FOCUS

The Most Dangerous
Politician
In America?

David Duke of Louisiana
dismisses his past
Ku Klux Klan and
neo-Nazi activities
as he runs hard
for a seat in the
U.S. Senate.

MICHAEL POUSNER

Special to The Jewish News

David Duke as
Grand Wizard of the
Ku Klux Klan. This
photo was taken in
1978 in London.

UPI/Bettman Newsphotos

avid Duke, ex-Ku Klux
Klan Grand Wizard, is
sitting across a table in
his headquarters in
Metairie, Louisiana,
and calmly telling a
Jewish newspaper re-
porter why he feels he's
going to be elected U.S.
Senator from his state
next month — and how he'll attract Jewish
votes. Sound absurd? Perhaps, but political
observers in Louisiana have learned to take
David Duke seriously. He defied censure
by the Republican National Committee
last year to win election to the state House
of Representatives. And, according to polls,
he has made great strides in his challenge
to unseat Sen. Bennett Johnston, a
moderate Democrat, in the October 6
election.
Starting with 11 percent of the vote
last year, Rep. Duke, running as a Repub-
lican, now has from 24-27 percent — far
ahead of Ben Bagert, a Reagan Republi-
can and the designated Republican Party
nominee, who has 10-11 percent. Sen.
Johnston still leads with 47-52 percent.
The Republican National Committee,
which has been accused of doing little to
combat the Duke threat, says it is firmly
behind Bagert.
Rep. Duke, 38, claims he has changed
his ways, that his dark and virulent anti-
Semitism and racism were the product of
what he terms "youthful bravado."
"I am incontrovertibly not anti-
Semitic," he said in the course of a 90-
minute interview. "I think Jewish tradi-
tions have enriched the world in many
ways."
Rather than viewing Rep. Duke as
changed, however, the New Orleans Jew-
ish community — some 12,000 strong —
believes he may be the most dangerous
politician in America.
"The more I read the more I'm con-
vinced that he's modeling himself after
Hitler," says Rabbi Robert Loewy of
Congregation Gates of Prayer, near Mr.
Duke's campaign office in Metairie.
"Just as Hitler attempted to become
more of a mainstream politician after his
imprisonment in the 1920s, I think Duke
is pursuing that path so he can bring
about his hateful agenda."
Rabbi Loewy says the prospect of a
Duke election has worried some of his
congregants so much they have called

Michael Pousner is assistant editor of
our sister publication, the Atlanta Jewish
Times.

162

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1990