I couldn't help noticing one of the two dissenting votes over the latest bipartisan bill to clarify the limits on law-enforcement and intelligence-gathering agencies.

It was cast by Sen. Robert Byrd. Shame on the residents of West Virginia. You have repeatedly re-elected a former domestic terrorist who, even now, defends the "rights" of terrorists to communicate with whomever they desire without the threat of U.S. government monitoring.

Sen. Byrd, "the dean of the Senate," is a self-confirmed former member of the Ku Klux Klan, and now he has opposed the President of the United States, and all but one of his peers, as they collectively seek to protect our nation from savage attacks by terrorists.

Sen. Byrd's own party champions him as a stalwart of their platforms, yet they conveniently forget his personal campaign of terrorism against African Americans.

Could someone from West Virginia please explain the rationale of continually sending this former cross burner to the U.S. Senate and allowing real terrorists to laugh at our own hypocrisy?

Tom Earnhardt

Vass