Own goal


David Duke, the ex(?)-Ku Klux Klan leader and wanna-be politician, leapt to the defense of Steve Scalise, the Republican who has spoken for a white supremacist organization. That’s self-defeating right there — I would hope that the Klan would never speak in my defense — but what he said.

In an interview with Fusion.net explaining his connection to current House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Duke said that he is exceptionally well-connected within the U.S. political class and that charges of racism against him are a product of the media’s “zionist” and “tribalist” mentality.

Yeah! I’m not a racist, and if you think I am, it’s because those damned Jews put you up to it!

Comments

  1. Reginald Selkirk says

    Duke said that he is exceptionally well-connected within the U.S. political class…

    I hope he is going to leap to the defense of those politicians by naming names.

  2. chigau (違う) says

    Just what would qualify as racism to this person?
    If you are not actually doing actual lynching, you are not racist?

  3. says

    Few things that stand out about Scalize: 1: They invited HIM. 2: They didn’t boo him off the stage. 3: He couldn’t tell the difference between Duke’s peeps and a normal campaign stop.

    If I were ever invited to a white supremacy gathering to speak, I would A: Wonder what I’d done wrong to get the invitation. B: Go, and make sure that I never got invited back after inciting a riot.

  4. says

    Just what would qualify as racism to this person?
    If you are not actually doing actual lynching, you are not racist?

    It has to be a “legitimate lynching” to be racist.

  5. says

    Chigau, #3:

    I once encountered a person (to use the term loosely) who insisted that all black people should be killed and, when the remainder of the community called him on this, he indignantly declared that it wasn’t racist because he never said they should be killed because they were black. After all, there are plenty of non-racist reasons why one might want all black people to be killed— for example, he would be quite willing to accept equality if only all black people weren’t “thugs” and criminals!

    Darren Wilson and George Zimmerman and the many people like them have never declared themselves racists, nor been called racist by any of the Usual Suspects™ so I think it’s clear that even if you are committing an actual lynching you can still be Not Racist™ as long as you claim your actions had a non-racial motivation no matter how transparently false.

  6. lochaber says

    Jake @ #3

    Reminds me of being a TA at a community college, one of the other TAs stated: “I’m not racist, I don’t hate blacks because they’re black, I hate them because they’re lazy.”

    I think I just gave up at that point and walked out of the room. :/

  7. unclefrogy says

    I would hope that the GOP would come out and defend Scalise also without repudiating Duke in any way. Anything to raise the racist issue and the GOP in public awareness.
    Keep it going!
    uncle frogy

  8. says

    You missed the best part, PZ.

    Duke said that if the GOP doesn’t cut Scalise a break, he’s going to release the names of other prominent republicans.

    And to that I say, “please!”

  9. microraptor says

    If we’re really lucky, said list will be a Who’s Who of 2016 presidential candidates, right?

  10. comfychair says

    And, their poll numbers will jump by 3-5 points the day after the announcement. USA! USA! USA!

  11. Rich Woods says

    @Chengis #5:

    I am beginning to fear that a vast number of GOP members are pro-klan and are taking conservatism to the 18th century.

    Shouldn’t that be ‘taking conservatism forward to the 18th century’?

  12. Gvlgeologist, FCD says

    I find it fascinating that Duke is “warning” that he’ll out other fellow travellers in the GOP. When was the last time you said to someone, “You, my friend, are criticizing another friend of mine, because he’s a friend of mine. If you don’t stop, I’ll tell OTHER people that you’re my friend, too.” That’s a pretty weird kind of threat. It’s hard to argue that it’s an empty threat.

    It shows the utter cynicism of his beliefs. If his beliefs are right and good (which he obviously thinks), shouldn’t he already have proudly named ALL his friends? The reality seems to be that he realizes that his beliefs are abhorrent to the majority of the electorate and that if he does name names, they’ll be voted out.

  13. ck, the Irate Lump says

    Jim Phynn wrote:

    And to that I say, “please!”

    #HoodsOff. But, i somehow think people will be just as apathetic with this info coming from Duke as they were from it coming from Anonymous.

  14. microraptor says

    Sadly, you’re probably right. The Tea Party has been running a blatantly racist agenda since its inception and yet still has plenty of mainstream Republicans supporting it.

  15. anteprepro says

    Next up: The Ferguson Police force, to inform the public about how the GOP is not at all supportive of an authoritarian police state.
    And later: Scott Roeder discusses civility and rationality amongst Republicans in opposition to abortion.

    All that Tonight, on Foot-Shot News.

  16. blf says

    An obvious problem with any list released by Kook Duke™ is he is a kook. With many Ks. There’s no particular reason to a priori think the list represents reality — kooks LIE — and the omissions are perhaps just an interesting as inclusions. The contents of the list would have to carefully independently confirmed, albeit that is unlikely to say much about the omissions (unless Kook Duke™ is really really stoooopid).

  17. anteprepro says

    blf

    (unless Kook Duke™ is really really stoooopid)

    I thought it goes without saying, but yeah, he is. Not completely, but in many, many ways.

    Duke is a felon, pleading guilty to defrauding supporters by falsely claiming to have no money and in danger of losing his home in order to solicit emergency donations; at the time, Duke was financially secure, and used the donations for recreational gambling

    advocate of antisemitic conspiracy theories

    He opposes what he considers to be “promotion of homosexuality” by Jews.

    Holocaust denial

    in 1970, he formed a white student group called the White Youth Alliance; it was affiliated with the National Socialist White People’s Party. The same year, to protest William Kunstler’s appearance at Tulane University in New Orleans, Duke appeared at a demonstration in Nazi uniform. Picketing and holding parties on the anniversary of Hitler’s birth,

    Duke was accused by several Klan officials of stealing his organization’s money. “Duke is nothing but a con artist,” Jack Gregory, Duke’s Florida state leader, told the Clearwater Sun (of Florida) after David Duke allegedly refused to turn over proceeds from a series of 1979 Klan rallies to the Knights. Another Klan official under Duke, Jerry Dutton, told reporters that Duke had used Klan funds to purchase and refurbish his home in Metairie.

    As a short-term legislator, Duke was, in the words of a colleague, Ron Gomez of Lafayette “so single minded, he never really became involved in the nuts and bolts of House rules and parliamentary procedure. It was just that shortcoming that led to the demise of most of his attempts at lawmaking.”

    One legislative issue pushed by Duke was the requirement that welfare recipients be tested for the use of narcotics. The recipients had to show themselves to be drug-free to receive state and federal benefits under his proposal

    Gomez said that he recalls Duke obtaining the passage of only a single bill, legislation which prohibited movie producers or book publishers from compensating jurors for accounts of their court experiences

    Duke has often criticized federal policies which he believes discriminate against white people in favor of racial minorities. To that end he formed the controversial group, the “National Association for the Advancement of White People”

    according to the New York Times, “equated the extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany with affirmative action programs in the United States.”[67]

    She also provided evidence establishing that Duke sold Nazi literature (including Mein Kampf) from his legislative office, and that he had gone to neo-Nazi political gatherings while he held elective office.

    In September 2005, Duke received a Kandidat Nauk degree in History from the Ukrainian Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (MAUP).[97]

    His doctoral thesis was titled “Zionism as a Form of Ethnic Supremacism.”[97] Anti-Defamation League claims that MAUP is the main source of antisemitic activity and publishing in Ukraine,[98] and its “anti-Semitic actions” were “strongly condemned” by Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk and various organizations.[99][100][101][102] The Anti-Defamation League describes it as a “University of Hate”.[103] Duke has taught an international relations and a history course at MAUP.[

    Duke wrote a self-help book for women to raise money under the pseudonym Dorothy Vanderbilt and James Konrad, titled Finders-Keepers – Finding and Keeping the Man You Want which contains sexual, diet, fashion, cosmetic and relationship advice….wrote that it includes advice on vaginal exercises, fellatio, and anal sex

    On February 5, 2002, Duke said, on his Internet radio show, that Ariel Sharon was “the world’s worst terrorist” and that Mossad was involved in the September 11 attacks. The broadcast said that Zionists were behind the attacks in order to reduce sympathy for Muslim nations in the West

    He was arrested on suspicion of “denying or approving of the Nazi genocide and other Nazi crimes” and “promotion of movements seeking suppression of human rights,” which are crimes in the Czech Republic punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Duke

    Well, in fairness, he could just be ridiculously, cartoonishly evil. Or both very very stupid and incredibly evil too. Why not.

    Also, interesting to note: Read the parts about his KKK affiliation and the New Orleans Protocol. The take away is “Be Polite”. Or, rather, pretend to be polite while saying racist, dehumanizing shit and offering up support of atrocities (e.g. supporting Hitler).