CHARLESTON, W.Va., June 19 (UPI) -- Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has said in a new book he regrets his involvement with the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s.
Byrd, 87, who organized a Klan chapter in West Virginia, has since renounced the group, but his past actions still return to haunt him, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
"It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career, and reputation," Byrd wrote in a his memoir, "Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields," scheduled to be published Monday by West Virginia University Press.
Byrd has become one of the most powerful and enduring figures in modern Senate history, having held the premier leadership post in the Senate twice, helping to ratify the Panama Canal treaty, opposing the Iraq war and allocating funds to help his home state.
