...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.None of the top leaders — House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy or Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was once thought likely to attend [the upcoming commemoration of a civil rights anniversary in Selma, Alabama] to atone for reports that he once spoke before a white supremacist group — will be in Selma for the three-day event that commemorates the 1965 march and the violence that protesters faced at the hands of white police officers.
[...]
Black leaders in Congress pressured Scalise to attend the Faith and Politics Institute event after news reports revealed that the Louisiana Republican gave a speech to a group connected with Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke when Scalise was still serving in the state Legislature. Scalise said late last month that a scheduling conflict would keep him from Selma this year but that he hoped to attend in 2016.
[...]
Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who participated in the 1965 march alongside Martin Luther King Jr., said he was disappointed that House Republican leaders wouldn’t make the trip. Former President George W. Bush and his wife are expected to attend Saturday’s ceremonies, as is President Barack Obama.
“I wish we had someone in the [Republican] leadership going,” Lewis said.
Politico
(Expected) UPDATE 3/7:
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will travel to Selma, Ala., for the 50th anniversary of major voting rights protests there, making him the only member of Republican House leadership to do so, CNN reporter Dana Bash tweeted Friday.
The HIll
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