In Steve Scalise's defense ...

[Scuba]

... it's hard to tell a KKK rally from a GOP rally.

[hobbit709]

1. They're not wearing their hoods at the GOP rally.

[A Simple Game]

4. And the use of the word "Thugs" instead of.... well you know. n/t

[Vinca]

2. A very valid point.

[Gothmog]

3. There a great degree of over lap

The GOP is the party of angry white people

[Half-Century Man]

27. The GOP and KKK both cultivate anger

They plant it, nurture it, guard it, apply shit stenched fertilizer, protect it from the light, harvest it when it is at it's ripest, and force feed it to everyone in sight.

Whether the gardener wears a suit or a robe matters less than the product.

[daleanime]

34. Anger is the byproduct....

what they manufacture is fear.





And they are very good at it.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Here:

House Whip May Not Have Known He Addressed White Supremacists.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the third-highest ranked Republican in the House of Representatives, is under fire after he reportedly attended a civil rights workshop organized by a group of alleged white supremacists.

David Duke, the then-president of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard-turned-former Louisiana state representative, confirmed to ABC that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise spoke at a civil rights workshop he organized in 2002, but says Scalise may not have known who he was addressing.

"Steve Scalise came in to speak on, I think, a tax issue and many of the people there were his constituents so you know whether he understood that it was my meeting or not, I don't know," Duke told ABC News in a phone call Monday night. "I can't, you know, I can't say that he did or did not."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/incoming-house-whip-addressed-white-supremacists/story?id=27890360

[Fred Sanders]

6. What State was this racist shindig in again? And Scalise was unaware of who David Duke was?

A politician in that unspoken in the article State says he had no idea at the time who then
President of the group he was speaking to on "tax issues" was....... fucking David Duke?

First question I would ask of the accused......

And notice the "official email response penned by not Scalise". A blanket "I do not recall this meeting, and if I did go to this meeting I had no idea I was surrounded by monsters who would probably not even have voted for MLK Day, nope not I.", followed by a clinging to his religion like a security blankee.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Look, just because the shindig was organized by david fucking duke

is no reason to think that anyone would know it was a white supremacist event. And Scalise was a very busy man. Plus Obama.

[Fred Sanders]

8. Yes. Busy, busy bees are so absent minded and unaware, being so busy and all.

[lastlib]

13. and Benghazi!

Repeal Obamacare!

( for the humor-challenged........)

[niyad]

24. in that case, he is too stupid to be allowed out on his own, and certainly NOT to be

in any position of authority.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Oh, come on. It was a case of mistaken identity.

Someone had switched hoods with him as a prank.

[joshdawg]

10. K & R big time!

Gotta luv it!

[hrmjustin]

11. Well said! n/t.

[malaise]

12. Just another Grimm ReTHUG

[blackspade]

14. Ouch.

The truth hurts...

[1step]

15. Zing!

[marble falls]

16. DUzzy!

[Laxman]

17. Oh, I See....

it's the "Death to Smoochie" defense!

[annabanana]

18. hee!

[LibDemAlways]

19. As far as the average Repuke is concerned, his

appearance at the event proves he's a good Republican and the multitudes are no doubt wondering what all the fuss is about.

[Mass]

20. Of course, he booked the rallye with Duke's campaign manager.

How could have he known?

[mountain grammy]

21. The GOP is the KKK and vice versa.

[karynnj]

22. What we really need is a video or transcript of what he said - and given that it is 2002 -

not 2014 - that likely would not happen.

There is something to be said for politicians to speak to groups outside their own part of the party -- and you know that he is pretty far to the right as his recent comment that he spoke to all groups that asked him to -- even the League of Women Voters, which he characterized as a pretty liberal group.

I think this will blow over if there is nothing more than what has come out. What it may have done is to expose how much to the right the Republican party has floated -- but that has been obvious for some time. (In fact, the loss in the primary by Cantor, for being not right enough alone should have signaled that. )

On things like this, I have often tried to think of what I would think of a Democratic equivalent action -- here I can't. There is NO left wing group that I can think of that is clearly a hate group. The closest equivalent is then an extreme group that is demonized that is so extreme that a high level Democrat would worry about his/her reputation appearing before them to advocate for legislation that they are working on.

[Faux pas]

23. Oh snap!

[underpants]

25. Hilarious

[randys1]

26. +1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

[Half-Century Man]

28. He didn't care until confronted with it.

And now he is forced to appear to care publicly.

Life can be hard for the politically (absent) minded.

[blkmusclmachine]

29. "it's hard to tell a KKK rally from a GOP rally"

SO TRUE!

[Android3.14]

30. Wink-holy-shit-wink

That one will make the rounds.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

31. .

[czarjak]

32. Pay no attention to the racism behind the curtain....

[Enthusiast]

33. True. K&R!

[MrScorpio]

35. Rimshot!