Republican “minority outreach” marches on towards a new era of post-racial America…
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white nationalist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers.
The 48-year-old Scalise, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post earlier this year, confirmed that he was a speaker at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization.
That organization, founded by famed white supremacist David Duke, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
But in a statement, Scalise’s spokesperson emphasized that the then-state lawmaker was unaware at the time of the group’s ideology and its association with racists and neo-Nazi activists.
“Throughout his career in public service, Mr. Scalise has spoken to hundreds of different groups with a broad range of viewpoints,” said Moira Bagley, Scalise’s spokesperson. “In every case, he was building support for his policies, not the other way around. In 2002, he made himself available to anyone who wanted to hear his proposal to eliminate slush funds that wasted millions of taxpayer dollars as well as his opposition to a proposed tax increase on middle-class families.”
She added, “He has never been affiliated with the abhorrent group in question. The hate-fueled ignorance and intolerance that group projects is in stark contradiction to what Mr. Scalise believes and practices as a father, a husband, and a devoted Catholic.”
Bonus points for being the one Republican politician in Louisiana who was “unaware” in 2002 of who David Duke was. Rand Paul should really pick this guy to be his veep, they’d make a great team. You know, like nitro and glycerin.
Super bonus points for Steve Scalise having 12 years of a political career going from speaker at a David Duke convention to the number 3 guy in the House of Representatives without anyone in the Village noticing. The whole “Republican Party as the Last Bastion Of Pure Whiteness(tm) thing” is a feature, not a bug, America.
Now would be a good time to blame the problems in America with race on Obama, I guess.