#3 House GOP leader . . . tarnished by past association with David Duke

Rep. Steve Scalise's (R-LA) recent appointment as the #3 person in the leadership of the Republican House Caucus has caused a lot of stir focused on his past connections with a white supremacist group more than a decade ago.   At first, Scalise explained that, as a rising local politician at the time, he was accepting any invitation to speak to a group, implying that he didn't really know much about the conference or the group sponsoring it.    He simply gave an address and left.

However, as reporters have probed into the details, it seems not quite so simple.  It turns out that the conference was hosted by the key Louisiana figure David Duke.   No one should have failed to recognize the positions of this former Ku Klux Klan leader and notorious white supremacist, who later ran for the U.S Senate and was almost elected governor of Louisiana in 1991 -- just 3 years before Scalise spoke at the conference.

Scalise's attempts to distance himself from any association with David Duke seem to have back-fired by keeping the subject in the news and dredging up more old news, including that he had once described himself to a reporter as "David Duke without the baggage."

That is definitely an appeal to those who approved of Duke's policies but objected to his notoriety and extremist past.  And that's not all.

Now David Duke has been on tv saying that he is considering running against Scalise because the congressman has betrayed his constituents.   "He got elected on false pretenses. . . .   He's not David Duke. . . .  He's insulting every one of the members who actually voted for him, because he's suggesting that they're racist because they supported my views."

Duke further called Scalise "a sellout" and called on him to step down.    So far, House Speaker John Boehner has supported Scalise, and at present he retains his #3 leadership post.

Yet another internal difficulty for the House Republicans,  They can't quite seem to get it all together to be something other than the "NO" opposition party.

Ralph