When Senator Strom Thurmond turned 100, Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican, complimented him as part of a birthday party toast. Thurmond was a former Dixiecrat and segregationist, and the ensuing media furor resulted in Lott losing his Senate leadership position.

We'll wait and see if a similar furor erupts over Senator Hillary Clinton's fawning of Robert Byrd, an ex Klansman, at the historic home of a civil rights pioneer.

"It's outrageous and shocking that Senator Clinton and her Democrat colleagues would choose Frederick Douglass' house to honor Senator Robert Byrd, who has a history of involvement with hate groups and has used racial slurs publicly," [New York Senate candidate Jeanine] Pirro spokeswoman Andrea Tantaros told the Associated Press...

Byrd joined the Klan in 1943 and rose the level of Kleagle before being unanimously elected to the office of Grand Cyclops. He claims to have resigned a few months later. But in 1946 Byrd wrote the Klan's Grand Imperial Wizard to express his support.

"Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth," the top Democrat urged.

Byrd led the filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and called notorious white supremacist Sen. Richard B. Russell, who was chiefly remembered for blocking anti-lynching legislation, "my mentor." In 1972 Byrd sponsored legislation to name the Senate's main office building after Russell.

As recently as 2001, the West Virginia Democrat was still using the N-word in television interviews.