Senator Robert Byrd is still a bigot

Kennedy Memoir Explains Robert Byrd’s Opposition To Gays In The Military

Did you dress as Professor Dumbledore or a sneering Bank Goblin for yesterday’s midnight release party of the “new” Ted Kennedy memoir? What? You went as Gandalf? HE’S NOT EVEN *IN* THIS BOOK YOU IDIOT. But yes: Ted Kennedy’s new book is out today, and every journalist and blogger is reading it in bed, looking for the hottest blockquotes. The best excerpt we’ve seen thus far is one involving Sen. Robert Byrd, who was invited, along with Kennedy and other powerful humans, to the White House early on in Clinton’s presidency for their first meeting about gays in the military. Robert Byrd had concerns, but only because he thought they were discussing whether blacks should be allowed in the military. No no no, that wasn’t why. It had something to do with… rape, in Ancient Rome?

Enjoy:

But the meeting went on and on, for more than two hours – extraordinary by White House standards. Finally, my turn to speak came. I made a brief comment in support of allowing gays in the military, in which I mentioned that all the arguments against such a policy had already been made….Well, I was wrong about that. Almost all the arguments had been used before. The last senator to speak was Robert Byrd, and he came up with a new one on all of us…..He informed us, with many ornate flourishes, that there had been a terrible problem in ancient Rome with young military boys turned into sex slaves. I don’t remember the exact details, but I think the story involved Tiberius Julius Caesar being captured and abused and used as a sex slave. He escaped and then years later he sought vengeance and killed his captors. Anyway, it was something like that.

The room fell silent. The senator continued.

Then President Clinton stood up. His response was short and sweet. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘Moses went up to the mountain, and he came back with the tablets and there were ten commandments on those tablets. I’ve read those commandments. I know what they say, just like I know you do. And nowhere in those ten commandments will you find anything about homosexuality. Thank y’all for coming.’ He ended the meeting and walked out of the room.”

More:
http://wonkette.com/411076/kennedy-memoir-includes-hilarious-account-of-robert-byrds-opposition-to-gays-in-the-military

He's always been a bigot, against blacks, other minorities, women and gays, he's just learned to hide it a lot better.

If the case for gay rights in America is based on "God doesn't condemn them" then we're screwed, frankly - there *are* interpretations of Christianity (and Islam, Judaism etc) in which he doesn't, but you need to bend the interpretation of large chunks of scriptures well past breaking point to do so; moreover, large numbers of Americans are trying to bend them the other way (I've often seen "thou shalt not commit adultery" claimed to be a translation of a phrase that would actually forbid "sexual immorality", which the speaker always takes to include homosexuality, so even Clinton's "it's not in the 10 commandments" is debated).

The case for gay rights *has* to be "we should have gay rights even though they condemned in the Bible", not "the Bible does not condemn gay rights" - because it very clearly does.

But I'm glad someone's here to carry wonkette's water; she's so ginchy!

But if she's really fretful about the capability of a man nearly 92 for setting policy for the United States, I suppose there's worse things she could be doing. Maybe it'll keep her off the streets.

As I recall from all those years ago, it was full of tales of degeneracy in ancient Rome--grampy does get nostalgic--and dire historical ruminations on how acceptance of gays augurs the downfall of civilization. Given Byrd's bumpkin background, it doesn't surprise that he'd overcompensate by pouring on classical references at every turn.

... " routine, which the FRmorons quote to this day.

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The centurion came to him about his beloved slave boy who was sick. He told Jesus that Jesus didn't need to come to his house (which would have made him ritually unclean). The centurion was a man who could just say go here or go there, and his men would move. So all Jesus had to do was heal his sick slave boy from where he was, and the centurion knew that the demon would leave.

Jesus held him up as an example of faith and healed the slave boy.

The homosexual relationship isn't explicitly mentioned, but in the first and second centuries, it wouldn't have to have been. It went without saying.

http://www.wouldjesusdiscriminate.org/biblical_evidence/gay_couple.html

Jesus said some are born gay.

http://www.wouldjesusdiscriminate.org/biblical_evidence/born_gay.html

David loved Jonathan more than women

http://www.wouldjesusdiscriminate.org/biblical_evidence/david_jonathan.html