Yes I'm sure Byrd's flip wasn't politically expedient at all. Not like his career would have been over eventually if he didn't right?First of all, Robert Byrd was not Biden's best friend. I’ve explained this over and over. Yes during Jim Crow, Byrd was a stone cold racist. Byrd was a Dixiecrat that stayed in the Democratic Party. Later in life Byrd apologized for and denounced his participation in the KKK. After this, Byrd became a champion for civil rights, voting for several civil rights issues.. So much so that the NAACP gave him a grade A for civil rights and even mourned his death. Also, Hillary Clinton as well black congressman have taken pictures with Byrd and subsequently attended his funeral. The bottom line that Biden is not the only one that was close to Byrd. He along with the NAACP and black congressmen saw the transformation and eventually forgave the man. If Sen. Byrd remained a racist and segregationist, Biden and the others would have nothing to do with the man.
"As Robert Byrd passes, an era in race relations ends. Byrd started his political life as an Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan. In 1944, Byrd wrote the following in a letter to Senator Theodore Bilbo: "I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds." Byrd filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act for 14 hours.
Byrd changed his mind later in life. In some respects, that change seems to have been politically motivated; maybe it was only politics at first. In 1997, he had this advice for up-and-coming politicians: "Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don't get that albatross around your neck. Once you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena." That sounds like a coldly calculated assessment of political risk. Byrd made no secret of the decision he made to downplay his segregationist views in order to advance in Washington and move toward the mainstream.