Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, with Speaker John Boehner
It has not been a fun 24 hours for House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. The Louisiana Republican found himself on the defensive after news broke about his 2002 speech in front of a group founded by David Duke, the former head of the Ku Klux Klan. Scalise argued that he didn't know that Duke had anything to do with the organization, saying the group wasn't vetted because of poor staff work. Duke himself
didn't make life easy for Scalise, saying that Scalise was invited by Duke's longtime political adviser. The congressman has been frantically reaching out to his colleagues to save his job, but until now the most important one had yet to weigh in.
On Tuesday afternoon, Speaker John Boehner broke his silence and declared that Scalise will still be allowed to sit at the Capitol Hill cool kid's table. In a brief statement, Boehner called Scalise's actions twelve years ago "an error in judgment," but said that "He has my full confidence as our Whip."
There's a good reason why Boehner would want Scalise to stick around, warts and all. As Politico's Jake Sherman notes, Boehner has his own leadership election a week from now. While he is favored to stay on as speaker, conservative activists are making noise about unseating him. RedState's Erick Erickson is claiming that anti-Boehner forces in the House have close to the number of votes they need to deny him another term, or at least embarrass the speaker by sending him to a second ballot.
Even if Erickson is bluffing, Boehner won't want to take any chances, especially after his surprisingly close call in the 2013 speakership race. Boehner believes that jettisoning Scalise could create more instability in the caucus and threaten his own position, especially since the Louisianan is popular with plenty of the rank-and-file members Boehner needs.
If Scalise is telling the truth and his 2002 appearance was a one time mistake, then Boehner's support will probably let him ride this out. But if there's more out there, this could definitely get worse for him, and the backlash could hit Boehner too. We'll see what happens, but for now it looks like Scalise has saved his job.