To win in Louisiana, Steve Scalise compromised with a racist political culture.

"Let's be as generous as we can to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Let's say he spoke to the European-American Unity and Rights Organization but had no idea it was a white supremacy group backed by David Duke. Let's say the name didn't raise any red flags for Scalise, or if it did, he didn't follow up on them. Let's take him at his word that, in 2002, he didn't know there was such a thing as Google (or any of its competitors), and neither he nor his staff even cursorily vetted the groups he accepted speaking invitations from.

It is clear how Scalise sees this explanation as exculpatory, and in a sense, it is. He may not have specifically realized he was speaking to a white supremacy organization, nor made any effort to find out. But these excuses are, in their own way, damning. They speak not just to what Scalise didn't know, but to what he didn't really want to know, and didn't feel the need to find out. And what makes them dangerous to his career is they're part and parcel of some ugly compromises he made while making his name in politics.

Scalise emerges from — and there's really no other way to say it — an incredibly racist political culture. When asked by the Washington Post how Scalise ended up at a EURO meeting, Duke explained that Scalise was friendly with Kenny Knight, Duke's former campaign manager, because being friendly with Duke's operation was savvy for anyone with Scalise's political ambitions.

Scalise "recognized how popular I was in his own district," Duke said. "He knew that knowing what I was doing and saying wouldn’t be the worst thing politically. Kenny would keep Scalise up to date on my issues." It's Kenny, in Duke's telling, who got Scalise invited to the conference."

The remainder of the article is at the following link:

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/30/7467621/steve-scalise-racist-group

Note: This guy, at one time, was one of only six state legislators to vote AGAINST making the MLK holiday a state holiday in Louisiana when he was a state representative.