At his Politico blog, Ben Smith casually smears the Republican Party by associating it with hatemonger David Duke, in a post on racist hatred for Michael Steele: Ben Smith’s Blog: Steele’s appeal (but not to David Duke).

One immediate consequence of Steele’s ascent, though: Real hysteria on the racist fringe of the Republican Party, where David Duke (still around!) branded Steele a “black racist” and his fellow Republicans “traitors.”

Apparently Smith isn’t aware that David Duke began his political career as a Democrat, running for the Louisiana Senate in 1975, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in 1988. Smith could just as accurately have described Duke as belonging to the “racist fringe” of the Democratic Party—but this doesn’t fit into his ideological bias.

UPDATE at 2/2/09 9:49:49 am:

To drive the point home, the Republican Leadership Council has strongly denounced Duke.

Washington, DC — Mark Miller, Executive Director of the Republican Leadership Council (RLC), today applauded RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson for his swift denunciation of David Duke and called on other Republicans to publicly oppose the candidacy of the former Klansman and neo-Nazi sympathizer.

“Republicans of every ideological persuasion can agree that David Duke’s latest foray into GOP electoral politics must be opposed, and his candidacy for the House of Representatives denied legitimacy,” said Miller. “We applaud RNC Chairman Nicholson’s quick opposition to Duke’s divisive agenda, and we call on other conservative leaders and groups to state for the record their opposition to his candidacy.”

“We ask Chairman Nicholson to help us recruit and fully fund a viable Republican primary opponent to oppose Duke’s message of intolerance,” added Miller.

“I hope we can all show solidarity as a Party, and state unequivocally, that David Duke cannot, should not and will not be permitted to advance his agenda under the auspices of the Republican Party,” concluded Miller.