Steve Scalise, who once gave a speech to a white nationalist group at the behest of Duke, and referred to their like-mindedness when speaking with a reporter:
David Duke seems a figure from the past, the former Klansman and white supremacist who two decades ago was almost elected Louisiana governor.
But this week when Representative Steve Scalise, the third-ranking House Republican leader, found himself trying to explain why he accepted a speaking engagement offered by a key aide to Mr. Duke in 2002, it was a reminder of the awkward dance and hard choices that Republicans in Louisiana faced in the 1990s when Mr. Duke was one of the most charismatic politicians in the state.
According to the article, getting friendly with Duke was all a part of the necessary dance that Louisiana’s political wannabes had to endure at the time. And Scalise, like many of his colleagues, was just as quick to turn their backs on Duke once they had secured the trust of his voters. But if “I Wanna Be Like Dave” was the song that politicians needed to sing in order to secure those votes, Scalise was belting it out at the top of his lungs.
In the article, Louisiana political reporter Stephanie Grace recalled her first meeting with Scalise:
“He was explaining his politics and we were in this getting-to-know-each-other stage,” Ms. Grace said. “He told me he was like David Duke without the baggage. I think he meant he supported the same policy ideas as David Duke, but he wasn’t David Duke, that he didn’t have the same feelings about certain people as David Duke did.”
In the wake of House Speaker John Boehner’s resignation and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s expected promotion to speaker, Scalise, currently the House majority whip, is now running for majority leader, the second most powerful position in the U.S. House. Unsurprisingly, this means renewed attention to the scandalous revelation, first reported in late December by a blogger from Louisiana, that Scalise addressed an international conference of white supremacists when he was a state representative.
A former chair of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, Scalise has built over the course his tenure in Congress since 2008 among the most anti-LGBT reputations of any lawmaker.
Earning a “0” on the Human Rights Campaign’s congressional scorecard, Scalise voted against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and hate crimes protection legislation. In the last Congress, Scalise was among the 130 co-sponsors of the First Amendment Defense Act, a federal “religious freedom” bill seen to enable anti-LGBT discrimination.
As a member of House Republican leadership, he’s responsible for the lack of votes on pro-LGBT legislation on the House floor. When Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced an amendment upholding President Obama’s 2014 executive order against anti-LGBT workplace discrimination, Scalise was reportedly among House leaders who convinced seven Republicans to switch their votes to ensure the measure would fail.
When a federal judge upheld Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage as constitutional in 2014, Scalise hailed the decision during an appearance on the anti-LGBT Family Research Council’s radio program as “an important win for marriage.”
So it is a point of especially delicious irony that Scalise, who survived the attack (and is reportedly in critical condition), may owe his life to a queer black woman.
Crystal Griner, a Capitol Police officer, was one of two special agents on Scalise’s security detail yesterday who helped take down shooter James Hodgkinson. People at the scene said that the two officers prevented an all-out “massacre” on the field that day, engaging in a firefight with Hodgkinson before killing him.
Griner sustained wounds in the fight, and she, like Scalise, was in a hospital recovering last night. By her side was her wife, Tiffany.
Roddy Flynn, executive director of the LGBT Equality Caucus, said “our thoughts and prayers are with Whip Scalise and all of those injured in this senseless shooting.”
“The tradition of congressional baseball is a lighthearted custom that brings the parties together in friendship,” Flynn said. “For this gunman to target members of Congress and staff preparing for this charitable event is a particularly insidious attack on the very institution.”
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin also expressed solidarity with the victims in a statement.
“We stand in solidarity and unity with those injured in this horrific attack and hope for their speedy recovery,” Griffin said. “We condemn all forms of violence, and moments like these remind us of the need to work together in finding commonsense solutions to gun violence, hate-motivated violence, and terrorism. The swift response of the U.S. Capitol Police and first responders is testament to their selfless service to our nation.”