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.”
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