Professor Bainbridge notes a Weekly Standard piece by Hugh Hewitt which contains the following gem“

Here is Byrd, from the Congressional Record, January 15, 1979 (courtesy of the blog Beltway):

“This Congress is not obliged to be bound by the dead hand of the past. . . The first Senate, which met in 1789, approved 19 rules by a majority vote. Those rules have been changed from time to time . . . So the Members of the Senate who met in 1789 and approved that first body of rules did not for one moment think, or believe, or pretend, that all succeeding Senates would be bound by that Senate . . . It would be just as reasonable to say that one Congress can pass a law providing that all future laws have to be passed by two-thirds vote. Any Member of this body knows that the next Congress would not heed that law and would proceed to change it and would vote repeal of it by majority vote.”

Indeed.

Bainbridge also notes notes that Howard Kurtz noticed, in his Friday column, that Byrd’s rant from Monday hasn’t gotten much attention:

By the way, I’ve seen nothing in the major papers, and only a few mentions on cable, of Robert Byrd appearing to liken GOP tactics to Hitler, which he now denies, even though Jewish groups have demanded an apology (”Hideous” and “outrageous,” says the ADL.) Why is the press giving Byrd a pass?

The even better question is: why does Byrd always get a pass? His KKK past is never mentioned, and any other politician (especially a Southern GOPer) would have been skewered for his “white n****r” comment six years ago.

So, why does he get off so easily? It really is remarkable.