Louisiana has some history with politicians and prostitutes. Just look at David Vitter. However, that is not the prostitution I am writing about. I am referring to political prostitution, the willingness to do whatever it takes to be elected. The willingness to basically have no personal values and instead go where the wind blows you and be willing to accept any speaking engagement or endorsement without giving it a thought.

Take Joseph Cao for example. The former Congressman from Louisiana’s Second Congressional District was willing to take all endorsements regardless of who they came from. One group he accepted an endorsement from was the Louisiana Family Forum. The LFF is the Louisiana offshoot of the Family Research Council, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed a hate group. When I called the Jeff Crouere show to ask him about his acceptance of that endorsement, Joseph Cao said that he didn’t know much about the group but was happy to accept their endorsement. This was enough for me to reject him in the jungle primary and instead vote for another candidate who seemed to have more character than Cao.

I have also rejected other candidates for blindly accepting endorsements. Many politicians in New Orleans have accepted endorsements from the “Regular Democratic Organization”. When I ask them if they know anything about the history of the RDO, they often do not. Well, the RDO split from the Orleans Parish Democratic Party when Mayor Moon Landrieu and his allies in the Democratic party endorsed civil rights and integration.

So now the blog CenLamar has made national news for uncovering the fact that when House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) was a State Legislator, he accepted a speaking engagement at a EURO convention. EURO stands for the European-American Unity and Rights Organization. They stand for so called “white civil rights”. Basically they are a horrible organization tied to David Duke and anybody living in Louisiana at the time, especially politically active persons, should have been aware of this. Scalise has been criticized for failing to know this simple fact when he spoke in front of them. Some have even suggested that he should have known upon entering the convention that something was not right at this speaking engagement. Others suggested that he was understaffed and would not have had the time to fully vet each speaking engagement. Unless something in writing turns up where Scalise informs David Duke that he would love to attend the event and completely endorses its purposes, the only person who will really know the limit of Congressman Scalise’s knowledge of the event and who was putting it on is Congressman Scalise.

That being said, this is just another example of political prostitution. If Scalise did know who he was speaking in front of, he just proves that he will speak in front of anyone for political gain. If Scalise didn’t know who he was speaking in front of, he just proves that he doesn’t care who he speaks in front of for political gain. This proves that he has no principles. All one really has to do is listen to his political stances to realize this. When he was on WWL Radio previously discussing several issues, including the Affordable Care Act, Scalise just parroted all the same points that every other GOP rep makes. There is no new thought there. There is no divergence from his party. There is no “unlike some people in my party, I would keep x even though I dislike y and z”. He, like many other politicians these days, is just an empty shell filled with canned rhetoric and willing to do whatever it takes to win. And that is ultimately why he spoke in front of EURO. I cannot say that Scalise is a racist, but I will say that he is a political whore.