Scalise a product of Nixon's 'Southern Strategy'

I love history. It helps you connect the dots interwoven in today's headlines. Take the dot of LA Representative Steve Scalise. Few outside of Louisiana ever heard of him till GOP House leaders elevated him to GOP House Whip, beating out my own Congressman Peter Roskam. They determined that the Southern red states needed some GOP clout in a Congress dominated by leaders from everywhere else, even though the South is redder than the Communist Party. So they plucked Scalise out of obscurity and voila, Scalise is handed the GOP House whip.
Now the GOP, comically trying to reach out to minority communities, must spin away Scalise's state legislature days when he spoke before a white supremacist group headed by former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke and voted against the Martin Luther King holiday in Louisiana. There's more. Scalise bonded with Duke's ultra conservative views, stating in 1999 he shared many of them, before lamenting Duke is not electable as a public official. “The novelty of David Duke has worn off. The voters in this district are smart enough to realize that they need to get behind someone who not only believes in the issues they care about, but also can get elected. Duke has proven that he can’t get elected, and that’s the first and most important thing.” Not a hint about Duke's virulent racism in that lament. Just yesterday, Duke told the press to lay off his buddy Scalise saying "Why is Scalise being singled out? I don’t know. If Scalise is going to be crucified, if Republicans want to throw Steve Scalise to the woods, then a lot of them better be looking over their shoulders.” Duke implied that he would reveal his ties to any politicians who attack Scalise.

But the thread to understanding Scalise's flirtation with KKK Man Duke goes all the way back to 1964 when Southern bred President Lyndon Johnson sheparded the Civil Rights Act though a Congress dominated by solid Democratic Southern racists. Amid the jubilation Johnson lamented that his efforts on behalf of racial desegregation would cost the Democratic Party the South for 50 years. Richard Nixon, adrift in the political wilderness, concocted a plan to capture the presidency by converting those disgruntled Southern whites to the GOP. His infamous 'Southern Strategy' worked and here we are in year 51 of the Solid Republican South with no end in sight.

And one of those converts was Louisiana's Steve Scalise, who spent his formative years in Louisiana playing up to the likes of David Duke. I share the prevailing view that Scalise doesn't have a racist bone in his body. But he surely has a skeleton full of cynical political bones which told him years before he ever could conceive of a national stage, that it was in his interests to govern only to the white majority in his district. Now on that national stage, Scalise is desperately trying to erase the dots that connect him to Nixon's Southern Strategy, one of the sorrier chapters in our long and twisted racial history.

Giuliani stirs racial divide on 'Face The Nation'

On 'Face The Nation' Sunday, NYC Police Commissioner Bill Brattan gave a finely nuanced examination of the racial divide over minority protests of police profiling, balancing the need to end excessive force and improve community policing, while wholeheartedly supporting the police. Sadly, host Major Garrett then turned the mike over to former mayor Rudy Giuliani, who stoked the racial divide with a grin and a gleam in his eye... with this nugget of hate:

"We've had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police."

Rampaging Rudy then launched a five minute tirade against President Obama and NYC mayor Bill di Blasio, claiming America's racial problem stems from their involvement with support for police reform and peaceful protest. Giuliani's worldview never even hints of a problem the minority community might have with excessive police force and senseless deaths of unarmed men, some due to incompetence and/or malice. Giuliani then raised the stakes by demanding over and over that Mayor di Blasio apologize to NYC police for "appearing" to support the protesters over the police. I listened to di Blasio's compassionate speech after the Grand Jury decision not to indict police in the choking death of Eric Garner, in which he movingly reached out to the minority community, invoking the fear he bears over the safety of his bi-racial son, without a scintilla of disrespect for police. His remarks were couched around the concept of reform that can legitimately be advanced by peaceful involvement in the public debate. It's quite possible de Blasio's words and deeds did much to prevent New York from experiencing the violent protests that marred the Ferguson, MO. Grand Jury decision, made in the dead of night by a tone deaf prosecuting attorney. When host Garrett thanked him for appearing, Giuliani, in his version of tone deafness, laughed.

Every time Giuliani made one of his inflammatory, unhelpful remarks, host Garrett could only utter "Interesting." It would have been more appropriate for him to respond, "Disgusting." Better yet, 'Face The Nation' and every other responsible media outlet should let Giuliani spew his hate only in private.

A dubious replacement

GOP House leadership may regret replacing my Congressman Peter Roskam with Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise as GOP House Whip after news surfaced Scalise spoke at an international conference of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization headed by Nazi and former Klan leader David Duke. Scalise's office hedged on confirming the report but finally fessed up. Boy did they spin this confirmation like a ...top claiming Scalise was merely promoting his efforts to slash taxes on middle class families. As further evidence Scalise is unfit to be a House GOP leader, two years after speaking before the white supremacist group, Scalise was one of only a handful of Louisiana lawmakers to vote against the creation of a Martin Luther King Day.

Congressman Pete may not have done much, if anything, to promote racial understanding during his first 8 years in Congress as there aren't enough minorities in his district to spur his interest. But I'm pretty sure he's passed on speaking before white hate groups and never opposed the creation of Martin Luther King Day. The Republican clown car heading toward racial inclusion just blew an engine. We all knew Rep. Scalise was way out on the far right. Looks like he just fell over the edge.

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George W. learned senseless war at feet of Poppy Bush

Last week we celebrated, mourned would be a better term, the 25th anniversary of Operation Just Cause, President George H.W. Bush's war against Panama to capture President Manuel Noriega. Bush the Elder claimed a glorious victory with only 20 dead GI's and about 500 combatants. While the US admitted several hundred civilians died as well, Human Rights Watch puts the civilian death toll in the thousands noting the US erased mention of massive bombing in the poor Panama City barrio El Chorrillo that wiped out 4,000 homes along with many of their residents.

It took just 14 days to capture Noriega, a secret CIA asset in the Cold War against Communist influence in Latin America. Manual made the mistake of running a little drug ring on the side so he had to go. What a better way to celebrate the collapse of the Soviet Union earlier in that momentous year of 1989 then by re-asserting American bully-boy might against a helpless target. With future Iraq war architect Dick Cheney serving as Bush Sr's Defense Secretary and Iraq war enabler Colin Powell his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Operation Just Cause was an early training ground for Shock And Awe 14 years later.

And watching from the sidelines was a failed 43 year old oil executive using Poppy's money and influence to buy into the Texas Rangers to make the Big Leagues, figuratively as well as literally. The glow is easy conquest with thousands of deaths and no consequences was not lost on George the Son. He didn't just wake up on January 20, 2001, and decide to become a warmonger. He was just following a family tradition.