COLUMBIA--Sen. Strom Thurmond may be retired in Edgefield, but it's not keeping him out of the news.

STAFF Photos on the back of the Legislative Manual.

This week, the man who holds the record as the nation's longest-serving senator cropped up twice in controversies, first when a Democratic presidential candidate made comments about Thurmond that some considered disparaging, and then again on Thursday when a state senator questioned the wisdom of running old photos of Thurmond on the back of the state's 2003 Legislative Manual.

The problem, Sen. Robert Ford said, wasn't the portrait of an older Thurmond on the front cover. It's that the photos of the former segregationist as a young man send the wrong message.

"I don't want you guys to take this the wrong way," Ford said, rising to speak in the Senate and holding a copy of the newly printed manual. "I love the new Strom. For the last 20 years, I have had no problem with Strom Thurmond.

"But this is the old Strom Thurmond. This is just like honoring (Georgia segregationist governor) Lester Maddox before he changed. You know what happened back then."

Ford touched off a discussion in the Senate that continued past adjournment, illustrating the complexity of a political figure who grew to national prominence as a staunch segregationist but spent the last decades of his long career trying to mend his relationship with black South Carolinians.

Ford's comments about Thurmond's photographs also came on the same day he endorsed North Carolina Sen. John Edwards for president.

Just a day earlier, it was Edwards who angered South Carolina Republicans for his comments about Thurmond. In a campaign letter, Edwards asserted he's a different kind of Southerner, as opposed to Trent Lott, the former Senate majority leader who lost his job after praising the 100-year-old Thurmond as a one-time presidential candidate.

"I am certain you were just as angry as I was when Senator Lott implied the country would be better off if Strom Thurmond's racist presidential race had prevailed," Edwards wrote. "It is no wonder that the rest of America has such a stereotypical view of Southerners. You and I must show America that the Old South of Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond is in the past, and the New South can produce true leaders who can unite and not divide."

Some Democrats opposed the tone, and Republicans called it an "insult," saying it represented an attack on a "beloved" former senator. Edwards stood by it.

Both Democratic and Republican legislators saw the covers of their new legislative manuals through different eyes, too.

The front of the 2003 manual features a painted portrait of Thurmond by Greenville artist Michael Del Priore. The back cover displays five photos, none of them political images: Thurmond is shown as a young boy, a Clemson cadet and twice as a soldier in uniform.

The Legislative Manual is a perquisite of office for lawmakers; senators get 100 copies each, and House members get 50. The books, which provide reference information on the General Assembly and state government, typically are given as gifts to supporters, friends and schoolchildren. But Ford and another black senator said the Jim Crow-era photos of Thurmond would be offensive to some of their constituents.

Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Columbia, said that when he saw the manuals Thursday morning, he told his staff to put them back in the box. He just couldn't see sending them out. "This is not a direct insult (to Sen. Thurmond). I don't believe that's what we're saying. Some of us are sensitive to offending others."

But Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, said the manual was simply honoring a great South Carolinian. He pointed out that none of the images on the back cover were from Thurmond's political career.

"I'm tired of people making Strom Thurmond the whipping boy for our state," Courson said.

The two people responsible for picking the covers, House Clerk Sandra McKinney and House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, said they deliberately tried to pick images that would not be offensive, avoiding photos of Thurmond during his Dixiecrat period and emphasizing his time as a soldier. Both said they stood by the decision.

"He was the man of the century in South Carolina," said McKinney. "I just felt we'd be remiss if we didn't honor his legacy. I didn't mean to hurt anybody's feelings."

This isn't the first time a Legislative Manual cover has caused a stir. In 1999, black lawmakers protested when the manual featured photos of the House and Senate chambers. The editors said they were just showing off the newly renovated interior of the Statehouse. Black lawmakers were upset because the chambers in those days featured Confederate battle flags.

After adjournment Thursday, members of the Senate stood around in the chambers gently arguing their points to one another. Some Republican senators asked the Democrats not to be overly sensitive, while Democrats asked Republicans to be a little more sensitive.

Ford said later that he was merely making a point about the need to be aware of the message that the General Assembly sends to the people.

"I didn't mean to make them mad," Ford said.

Schuyler Kropf contributed to this report.