My take....
Is it a good look that he talked to that group? No, not at all. It's definitely not a good look for him, or for Republicans in general.
That said...
It was smart on his part to simply own up to the fact he spoke with them from the onset. He also claims that he had not looked significantly into what or who the group was before speaking at the meeting in question.
While it's absolutely possible he's lying, there's little reason to just assume that he is. The meeting in question took place in 2002. The group was created only two years before that, and had gone by an entirely seperate name for it's first two years of life (NO FEAR). All reports from seem to indicate that Scalises statements and discussions at said meeting were about rather benign, standard, Republican talking points regarding welfare programs and things like affirmative action. While people may have varying views on those, and people may like to assume they're Professor X and can read peoples minds, there's nothing inherently racist or vile in terms of having views that affirmative action is not a good program or that we need to cut back on federal welfare spending. Nothing that's been reported seems to suggest this politician was actually articulating or arguing for inherently white supremicist/white nationalist policy/stances/statements. Nor does he have any seeming history of racially questionable statements or actions, outside of the standard pathetic attempts by some hyper partisan liberals to label basic Republican policy beliefs as "racist". There also, at this point, doesn't seem to be some kind of ongoing involvement with this group outside of this particular event.
So does this look bad? Yes. Would it be bad if he knew that this was a white nationalist or supremicist group and went to speak with them anyways? Yes. Would it have been bad if he tried to cover it up? Yes. If it comes out that he's had an ongoing working relationship with that group for multiple years would it be bad? Yes.
But at this moment I'm not seeing anything to get horribly worked up about with where this story currently is. It was discovered he was at said event. He admitted he was at said event. He gave a plausible claim that he didn't realize the groups makeup and ultimately goals at the time; something that seems at least possible given various facts. Nothing he reported to have said or endorsed was inherently a racist or supremcisist/nationalist type of notion, and he's had no seeming continued consistent contact with the group.
Does it look bad? Yes. Does it probably make it smarter politically to go for another whip at this time? Absolutely. But given all the facts that have came out thus far, to me this is kind of a shoulder shrug in terms of some kind of thing to get worked up about in terms of him personally, the party, or him being in congress.
