George Allen and David Duke: One Degree of Separation

By: PM
Published On: 9/4/2006 11:48:15 AM

George Allen recently said, "You can tell a lot about people by the folks they stand with.+óGé¼-¥ 

Allen is scheduled to speak soon at a Tony Perkins-run gathering, FRC Action.   FRC Action is the +óGé¼+ôLegislative Action Arm+óGé¼-¥ of the Family Research Council.  According to its website, George Allen will be a featured speaker at a conference September 22-24 2006 in Washington D.C. The President of FRC Action is the notorious Tony Perkins.  Perkins also is head of the Family Research Council.

Perkins has a checkered past when it comes to racism, including a speech before the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). Max Blumenthal, writing in The Nation magazine, says that in 1996, Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list at a time when Perkins was the campaign manager for a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Louisiana.  The Nation article says that the Federal Election Commission fined the campaign Perkins ran $3,000 for attempting to hide the transaction.  (The Family Research Council says Duke's connection to the campaign company that produced the list was not known to Mr. Perkins until 1999 and that Mr. Perkins profoundly opposes the racial views of Mr. Duke.  Blumenthal says that Perkins's signature was on the document authorizing the purchase of Duke's list.)


Blumenthal also writes that Perkins spoke at the Louisiana chapter of the CCC in 2001.  Here+óGé¼Gäós a comment on the CCC speech from Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

In July, Perkins was asked about his speech to the CCC by a Canadian newspaper. He bristled, +óGé¼+ôNever spoke to them again. That was over a decade ago.+óGé¼-¥

It wasn+óGé¼Gäót +óGé¼+ôover a decade ago.+óGé¼-¥ The speech took place in 2001. And it doesn+óGé¼Gäót matter that Perkins only did it once. Once is bad enough. As a Southerner, Perkins certainly knew what the CCC was all about. He should have declined the invitation.

Perkins and his FRC have a lousy track record on racial justice. That record is there for anyone to see. Nice words on the death of Mrs. King don+óGé¼Gäót ameliorate it. In fact, Perkins+óGé¼Gäó hypocrisy only makes matters worse.

Here are a few more notable Perkins quotes:

In 2004 Perkins's Family Research Council released a pamphlet, "The Slippery Slope of Same-Sex Marriage," introduced with the tale of a Missouri man who wants to marry his horse. "The logic of his argument is remarkably similar to that employed by advocates of homosexual marriage," the pamphlet states. Perkins recently told a reporter from the Vancouver Sun, "You ask anybody that's investigated homosexual murders and without question they are the most violent...even the sex act itself is violent in homosexuals."

Comments



Great Diary! (Dan - 9/4/2006 12:33:29 PM)
Thanks for putting this up.


Let's see if the so-called "liberal media" (Lowell - 9/4/2006 1:47:33 PM)
does anything with this story, or with this one.  Everybody holding their breaths?  I sure hope not.  Do you think that if this had been a DEMOCRAT tied to David Duke and other extremists (e.g., the CCC), the so-called "liberal media" would be going apeshit?


You're Right Lowell (PM - 9/4/2006 7:09:42 PM)
The Alabama press understands the CCC's importance:

http://www.wtvm.com/...

GOP candidate campaigned at Council of Conservative Citizens

MONTGOMERY, Ala. A Republican candidate for the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals -- Cullman County District Judge Terri Willingham Thomas -- was recently photographed at a meeting of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The council is considered a racist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Thomas says she doesn't know anything about the organization. She says she attended the council meeting in Cullman to hear a lesson on Confederate General Robert E- Lee.

Heidi Beirich, who helps track hate groups for the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center, says the council's racist views have been widely reported.

Now the Alabama case is different because the press had already widely reported that the candidate's family had extensive ties with racist groups.

What I find interesting is that the candidate said she didn't know anything about the CCC.  Trent Lott said the same thing.  Bob Barr said the same thing.



So if a Republican (I.Publius - 9/5/2006 10:30:30 AM)
has extremely loose (read: barely perceptible) ties to someone who used to be in the KKK, that's big news, and everyone should know about it.

If a Democrat IS a former member of the KKK, that's all in the past, and nobody cares.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Y'all are the most reliable hypocrites in the blogosphere.  Thanks for being you.  It's always fun to shine a bright light on you. :-)



Thanks Publius (PM - 9/6/2006 9:18:33 AM)
You reminded me of something that sprang into my head when I woke up this morning and I had completely forgotten.  The excuse the Allen camp is giving for the CCC photo (and BTW has Allen denounced the CCC yet?) is that it was part of some receiving line thing, you know, mass meet and greet.

Isn't it odd that we have no pictures of the CCC with any politician but Allen from that function?

And no pictures of Allen with any other group from that function?

Sounds like Gordon Baum was right -- they each were searching for something and each got what they wanted -- bona fides.

Thanks again.