Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise Acknowledges Addressing Racist Group ... - New York Times

Photo

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

Continue reading the main story Share This Page

Continue reading the main story

WASHINGTON — Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 3 Republican in the House, addressed a group of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in 2002, a Scalise spokeswoman confirmed Monday as his party prepared to take control of both chamber of Congress.

Mr. Scalise made his remarks to the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, which was founded two years earlier by David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana politician. Mr. Scalise was a Louisiana state legislator at the time.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has described the organization — which uses EURO as an acronym — as a hate group, while noting that in recent years it has “accomplished little” and serves “primarily as a vehicle to publicize Duke’s writing and sell his books.”

Moira Bagley Smith, a Scalise spokeswoman, said the congressman “has never been affiliated with the abhorrent group in question.”

Continue reading the main story

Related Coverage

• 
  
  
  
  

  Campaign Finance: Steve Scalise’s Position as House Whip Draws DonorsAUG. 18, 2014

  
  


• 
  
  
  
  

  Steve Scalise Gets Lift From Fellow Southerners to Win Election as Majority WhipJUNE 19, 2014

  
  

“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,” she said. Ms. Smith added that Mr. Scalise, 49, “has spoken to hundreds of different groups with a broad range of viewpoints” in order to build support for his policies.

Congressional Republicans were hoping to begin the next Congress free of distraction and to focus on what many party members consider an electoral mandate — the Republicans’ largest congressional majority in decades. The party is also working to improve its appeal among racial minorities, who have been essential to President Obama’s electoral victories.

It was unclear what the revelation means for Mr. Scalise’s future in the House leadership. Speaker John A. Boehner declined to comment on the reports on Monday.

A transcript of Mr. Scalise’s speech was not available. In a 2002 blog post on Stormfront.org, an online community of self-proclaimed white nationalists, one person who heard the speech described it as “productive” because Mr. Scalise “discussed ways to oversee gross mismanagement of tax revenue or ‘slush funds’ that have little or no accountability.”

“Representative Scalise brought into sharp focus the dire circumstances pervasive in many important, underfunded needs of the community at the expense of graft within the House and Urban Development Fund, an apparent giveaway to a selective group based on race,” the conference guest wrote.

Mr. Scalise’s EURO appearance was first reported Sunday by Lamar White Jr., a blogger who runs a website for liberals in Louisiana. That report, and the confirmation by Mr. Scalise’s office, comes as Republicans hope to show that they can govern without the gridlock that marred much of the 113th Congress.

According to Mr. White’s blog post, Mr. Scalise spoke before the group as part of a two-day conference at a Landmark Best Western hotel in Metairie, La. Mr. Duke did not attend the conference because he was hosting a related gathering in Europe.

Mr. White’s report spread rapidly on political blogs and on Twitter, with colleagues in Louisiana strongly defending Mr. Scalise and calling Mr. White’s motives into question.

“This manufactured blogger story is simply an attempt to score political points by slandering the character of a good man,” Roger F. Villere Jr., chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party, said in a statement.

Mr. Scalise, who previously served as the chairman of the conservative and powerful Republican Study Committee, was elected whip in June, after Eric Cantor, then the No. 2 House Republican, unexpectedly lost his Republican primary.

Mr. Scalise’s run for whip was buoyed by fellow Southern Republicans, who wanted a deep-red-state lawmaker among their conference’s top leaders. Mr. Boehner is from Ohio, and the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, is from California. President Obama carried both states in 2008 and 2012.

Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNEPLBLMA7USXUCLrAhQYvv8pTkORQ&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52778696969269&ei=wfqhVKDjE6jKwAGy3YGwCw&url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/us/politics/louisiana-congressman-steve-scalise-acknowledges-addressing-racist-group-in-2002.html