HANNITY: We don't want Klan members in our [Republican] party. Thank you very much.

HASTINGS: Oh, and you're telling me you don't have any? You are either naive or stupid!

HANNITY: Wait. Who is it? Wait a minute. Name one Klan member in the Republican Party. Name one.

HASTINGS: I can give you - if you're talking about. Let me -

HANNITY: Name one.

HASTINGS: Do we want to go to Lake Worth and find those militia and Klan people [unintelligible]?

HANNITY: No, no, no. I want to know what representative, what elected official is in the Klan - that are Republican?

HASTINGS: Elected today - a former Klan member?

HANNITY: Who? Who?

HASTINGS: That would be difficult for me to say. But if you give me a day I'll get you a name.

HANNITY: Checkmate again, checkmate.

--from a recent Sean Hannity radio show, on which Democratic congressman Alcee Hastings defended Senator Robert Byrd

David Duke was elected in 1989 and served as a member of the House of Representatives and was a full participating member of the Republican Legislative Delegation. He served on Committees: Health and Welfare, and Judiciary.

Authored landmark conservative legislation, including House Bill 1013 (1990), the first anti-affirmative action challenge passed by a legislative body in America.

He was recently elected to Chairmanship of the Republican Parish Executive Committee of the largest Republican parish (county) in Louisiana. (St. Tammany RPEC, At-Large Representative, term 1996-2000)

--from David Duke Online

Since at no time do you say you mean current officeholders who were in the Klan, you're busted, Sean.

What were you going to say if Hastings had mentioned Duke, Sean? That Duke is an incorrect answer to the question because he's not a current elected Republican, even though he held an elected post in the GOP until a mere two years ago?

Duke, according to his own bio, was in the Klan until 1978. Byrd left the Klan before Sean Hannity was born. Duke went on to found the National Association for the Advancement of White People, which he calls a "civil rights organization," and is now the president of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, "dedicated to protecting the rights and heritage of people of European descent in America and around the world."

Busted, Sean. Busted.

(Oh and please savor the compassionate conservatism in the Hannity link. In case you haven't clicked on it, it's a Free Republic discussion, and it veers off into a lavishly illustrated digression -- "Tom Daschle -- Man or Midget?" Charming.)