Is it just me or is the clarification more confusing than the original?

Haley Barbour has gotten himself into some hot water the last few days.  According to the linked-to AP article, Barbour originally said, “You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders. In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town.” 

Even though it appears that statement was entirely true, when challenged Barbour tried to explain,””When asked why my hometown in Mississippi did not suffer the same racial violence when I was a young man that accompanied other towns’ integration efforts, I accurately said the community leadership wouldn’t tolerate it and helped prevent violence there. My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the `Citizens Council,’ is totally indefensible, as is segregation.”

So, the city leaders did the right thing but their “vehicle” was totally indefensible because it was called a Citizens Council and that’s a bad choice of names?  What, exactly, is he accusing his town leadership of?  I know I’m a little slow sometimes, but that reads like political double-talk to me.  Anyone else have a better understanding of what Barbour is saying?

Oh, and this ran on the Comcast.net web site with a subheading “GOP favorite for 2012?”  What, if any, effect will this have on Barbour’s chances, and what are his chances anyway?  And what do you make of the subheading?  Is it a MSM effort to link perceived racist comments with the whole Republican party or merely an acknowledgement that the story is important because of of Barbour’s place in the party?  Okay, that last may be a bit paranoid, but still . . .