As a Virginian, I’m ashamed that a racist and bigot like Virgil Goode represents the Commonwealth in Congress. His recent tirade against Muslims, aimed at an American-born Muslim recently elected to Congress from Minnesota, is the kind of bigotry that harkens back to the days when racists in white sheets killed blacks for sport.

But I suppose we shouldn’t expect any more from a moron like Goode, who stood on the steps of the Franklin County Courthouse Thursday to say he will not stand down for his racist remarks.

Franklin County. A fitting locale. The home of one of the most active klaverns of the Ku Klux Klan, which holds a half-dozen rallies a year at Burnt Chimney near the birthplace of Booker T. Washington.

Goode is a national disgrace who brings dishonor on Congress and Virginia. He is relic of an old South that should have disappeared a long time ago.