Dont know if this will be a one-day embarrassment or will morph into something more. House Majority Whip is an important position and Washington Republicans will not want this to story to drag out too long. Here is the crux of the situation.: Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the newly elected 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. ... That organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Although SPLC also called it a paper tiger whose main job was raking in money for Duke.) ... Scalise’s defense — that he was not fully cognizant of the group’s leanings and the nature of the meeting — contrasts with the local press coverage generated by the Duke-coordinated conclave that spring. The Gambit Weekly, an alternative publication in New Orleans, wrote days before the conference that the hotel distanced itself from Duke’s group and expressed its discomfort. Rest of story below.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 23:25:33 +0000