More Republican hypocrisy....

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The 78-year-old daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond and a black maid said Wednesday that now that she has come forward to disclose her heritage, she is finally at peace.

At a news conference in her native South Carolina, Essie Mae Washington-Williams said she did not come forward earlier because she didn't want to jeopardize Thurmond's political career and family. ``Throughout his life and mine we respected each other. ... I was sensitive about his well-being and his career.''

``I am not bitter. I am not angry. In fact, there is a great sense of peace that has come over me in the past year,'' she said. ``I feel as though a great weight has been lifted. I am Essie Mae Washington-Williams, and at last I feel completely free.''

I can understand Williams' desire to be free of bitterness and anger. After all, those emotions eat away at a person's integrity and happiness.

What I don't understand is why she and her family concealed the late senator's incredible hypocrisy out of sensitivity for "his well-being and his career." Thurmond's actions in the Senate advanced one of the most racist, homophobic and misogynist agendas in modern times. If ever a man deserved to be exposed for the sort of slimy hypocrite who believed it was ok to take sexual advantage of a 16-year-old family servant, but not eat with, attend school with, sit side-by-side on a city bus with or marry, it was Strom Thurmond.

Complete story here.