. Do you think I will be forgiven for things I never even did? I fully doubt it.