Help !

I don't post often but I love looking at and hearing about everyone's furry family members. Now I need to see if anyone here has some advice for us-this is probably going to be long..... We adopted dog #4 on Saturday, Duke is a Great Dane mix- a wonderful boy, very sweet, and very very smart-he's learning most of the 'house' rules quickly but then he saw our cat and all he!! broke loose. His bio said he had been around cats and kittens and was fine with them but from his reaction I'd say not. Our other pups were all 'enthusiastic' about the cats but I'd term Duke's reaction extreme. But our other dogs are a basset/beagle, Basset, and a Walker coonhound so maybe it's a personality thing?? I'm really wracking my brain for ideas, we've had quite a number of dogs, we also foster, but never one with such a strong reaction.

Duke was here for a day before we tried introducing him to the cats, the weather has been nice so the cats have been outside enjoying it before the snow flies. We're careful as we love our kitties as much as the pups so I brought Honey,who's a great sport, downstairs and stepped into the laundry room that's gated off. We usually let the pups start with getting to sniff the tail while one of us holds the cat and the other keeps a hand on the dog. Instead of just sniffing like our others have Duke actually nipped my fingers, I'm glad it was my fingers and not Honey but it wasn't a good sign. We don't think he actually wants to hurt them but Honey is such a tiny girl he could easily hurt or kill her without meaning to. Since then we're been doing the 'NO KITTY' thing we've done with all the others but he doesn't care. When there is a cat around he will not listen period, you cannot pry his eyes off the cat.

Last night Honey finally came in the house again (after 3 days) so my husband sat again in the laundry room with her while I held Duke, he barked ,whined, foamed at the mouth, and went insane trying to get her. I even had treats to try and distract and calm him but that didn't do any good,he didn't even care about treats! After about 30 minutes of constant carrying on we let Honey back outside and blocked the dog door so Duke couldn't chase after her, he almost concussed himself not realizing the door had been blocked. He was very worn out after that ordeal so we thought well he wore himself out we'll try again and maybe he'll be calmer. So we grabbed Hoppy, our other good sport (we'd never ever try this with our Chopper kitty, he'd gut us ) and went through the same routine and it panned out the same. Oh and when they start hissing like they will in such situations Duke gets even crazier. Is there hope that if we continue to do this he may get over it or are we fighting a losing battle, any different ideas to try?? It just wouldn't be fair to make the cats spend the winter outside plus we like to love and cuddle our kitties. We are very willing to put in work with him but I do fear for my cats, I don't think I would be able to forgive myself if he hurt them. He would go back to a rescue if we just can't keep him, not the pound.
Thanks for any advice, I'm just so torn....
Cris