Steve Scalise Totally Didn't Speak At David Duke Event, Says Close Friend Of David Duke

So you remember how it was reported that Steve Scalise (R-Jindaltopia) spoke at a meeting of infamous white supremacist David Duke's white supremacy group in 2002? And remember how Scalise apologized for speaking at said white supremacist meeting, saying that he did not know that the white supremacist meeting was in fact a white supremacist meeting, and had he known it was a white supremacist group's meeting, he never would have spoken at their white supremacist group's meeting?

Well, as it just so happens, the guy who booked the rooms for the conference says that Steve Scalise totally didn't show up to the Best Western in Metairie, Louisiana, to speak in front of white supremacist group European-American Unity and Rights (EURO). Instead, he spoke at a completely different, totally unrelated, and 100 percent innocuous meeting -- that of the Jefferson Heights Civic Association:  

Kenny Knight, a longtime political adviser to Duke, said Scalise spoke at a meeting of the Jefferson Heights Civic Association -- not affiliated with the European-American Unity and Rights conference that was held in the same Metairie hotel -- two-and-a-half hours before the white nationalist event started.

How would Knight know that there was a Jefferson Heights Civic Association meeting the same morning as the white supremacist group? Well, turns out that ol' friend Kenny Knight, the guy who booked the rooms for EURO, also headed up the community association, and decided that since he already had the room reserved, he might as well save some money and have the civic association meet there in the morning.

Knight said he rented and paid for the hotel conference room for the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, a group founded by Duke. Since he had already paid for the space, Knight said, he decided to also hold his local civic association meeting at the Metairie hotel. He stressed that the two gatherings were not connected.

True or not, this explanation actually has the distinctively ridiculous and atonal ring of truth. It makes perfect sense that the same guy who convened a meeting for white people with nothing better to do but worry about the petty grievances of white people (the primary base of civic associations) was also responsible for booking rooms for a conference of a group of white people with nothing better to do but worry about the petty grievances of white people (the primary base of white supremacist groups). Knight, in fact, offered up this description:  

The people that came were middle-aged, taxpaying, God-fearing, Christian people.

You might think that this is Knight's description of the people who showed up to the civic association meeting, because you, a Wonkette reader, are a person with a kind heart who retains faith in the basic goodness of humanity. And you'd be wrong. This, in fact, was Knight's description of the attendees of EURO (which he hilariously claims was not a white supremacist conference in the first place). It'd also make perfect sense that such a person would be completely unconcerned about the optics of scheduling these meetings back to back.

Although you (rightfully) might not be inclined to believe the not-so-unimpeachable word of David Duke's close friend and ally, remember that the only reason to believe Scalise was at the EURO conference in the first place was a single anonymous post on Stormfront, a neo-Nazi message board. That Scalise at first couldn't give a straight answer about whether or not he was at a white supremacist conference is pretty embarrassing, but what's also embarrassing is the news media soaking us in a deluge of stories about Scalise based on this incredibly tenuous evidence. Hopefully this is the last of 2014's media-political complex clownery, but somehow, we doubt it.

[ The New Orleans Times-Picayune / Slate ]