Steve Scalise's Job is Safe, and the GOP Thinks It's Turned a Corner

It probably said something about the pace of the modern news cycle that reporters finally got Josh Earnest to speak for the White House on the problems of Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana–and it felt so late. Scalise was brought up by the AP's Julie Pace in the very first round of questions; she asked if the president believed Scalise should remain the GOP's majority whip in the House, given the news that he'd spoken to a 2002 meeting of a group founded by David Duke.

Earnest relished the question. He answered with some meanderings about how how "in previous situations who they choose to serve in leadership says a lot about who they are," and with some crocodile tear-jerking about how the Scalise mess could affect the GOP's outreach beyond its white base. Three times, when Scalise came up, Earnest recalled a secondhand Scalise quote given to the New York Times by a Louisiana reporter. "He described himself as David Duke without the baggage," said Earnest.