House Majority Whip Spoke at White Supremacists Conference

[RogueBeaver]

Duke threatens to reveal all the pols in both parties who've associated with him if Scalise isn't treated fairly.

The Duke aide who Scalise knew, Kenny Knight, donated to Scalise's '08 campaign/

[user12345]

Duke threatens to reveal all the pols in both parties who've associated with him if Scalise isn't treated fairly.

I hope he does release the list, nobody on it should be in public office.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

Agreed, I also hope he does release the list.

[Miles]

^ There's a rumor that Duke helped Vitter, behind the scenes, in the 1999 special election in LA-01. Something more about that would be juicy, especially going into next year's election.

[DrScholl]

Duke making threats over Scalise hardly helps Scalise any. And I doubt any Democrat that associated with him would worry much about the reveal, as Louisiana Democrats have zero to lose at this point.

[Mr. Illini]

Is the Majority Whip actually delusional enough to not be aware of what the convention he is speaking at pertains to while he is speaking at it?

If so, he should resign. If not, he should resign.

[© tweed]

to be fair it's not always easy to tell which are the openly "white nationalist" groups and which are just promotion ol' traditional Southern family values

[The Mikado]

Duke making threats over Scalise hardly helps Scalise any. And I doubt any Democrat that associated with him would worry much about the reveal, as Louisiana Democrats have zero to lose at this point.

If there are any Democrats on the "pals around with David Duke" list, they don't deserve to be in office anyway and I'd be as much in favor of them resigning as I am Scalise.

Unless you're an undercover journalist, there is no excuse to visit a white supremacist rally. None. Especially in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Two. 2002 is not "it was a different time, things were different," it was the year Trent Lott was thrown out of the Senate for saying that America would have been a better place if Strom Thurmond had become president.

Steve Scalise should resign, though he probably won't resign. The Roll Call interview in which he claimed that voting for him would be getting the policies of David Duke in a more electable passage is damning as hell. If David Duke wants to Elia Kazan it up and reveal every politician he has consorted with, I'm all on board for this witch hunt.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Duke threatens to reveal all the pols in both parties who've associated with him if Scalise isn't treated fairly.

I hope he does release the list, nobody on it should be in public office.

[Maxwell]

He should at least give up his Minority Whip position.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Duke says he doesn't know whether Scalise knew what the conference was about. But even if you didn't know, how else could the name "European-American Unity and Rights Organization" be interpreted other than as a white supremacist group?

It's quite easy to interpret that name as a benign organization promoting greater transatlantic cooperation and international human rights.  (not that I'm not skeptical that he could have been at the conference and not known what they were about.)

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

He should at least give up his Minority Whip position.

Majority Whip.

But yes, he should resign from leadership. Whether he deserves to be in congress should be between him and his constituents. If LA-01 wants a racist representing them, I honestly don't really care as I'm not willing to live anywhere in that state in the first place (politics and weather there are just terrible).

[Miles]

It's quite easy to interpret that name as a benign organization promoting greater transatlantic cooperation and international human rights.  (not that I'm not skeptical that he could have been at the conference and not known what they were about.)

Here's what the EURO website looked like the week Scalise spoke.

[retromike22]

How come this is all being revealed now? I'm surprised it didn't happen in 2008, when he was first elected.

[pbrower2a]

How come this is all being revealed now? I'm surprised it didn't happen in 2008, when he was first elected.

1. Someone has it in for Representative Scalise.

2. It may be old stuff -- but so is Bill Cosby's sexual conduct (should such be shown true), which is even older.

3. There is no valid cause for anyone with political aspirations (unless having been at the time an undercover journalist) to have involvement with so overt a fascist (KKK or neo-Nazi, let alone both in the same person) as David Duke.

4. It shows how committed the GOP leadership is to getting the racist vote -- and how incompetent it is in vetting prospects for committee chairs and Officers of the House.

5. It shows the contempt that GOP has for people who do not vote Republican.

[Miles]

^ A state blogger reportedly found records of the meeting on Stromfront.

It must really suck for Roskam right now; he'd almost surely be Whip now if his people found this during the Whip race.

[Joe Republic]

So the House GOP loses a violent felon and with any luck a gross racist all before the new Congress has even begun!  Not bad, even if both of them are certain to be replaced by other Republicans.

How come this is all being revealed now? I'm surprised it didn't happen in 2008, when he was first elected.

Nobody cares about this in LA-01; it's arguably rather helpful in fact.  But he is now in a position of national leadership.

[Miles]

3. There is no valid cause for anyone with political aspirations (unless having been at the time an undercover journalist) to have involvement with so overt a fascist (KKK or neo-Nazi, let alone both in the same person) as David Duke.

Keep in mind though that in the 1999 LA-01 election, even as his electoral career was on a downward trajectory, Duke was within about 2.5% of making the runoff. Any rising/ambitious Republican in Jefferson Parish would have at least  taken notice of Duke's following in the district.

[Brittain33]

Duke says he doesn't know whether Scalise knew what the conference was about. But even if you didn't know, how else could the name "European-American Unity and Rights Organization" be interpreted other than as a white supremacist group?

It's quite easy to interpret that name as a benign organization promoting greater transatlantic cooperation and international human rights.  (not that I'm not skeptical that he could have been at the conference and not known what they were about.)

Not to mention he wasn't just at the conference, he spoke at it.

[IceSpear]

Guilt by association sucks. It's also very selective.  Knowing the spineless nature of Republicans,Scalise will get the Lott treatment.

Meanwhile, Democrats will schedule speeches at La Raza, kiss Sharpton's ring, and elect Presidents who attended Jeremiah Wright's church -- without media attention.

I know you're a parody troll, but it's hilarious that some Republicans actually think La Raza is a Hispanic supremacist group and Al Sharpton is a black supremacist. Also, I assume you didn't pay attention to politics in 2008, since the media was obsessed with Jeremiah Wright.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Junk Congressman!

[Simfan34]

Duke threatens to reveal all the pols in both parties who've associated with him if Scalise isn't treated fairly.

I hope he does release the list, nobody on it should be in public office.

I hope he does, and the people are all prosecuted for sedition!

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Guilt by association sucks. It's also very selective.  Knowing the spineless nature of Republicans,Scalise will get the Lott treatment.

Meanwhile, Democrats will schedule speeches at La Raza, kiss Sharpton's ring, and elect Presidents who attended Jeremiah Wright's church -- without media attention.

I know you're a parody troll, but it's hilarious that some Republicans actually think La Raza is a Hispanic supremacist group and Al Sharpton is a black supremacist. Also, I assume you didn't pay attention to politics in 2008, since the media was obsessed with Jeremiah Wright.

Doesn't LaRaza want the Southwest to leave the union and form the Republic of Aztlan or something like that? I'm not defending CountryClassSF because he is a troll and the Wright/Sharpton comparisons are absurd, but LaRaza itself (not so much in it's present form) is a rather shady group with their fair share of historic controversial connections.

Duke says he doesn't know whether Scalise knew what the conference was about. But even if you didn't know, how else could the name "European-American Unity and Rights Organization" be interpreted other than as a white supremacist group?

It's quite easy to interpret that name as a benign organization promoting greater transatlantic cooperation and international human rights.  (not that I'm not skeptical that he could have been at the conference and not known what they were about.)

Not to mention he wasn't just at the conference, he spoke at it.

A quick check of their website (which Miles was kind enough to dig up) shows a ton of anti-semitic conspiracy theories as well. That should have gave it away immediately.

[King]

Doesn't LaRaza want the Southwest to leave the union and form the Republic of Aztlan or something like that?

That's a conservative talk radio conspiracy theory. Much of poor minority advocacy group = NAZIS is conservative talk radio conspiracy theory.

"My enemies must be just as racist as me" is a common line of thinking among racists.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Doesn't LaRaza want the Southwest to leave the union and form the Republic of Aztlan or something like that?

That's a conservative talk radio conspiracy theory. Much of poor minority advocacy group = NAZIS is conservative talk radio conspiracy theory.

"My enemies must be just as racist as me" is a common line of thinking among racists.

I remember in my own d-bag days here that I tried to make an effort post linking LaRaza to groups like The Brown Berets. No real connections existed besides a few individuals with membership in both.

Scalise should resign. And so should Raul Grijalva, who was a member of an active group seeking secession back in the day. I'm not defending Scalise, but let’s not pretend this is a Republican only problem as some on this forum are declaring.