Some conservatives have contended that Byrd's 1991 opposition to President [[George H. W. Bush]]'s nomination of [[Clarence Thomas]] to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace [[Thurgood Marshall]] — making Byrd the only Senator to have opposed the nomination of both of the only two black Supreme Court justices — and Byrd's 2004 opposition to some of [[George W. Bush]]'s judicial and cabinet nominees who are black, notably [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|Federal Judge]] [[Janice Rogers Brown]] and [[Secretary of State]] [[Condoleezza Rice]], was motivated by [[racism]]. [[Niger Innis]], a conservative Republican consultant and spokesperson for the [[Congress of Racial Equality]] (CORE), a conservative civil rights group, claimed that Byrd's hold on Rice's nomination was "racist" and said that Byrd has "black colleagues in the House and the Senate who apologize for him." [http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/1/20/215404.shtml]Byrd, however, made it clear at the time that he opposed Rice's nomination because of her role in the [[War in Iraq]] which he vehemently opposed. Byrd has not opposed other people of color that Bush has nominated in the past, voting for Secretary of Education [[Rod Paige]] and Secretary of State [[Colin Powell]]. The [[NAACP]], the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, awarded Byrd a 100% rating in its Congressional score card, based on what they consider his pro-civil rights votes. [http://www.naacp.org/inc/docs/washington/108/108th_congress_report_card.pdf]
On [[March 4]], [[2001]], an interview with ''[[FOX News]] Sunday'' host [[Tony Snow]] was aired. In the interview Byrd was asked about [[race relations]]: "They are much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime," Byrd said. "I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us ... I just think we talk so much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to [[heaven]] if you hate anybody.' We practice that. There are white [[nigger]]s. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/03/04/byrd.slur/]
