Scalise

The White House has hosted serial race-baiter Al Sharpton dozens of times, and has followed his cues in racially divisive controversies from the Trayvon Martin shooting to the ongoing “Black Lives Matter” protests, which have led to retaliatory violence against police across the nation. Moreover, President Barack Obama himself spent twenty years in the pews of the church of Jeremiah Wright in Chicago, enduring Wright’s racist sermons without comment or complaint, and contributing thousands of dollars to Wright’s fundraising efforts

The honorable resignation is a lost art in American politics. Most politicians are determined to cling to power, regardless of the cost to their reputation, their party’s standing, or their broader ideals. Scalise could have resigned with dignity, affirming the principle that even fleeting association with racism and antisemitism will not be tolerated in the Republican Party.

The Steve Scalise controversy had a fairly simple resolution. When the accusation had emerged that he had spoken in 2002 to a white supremacist group associated with former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, he ought to have stepped aside temporarily and asked the House Republican leadership to conduct a full investigation. That would have confirmed that Republicans would not permit anyone to lead the party who kept such associations, and without punishing Scalise before the facts were known.

The Sacramento Bee published an editorial Wednesday in which it criticizes California Republican Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader in the U.S. House, for defending Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) over allegations that he addressed a gathering associated with white supremacist David Duke in 2012. (Scalise has apologized quickly, though it is not clear whether he knew about the group’s beliefs or if he even addressed the group at all.)

Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” while the political panel was discussing the controversy over recently elected House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) speaking at a gathering of white supremacists over a decade ago, Washington Post