Morning Maddow: Steve Scalise Talked To Neo-Nazis. Let's Not Forget What Neo-Nazis Are (Video)

Rachel Maddow enjoyed her holiday break, thank you very much, but we get the feeling that a good part of why she enjoyed it was anticipation of telling the whole sordid Steve Scalise Talked to Nazis story when she got back. And she is in fine form!

She starts by noting that, if you're of a mind to, you can buy some really awful swastika-themed art by the pseudonymous white nationalist whose 2002 posts on Stormfront are the most detailed contemporaneous accounts of Scalise's talk back then. And she's also quite not content to settle for the bland description of David Duke's little Klan kaffeeklasch as a "white nationalist" get-together; she wants to remind us who these folks are and why it really is a big deal that, as recently as 2002, Scalise was describing himself as a political soulmate of David Duke, only "without the baggage," and far more electable. After all, in 1999, Scalise told Roll Call that he shared a lot of Duke's views, but that he had something Duke lacked: He was more electable.

“The novelty of David Duke has worn off,” said Scalise. “The voters in this district are smart enough to realize that they need to get behind someone who not only believes in the issues they care about, but also can get elected. Duke has proven that he can’t get elected, and that’s the first and most important thing.”

Says Maddow, "Kinda hard to look at the legacy of David Duke -- a Klan leader -- and say the 'first and most important thing' about him is his electability -- not the first thing I think of when I think of David Duke."

Also, too, there's a taste of just who David Duke still is: a look at Duke's website, where he is, in 2015 right now, ranting about how the "Zio-Media" is "lynching" Steve Scalise. Let's not forget who this guy is and why it's a big deal that Scalise went to court his followers. Duke is now threatening to name all the Congresscritters who have been palling around with him if Scalise isn't treated nicer.