[Pastor Ezekiel]

THIS kind of thing is going to be coming fast and furious over the next few weeks. With the GOP (God's Own Party) taking power in both houses of Congress (thank you Jesus!), look for the ultra-liberals to get their panties in a wad over our godly leadership. And don't the liberals just love to hate on White people!

GOP leader Steve Scalise addressed supremacist conference

Majority Whip Steve Scalise says he abhors hate groups, but acknowledged on Monday that he may have spoken at a white supremacist conference led by the notorious former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in 2002.

“I didn’t know who all of these groups were and I detest any kind of hate group,” Scalise, the third highest-ranking Republican leader in the House, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “For anyone to suggest that I was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous.”

The interview came hours after Scalise’s office acknowledged that a report claiming that the Louisiana congressman spoke at a gathering of the Duke-run European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) as a state legislator in 2002 could be accurate. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist organizations, has listed EURO as a “white nationalist” hate group.

According to NBC News, an aide to Scalise said it was “highly likely” the Congressman spoke before the group, but Scalise told the Times-Picayune he had no memory of the event in question. He blamed a combination overzealous campaigning and an overworked staff for his alleged appearance.

“I don’t support any of the things I have read about this group, but I spoke to a lot of groups during that period. I went all throughout South Louisiana,” Scalise said. “I spoke to the League of Women Voters, a pretty liberal group … I still went and spoke to them. I spoke to any group that called, and there were a lot of groups calling.”

The statement from Scalise’s office was prompted by a report from blogger Lamar White Jr., who noted that posts on the white supremacist site Stormfront had praised Scalise for addressing EURO in person and being attentive to their concerns.

“Representative Scalise brought into sharp focus the dire circumstances pervasive in many important, under-funded needs of the community at the expense of graft within the Housing and Urban Development Fund, an apparent give-away to a selective group based on race,” one commenter with the username Alsace Hebert wrote on the site at the time.

In 2004, after Scalise announced a run for Congress, Hebert wrote on the site: “Those that attended the EURO conference in New Orleans will recall that Scalise was a speaker, offering his support for issues that are of concern to us. I suppose if Duke does not make the election for whatever reason, this gentleman would be a good alternative.”

Scalise’s office admitted earlier in a statement that the claims on Stormfront that he visited the EURO gathering could be accurate.

“Throughout his career in public service, Mr. Scalise has spoken to hundreds of different groups with a broad range of viewpoints,” Scalise’s spokeswoman Moira Bagley Smith said in an statement on Monday. “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. 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.”

Duke was hardly an obscure figure in Louisiana politics at the time: He gained national attention as Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Klu Klax Klan and especially for his multiple runs for various political offices in the state, which included a successful election to the state House of Representatives in 1989, as well as a 1991 run for governor in which he forced a surprise runoff against Democrat Edwin Edwards.

“Everyone knew who he was,” Scalise told the Times Picayune. “I would not go to any group he was a part of.”

The 2002 EURO conference occurred the same year that Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott stepped down as Majority Leader after praising former Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 1948 run for president on a segregationist ticket, an incident that prompted greater scrutiny of Lott’s ties to white supremacist groups — including an appearance before the Council of Conservative Citizens, another SPLC-listed hate group. Lott apologized for his remarks about Thurmond, but left his position under pressure from Republican leaders who were afraid he would drag down the party’s image.

Scalise can expect a similar round of investigation. Online commenters Monday were quick to highlight his vote as a state legislator against making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a state holiday in 2004, one of only six “nays.” Sites like Little Green Footballs dug up a Roll Call article from 1999 in which Scalise discussed how he might compete with Duke in a special election for Congress by stressing electability:

Another potential candidate, state Rep. Steve Scalise ®, said he embraces many of the same “conservative” views as Duke, but is far more viable.

“The novelty of David Duke has worn off,” said Scalise. “The voters in this district are smart enough to realize that they need to get behind someone who not only believes in the issues they care about, but also can get elected. Duke has proven that he can’t get elected, and that’s the first and most important thing.”

A spokesman for Speaker John Boehner did not immediately respond to the Scalise news, but some Republican officials and right-leaning commentators offered up early reactions on Monday night.

“How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?” wrote Erick Erickson, co-founder of the influential conservative site Red State, in a blog post. “Trent Lott was driven from the field … for something less than this.”

Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa defended Scalise to the Washington Post’s Robert Costa, noting that ”Jesus dined with tax collectors and sinners.”

The Republican governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, also stood by Scalise in a statement.

“I know Congressman Scalise to be a good man who is fair-minded and kindhearted,” Jindal said. “I’m confident he absolutely rejects racism in all forms.”

Congressman Cedric Richmond, an African American Democrat, also publicly vouched for Scalise, telling the Times Picayune he doesn’t think the Congressman “has a racist bone in his body.”

More recently, Mississippi state officials and national GOP strategists attacked tea party candidate Chris McDaniel during his primary run against Republican Sen. Thad Cochran for allegedly agreeing to appear at an event that featured a segregationist vendor. McDaniel denied planning to participate in the event, but his staff confirmed to reporters that he previously addressed a neo-Confederate group.

Scalise was elected to the number-three position in the House GOP leadership earlier this year, after a reshuffling prompted by former Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s loss in a primary race to conservative challenger David Brat.

[Johny Joe Hold]

This wholesale character assignation has got to stop. The liberal who wrote that tried to imply there is something wrong with David Duke, a most patriotic American.

Then, it's other Godly Republicans he attacks.

Liberals need to learn they lost the most recent election. Positive change is coming. There is work to be done and bringing up where someone spoke a gazillion years ago is a waste of our precious time.

[Des]

Liberals hate everything good in the world. Patriotism, America, God, Smith & Wesson.

[Dr. Anthony J. Toole]

They're all as bad as eachother. I mean, if you looked into any congressman or woman's appearance list they will have all done a speech or two at a Nazi convention. What I can't stand is the liberal bias media only picking on R candidates for doing this.

[Johny Joe Hold]

Originally Posted by Dr. Anthony J. Toole

They're all as bad as eachother. I mean, if you looked into any congressman or woman's appearance list they will have all done a speech or two at a Nazi convention. What I can't stand is the liberal bias media only picking on R candidates for doing this.

Good point. Al Gore did something much worse, he gave a talk to a group of Buddhists. Buddhists are not even Americans so far as I know.

[Virginia Day Templeton]

Who cares? The SPLC probably considers the Salvation Army a hate group. They have zero credibility. I was at that conference and I don't recall any burning crosses or lynchings, just folks of European descent gathering peacefully to discuss common interests and celebrate their heritage. I know for a fact that the entire Democratic Party is an anti-white hate group, as is the National Association of Always Complaining Primates.

[Jim Farmer]

What's the problem with David Duke? A decent upstanding white man. He would look right at home in the pews at Landover Baptist Church. So, according to the Demoncrats, you're not allowed to be seen anywhere near a handsome white man? That's bizarre!