for saying that Senator Byrd--a former KKK member who voted against the Civil Rights Act and has in recent memory used the "N" word both on the Senate floor and during a television interview--would have been a great Senator at any time in history, including during the Civil War. In an attempt to make this look different than the Senator Lott’s statement lauding Strom Thurmond, AP offers the following tripe:

During the December 2002 party, Lott specifically endorsed Thurmond’s candidacy for president in 1948 on a segregationist platform, saying that "we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years" if the country had voted for Thurmond.

Dodd offered only general praise of Byrd and did not specifically mention any of Byrd’s votes, views or acts.

Nonsense. Let me repeat what happened: he said that a former Klansman and segregationist who still uses the "N" word would have made a good Senator during a war that was principally about slavery and the meaning of Natural Rights. This is at least as explicit as Lott’s statement, in which Lott likewise did not mention "votes, views, or acts." Lott could not get a pass with an apology but was forced to step down from leadership. Such a fate will inevitably not befall Dodd, but for those who are interested, here is a list of the committee leadership positions that Dodd touts on his web site:

Senator Dodd is currently a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and is the senior Democrat on its Children and Families Subcommittee. He also is the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics. He serves on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and is the senior Democrat on its Securities and Investment Subcommittee. He also is the senior Democrat on the Rules and Administration Committee.