How quickly things change in Washington DC!
I wrote this last night around 8 PM and now...
GOP’s Scalise ends his bid to become House speaker as Republican holdouts refuse to back the nomineeAP NewsBy Lisa Mascaro, Farnoush, Stephen Groves and Kevin Freking
Updated 11:36 PM EDT, October 12, 2023
Republican Steve Scalise ended his bid to become House speaker late Thursday after hardline holdouts refused to back the party’s nominee, throwing the GOP majority into deeper chaos and leaving the chamber still unable to function.
Scalise told GOP colleagues at a closed-door evening meeting of his decision and pointedly declined to announce backing for anyone else, including his chief rival, Rep. Jim Jordan, the far-right Judiciary Committee chairman backed by Donald Trump who had already told colleagues he no longer would seek the job.
Next steps are uncertain as the House is essentially closed while the Republican majority tries to elect a speaker after ousting Kevin McCarthy from the job.
Well it looks like the Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise might be the new Speaker of the House, the Republican Clown Car is now packed full of clowns.
Forbes reported that,
- The congressman has represented Louisiana's 1st congressional district—which includes eight parishes that surround New Orleans and a small sliver of the city itself—since 2008, and has steadily worked his way up in Republican leadership since then.
- Scalise has a history of being a staunch conservative who supports cutting government spending and implementing strict immigration policies, and has long been a supporter of former President Donald Trump, though he is generally not considered a hard-right firebrand like more recent prominent Republican additions to the House, such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.).
- Scalise was among the Republicans who objected to the Electoral College results when Congress met to certify President Joe Biden’s win on January 6, 2021.
Scalise once reportedly compared himself to David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan best known for his 1991 run for Louisiana governor as a Republican. About two years ago, a Louisiana politics blogger said Scalise attended a 2002 white supremacist conference organized by a group founded by Duke. Scalise responded by saying he attended the event in an attempt to get “support for legislation that focused on cutting wasteful state spending, eliminating government corruption and stopping tax hikes,” adding that he “wholeheartedly condemn[ed]” the views of the group. Scalise also called his attendance a “mistake I regret” as he’s “emphatically oppose[d] to divisive racial and religious views that groups like these hold.” Duke later told the Washington Post Scalise would communicate with his political advisor often, and that’s why Scalise attended the event, adding that the advisor and Scalise were “friendly.” Scalise's attempt to distance himself from Duke proved less successful after a New York Times piece published days after Duke’s comment quoted longtime Louisiana politics reporter Stephanie Grace recalling an interview with Scalise where the congressman said “he was like David Duke without the baggage,” meaning he shared Duke’s “policy ideas” but “didn’t have the same feelings about certain people.”
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The HuffPost reports that...
“I personally cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone who attended a white supremacist conference and compared himself to David Duke,” Mace said on CNN Wednesday.[...]Scalise spoke at a conference in 2002 hosted by white supremacist leaders. The convention was for an organization founded by David Duke, a former head of the Klu Klux Klan.
In 2014, Scalise acknowledged he attended the event but claimed not to know what its organizers stood for. He said it was a “mistake I regret” and condemned the group’s ideology.
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NPR writes about him that,
Scalise is a native of New Orleans and represents much of the city's conservative and wealthy suburban areas in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has represented Louisiana's 1st District in Congress since 2008 after winning a special election to replace Bobby Jindal. Since January, he's served as House Majority Leader.
[…]
Scalise's district is home to Port Fourchon, one of the nation's leading oil and gas seaports that supplies about one-sixth of the nation's oil supply. A supporter of onshore and offshore drilling, Scalise celebrated the House passage of H.R. 1 earlier this year, a GOP-backed energy bill, arguing it would increase U.S. energy production and lower costs for consumers. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the legislation was "dead on arrival" in the Senate and the White House threatened to veto the bill, saying that it would "empower big companies to skirt the Clean Air Act."
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While CNN write…
Scalise and Jordan both supported objections to electoral college results when Congress met to certify Joe Biden’s presidential win on January 6, 2021, the same day a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol seeking to overturn the election.
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On the Congressman’s Congressional government website he writes,
Congressman Scalise is a proven leader when it comes to protecting Louisiana's family values. Congressman Scalise has fought for the right to life and continues to fight against attempts to weaken these values.
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On LGBTQ+ issues MetroWeekly has the bad news…
On LGBTQ issues, he could reasonably be expected to tow the party line on everything from opposing laws prohibiting LGBTQ discrimination to supporting religious exemptions for people with anti-LGBTQ beliefs to the GOP’s current obsession with transgender issues and displays of gender nonconformity.
Since entering Congress, Scalise has sponsored a constitutional amendment seeking to prohibit same-sex marriage, voted against the repeal of the military’s now-defunct “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, voted against LGBTQ nondiscrimination bills, like the Equality Act, and opposed the Respect for Marriage Act, which ensured that same-sex marriages performed in states where the practice is not explicitly banned will be recognized as valid by states — even those with constitutional bans on the books — and by the federal government.
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While LGBTQ Nation article says,
Scalise opposes same-sex marriage. He has supported a constitutional amendment to ban federal recognition of same-sex marriage. He opposed the Respect for Marriage Act, a 2022 bill that requires the federal and state governments to recognize legal same-sex marriages. He also supported the First Amendment Defense Act, an unsuccessful 2015 federal “religious freedom” bill that would prevent the federal government from punishing anyone who discriminates against same-sex married couples.
[…]
He has opposed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military’s ban on out LGBTQ+ service members; the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which offers enhanced investigative resources and punishments for anti-LGBTQ+ violence; and the Equality Act; a national LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination law. Scalise also voted against including LGBTQ+ victims of domestic violence in the 2013 Violence Against Women Act.
Scalise once spoke at a meeting of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, a group founded by David Duke, the former grand wizard of the racist terrorism organization the Ku Klux Klan, The Washington Blade noted. He reportedly once said that he was like Duke but “without the baggage.”
Let’s face it the Republicans are not LGBTQ+ friendly and if he is the Speakerhe fits right in with the Trump cult. Having Speaker Scalise is going to make it even worst we can expect the House to be against anything the Democrats propose and you are going to see a ton of pro-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation coming out of the House.
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