Lamar White, Jr. has added to his reporting on Congressman Scalise and his cover story regarding why he attended the white supremacist meeting may be found here
http://cenlamar.com/...
Basically his reporting indicates it wasn't the tax bill but an earlier issue regarding what were basically a slush fund (my characterization) used for inner city development (read Black people) in New Orleans and Scalise wanted the money to go to the New Orleans NBA team. Regardless of what his version of events is people that Mr. White spoke with or read postings from recall him speaking about religion and the deterioration of community. If you are interested his story is worth reading because it goes down the trail of other people associated with the group and their disingenuous stories about the group including the man that gave Scalise $1,000. (I would still like to know who else he contributed to during that cycle because he doesn't sound like the kind of guy that has that kind of money).
(Rachel Maddow reported last night that the bill hadn't been filed but my reading of the bill history is that it had been previously filed but it wasn't reported out of committee until a week after Scalise spoke to the organization)
There is no way Scalise didn't know this was Duke's organization since he was speaking to the croup from a meeting in Europe. Duke was infamous after his presidential run and his rascist and pro Hitler comments he made during his previous campaign. In addition the promotional material describes the following
"A European conference led by EURO National President David Duke will be held in Europe at the same time. A teleconference will be set up to allow David Duke to address both conferences at the same time." ( See Lamar White's original report).
David Duke, I hardly knew you.
By the time Scalise is speaking to the group in LA in 2002 he had to have known that Duke was speaking via teleconference because he had fled to Europe to avoid prosecution.
"Duke had just started a speaking tour in Russia in January 2000 when federal agents raided his home in Mandeville, La. A search warrant, based on testimony from confidential informants, alleged Duke took hundreds of thousands of dollars he solicited from supporters and gambled the money away.
Until his return to the country late last week, Duke had been lecturing and speaking in European countries in a crusade for "white survival" against Jews and non-Europeans." See December 2002 report
http://www.foxnews.com/...
So when Scales told a reporter 20 years ago he was "like David Duke without the baggage, just exactly what did he mean? I would suggest that what he meant was that, unlike David Duke, there were no pictures of him dressed up in a Nazi uniform saluting Hitler.
Sheldon Adelson - Gambler
I find it to be particularly humorous that David Duke was indicted for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars and gambling the money in Mississippi and Las Vegas. It really would be funny if some of the money he lost was to Adelson in one of his Las Vegas casinos.
As any Daily Kos reader knows Adelson claims that Republicans have the back of Israel and he has overcome the few social differences he has with Republicans due to this support of Jews and Israel.
"Although I don't agree with every Republican position—I'm liberal on several social issues—there is enough common cause with the party for me to know I've made the right choice. It's the choice that, I believe, my old immigrant Jewish neighbors would have made. They would not have let a few disagreements with Republicans void the importance of siding with the political party that better supports liberal democracies like Israel, the party that better exemplifies the spirit of charity, and the party with economic policies that would certainly be better for those Americans now looking for work. The Democratic Party just isn't what it used to be." (Quote from Sheldon Adelson)
I have a feeling that his "old immigrant Jewish neighbors" would not have considered any association with David Duke as being "a few disagreements with Republicans".
A recent Gallup poll shows that Jewish support for the Democratic Party has dropped by 7% but I can't believe that this type of association by Republicans with Duke, Scalise and their ilk wouldn't reverse that trend dramatically. After all a group that would just as soon see you dead takes voting against your interests to a new level. (See http://www.gallup.com/...)
The Democratic Party needs to launch an immediate program to ask every major Jewish Republican contributor whether Scalise should remain as the number 3 member in leadership and if they are going to continue to contribute money to a party that has leadership that associates with the Neo-Nazis and KKk like David Duke and EURO.
In other words we need to make EURO and Scalise the Democratic equivalent of ACORN. Let there be no mistake that Republicans will take their money but they will never really invite them into their homes because they just don't fit in but they will associate with rascist and Neo-Nazis.