Politicians love speaking in front of groups.
Politicians love speaking in front of groups. It's much easier for the group to take the time and money to organize an event and just let the politician come and speak about whatever it is the politician agreed to speak about. It makes sense, especially when you're not working on the national scale with TV cameras lined up to catch your every word.
Now, should politicians vet groups for their political leanings? Absolutely. Something like this could bite you in the butt a decade later, but does that mean the politician is in cahoots or supports the mission of every group they speak to? Absolutely not.
What we need to know isn't that he spoke to White Supremacists, but rather what he spoke about. Does anyone have a transcript of his speech? Is he really just, as he says, speaking about economic issue and political corruption, or is he saying he's inline with the group's lines of thought?
All of us have associations that might be a red flag for someone else. When growing up, a friend of mine's father was in the KKK. Does that make me a racist? Not even a little. I had dinner at his house and played in his yard. I didn't even know what the KKK was at the time. My friend wasn't a racist either. He's a little bit more now, I'm sad to say. I blame his wife. She's not even shy about it.
Guilt by association isn't a valid argument for anything except bottom-feeders. Let's remember that.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/228266-boehner-stands-by-scalise
Now, should politicians vet groups for their political leanings? Absolutely. Something like this could bite you in the butt a decade later, but does that mean the politician is in cahoots or supports the mission of every group they speak to? Absolutely not.
What we need to know isn't that he spoke to White Supremacists, but rather what he spoke about. Does anyone have a transcript of his speech? Is he really just, as he says, speaking about economic issue and political corruption, or is he saying he's inline with the group's lines of thought?
All of us have associations that might be a red flag for someone else. When growing up, a friend of mine's father was in the KKK. Does that make me a racist? Not even a little. I had dinner at his house and played in his yard. I didn't even know what the KKK was at the time. My friend wasn't a racist either. He's a little bit more now, I'm sad to say. I blame his wife. She's not even shy about it.
Guilt by association isn't a valid argument for anything except bottom-feeders. Let's remember that.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/228266-boehner-stands-by-scalise
Comments
Yet Scalese himself has not backed away from the group. He doesn't consider it a mistake. In interviews, he's said he agrees with many of Duke’s views.
Unless the content of that speech was, "hey, y'all, don't be so racist," I don't the context contributes much.
Affirmative .
It's sounds like an honest confusion to me.
Regardless, by all accounts he spoke of a state tax issue, not a race or even socioeconomic issue.
Believe it or not, guilt by association doesn't exist is a rational discussion.
John P., do you have a link for that supposed fact? No? Of course you don't. Providing proof of your claims isn't in your repertoire.
"By all accounts he spoke of a tax issue". No, no, no. By his account. Trying to disassociate him from the group is what you are trying to do. No on the other hand I will say this,.... "birds of a feather will flock together". Like I said his buddy Knight scheduled his appearance at the event. And Knight is and has been a friend of David Duke and Scalise knew that. Anyone who doesn't realize where he's speaking is a fool or an idiot.
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Rep. Steve Scalise Add...03:01
Longtime Adviser To David Duke Donated To Steve Scalise
Paige Lavender
The Huffington Post 12/31/14 11:16 AM ET
A longtime adviser to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke donated money to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Federal Election Commission records show.
The Daily Beast pointed out Wednesday that Kenny Knight gave Scalise $1,000 in 2008.
Scalise came under fire this week after it was reported he spoke at a 2002 conference hosted by the white supremacist group European-American Unity and Rights Organization. The Washington Post reported Knight was one of the people who invited Scalise to speak at the event. Scalise said he "didn't know" the details of the groups attending the conference and called accusations of connections to the white supremacist group "insulting and ludicrous."
Scalise has struggled this week to distance himself from Duke, who said the congressman is "a fine family man" with whom he often agrees.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) both backed Scalise on Tuesday, calling him "a friend" and "a man of high integrity and good character."
That's pretty funny.
You show me proof where that donation opened up favors or preferred treatment and you have an point. Until then, it's just a donation made my a citizen. I mean, hell, Susan B. Komen for the Cure takes money from cancer causing industries. It happens.
U.S. NEWS
Ex-KKK leader David Duke: Lay off Steve Scalise or I’ll start naming other pols I met with
DAVID FERGUSON
30 DEC 2014 AT 14:24 ET
Former Ku Klux Klan leader, Louisiana state legislator and notorious white supremacist David Duke says he has lots of friends who are politicians and has offered to name names.
In an interview with Fusion.net explaining his connection to current House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Duke said that he is exceptionally well-connected within the U.S. political class and that charges of racism against him are a product of the media’s “zionist” and “tribalist” mentality.
Incoming Majority Whip Scalise has come under fire over a speaking engagement with Duke’s pro-white EURO (European-American Unity and Rights Organization) foundation in 2002.

According to Duke, the rush to repudiate Scalise and his possible white-nationalist sympathies is “all bullshit.”
“I’ve grown up” since his days as a Grand Wizard of the Klan, Duke told Fusion’s Brett Logiurato via bbc.co phone. “And I know who the real racists are.”
According to Duke’s website, “the Zio media lies about [Duke] constantly” because “he is the only major American political figure who dares to stand up the real ultra-racists who control America and Israel, the Jewish supremacists.”
Fusion pointed to an SPLC report on EURO that calls the organization a “paper tiger,” i.e., a shell group that mainly exists as a means for Duke to book speaking engagements and disseminate his writings on the “Zionist Globalism” plot to take over the world and dominate the global economy.
Duke said that he is shocked at the “insane” amount of attention he and Scalise are getting.
“Why is Scalise being singled out? I don’t know,” he said. “He was just going [to the EURO conference], obviously, to tell voters about some of his initiatives on some tax matters. That’s what it’s all about. And I think it’s insane, this whole process.”
He issued a warning to Democrats and Republicans who might try to ruin his friend’s career.
“If Scalise is going to be crucified — if Republicans want to throw Steve Scalise to the woods, then a lot of them better be looking over their shoulders,” Duke warned, intimating that he would reveal his ties to any politicians who attack Scalise.
Scalise, for his part, has attempted to distance himself from Duke and has called EURO an “abhorrent organization.” He said that he was unfamiliar with EURO and its white nationalist agenda prior to the appearance on its behalf.
Claiming support for someone doesn't make that someone guilty by association. Sorry. It just doesn't. Now, if you can find true evidence and not just some speech about taxes he gave or if you can show a history of Scalise supporting racist groups, then you have a case, but a one-off where he spoke in the same venue but not to the group specifically is reaching for straws.