The tale of [mc_name name=’Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’S001176′ ] speaking to a convention of white supremacists, which we now know isn’t exactly true, was fed to a liberal blogger, and the greater media, by the son of Scalise’s 2008 Democratic challenger.

Via The Hill:

“I felt strongly that it would not have walked. I was running in a district with a lot of bigots,” [Democrat Gilda] Reed told Reuters.

Her son and then-campaign manager, Robert Reed, decided to reach out to blogger Lamar White Jr. several weeks ago with the information of Scalise’s appearance because the Pelican State lawmaker had taken on a high-profile position within the House leadership, Reuters reported.

While Reed claims she chose not to use this hit during the campaign because the district was filled with bigots, that more than likely isn’t the truth. I suspect that she, like many on the right, found that the story fell apart upon inspection and therefore “wouldn’t walk.”

If Reed really felt that Scalise had in fact spoken to a conference of white supremacists with ties to David Duke, she and her staff would be fools to have not used it. As has been pointed out for the last few days, Duke was a well known pariah. Duke had already been rejected and had to flee to Russia.

Heck, if they really felt this story was solid, I bet they could have reached out to the DNC and Obama with it, maybe Obama would have won LA in the 2008 election.

Regardless of the motivations then or now, we now know this was a Democratic hit job meant to paint the party as racists.

In the Hill article linked above, Rep. Charlie Rangel unwittingly admits that this entire thing is nothing but politics, admittedly while perpetuating the lie and implying we’re all bigots deep down:

“I don’t challenge that – it’s just that politicians do what they think is important to get elected and reelected and I guess the … best you can look at this is that he knew who he was talking to, he knew he wanted their supports and he still managed to keep black friends,” Rangel said.

If Scalise and his staff weren’t morons incapable of recognizing and responding to a hit job, we’d all have been spared this idiotic affair.

But they are morons. Morons who need to be removed from leadership.

And that goes for anyone in House Leadership who encouraged Scalise to apologize for speaking at an event he never actually spoke to. You all sowed this mess, time for you to reap it.