Salon.com > Keith Ellison

The importance of Keith Ellison

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:45:00 +0000

Progressives loved seeing Rep. Keith Ellison smack down his GOP congressional colleague Peter King on "Meet the Press" Sunday, insisting that profiling Muslims in the wake of the Boston bombing is not only wrong but “ineffective law enforcement.” As Ellison warned: “Once you start saying, we’re going to dragnet or surveil a community, what you do is you ignore dangerous threats that are not in that community, and you go after people who don’t have anything to do with it.”

Of course right-wing bloggers hailed King as the winner in the debate – he wasn’t – and one sad sack even called Ellison “the jihadi Democrat.”

The fact is, we need more Keith Ellisons in Congress. Not just because he’s a great progressive voice, supporting the president but challenging him strongly on his questionable austerity politics, but also because he’s a patriotic American who’s also a Muslim. He's crucial right now.

King and Ellison spar over surveilling Muslims

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:38:00 +0000

On Sunday's Meet The Press, Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y. and Keith Ellison, D-Minn., clashed over whether or not law enforcement should increase surveillance of Muslim communities in the wake of the attacks in Boston.

"Most Muslims are outstanding people, but the threat is coming from the Muslim community," said King, who was behind the House hearings on Muslim radicalization.

He continued: "And in previous times, when certain elements in a community are the ones responsible for crime, the police focus on it. For instance, in Boston, the F.B.I. never spoke to the Boston police about the older brother. And afterwards, there were no intelligence files in Boston on these type of people, these people inclined to terrorism. The F.B.I. never even got to examining him."

"I think it's ineffective law enforcement to go after a particular community," said Ellison, who is Muslim. "Once you start saying, "We're going to dragnet or surveil a community," what you do is you ignore dangerous threats that are not in that community and you go after people who don't have anything to do with it."

Watch:

Hannity accuses Keith Ellison of “a host of radical connections”

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:35:00 +0000

Sean Hannity attempted to tie Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., to controversial Nation of Islam pastor Louis Farrakhan and his national assistant Khalid Mohammed, following an explosive interview on Fox News earlier this week in which Ellison accused Hannity of being "the worst excuse for a journalist I’ve ever seen" and a "shill for the Republican Party."

In a segment on his show Thursday, Hannity accused Ellison of having "a host of radical connections," and revived attacks made during Ellison's 2006 campaign about ties to Farrakhan and the Million Man March. "The reality is, the congressman not only associated with these radicals – but he spent years spewing their hateful rhetoric,” Hannity said.

He continued: “What is the difference, I mean, do we have somebody then in Congress that is the equivalent of one side of what the Klan is? Because I view the rabid ranting of Khalid Mohammed as frightening in terms of racism, anti-Semitism.”

As ThinkProgress reports, Ellison addressed his work with the Million Man March and Farrakhan several years ago:

10 biggest lies spewed by Sean Hannity

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:18:00 +0000

On the Feb. 27 edition of Hannity, host Sean Hannity replayed part of his Feb. 26 interview with Rep. Keith Ellison. During the exchange, Ellison responded to Hannity's question about the federal debt being "immoral" by saying, "You are immoral for telling lies." Hannity asked, "I'm immoral? What did I do that's immoral?" Ellison responded, "You tell mistruths. You say things that aren't true." Speaking before the clip was aired, Hannity said Ellison "at times, seemed incoherent" and "really started grasping at straws." After the clip was aired, Hannity said to guest J.C. Watts, "I just gave him the rope and said, go. Here you go, rant away."

10. Hannity Hyped RNC's Doctored Audio of Supreme Court Arguments. Hannity uncritically aired a Republican National Committee (RNC) ad that used audio from Supreme Court oral arguments to attack health care reform -- but the audio used in the ad was dishonestly edited. [Media Matters, 3/30/12]

House Dem tells Hannity he’s “a shill for the Republican Party”

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:51:00 +0000

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was kicked off of Sean Hannity's Fox News show during a segment that started out about the sequester, but which devolved into six minutes of the two yelling at each other. Ellison called Hannity everything from "the worst excuse for a journalist I've ever seen" to "a shill for the Republican Party."

Watch:

107 Dems try to take entitlement cuts off the table

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Concerned that a potential deal to defuse the looming sequestration cuts will include cuts to social safety-net programs, 107 House Democrats sent a letter to President Obama today calling on him to oppose any entitlement benefit reductions, including switching to the so-called chained CPI. It’s by far the largest number that have come out against the CPI cut, and it represents a majority of the Democratic Caucus in the lower chamber.

Republicans are demanding entitlement reform as part of a deal to avert the sequester, the planned spending cuts that will go into effect next month unless Congress acts. So far, neither Obama nor Senate Democrats have endorsed any cuts to the social safety-net programs, and the White House has specifically ruled out raising the Medicare eligibility age, but liberals fear Democratic leaders will give in on the chained CPI in order to win GOP support.

“I am concerned about it. We’ve got to remain vigilant; that’s why we wrote this letter,” Rep. Keith Ellison, the Chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, told Salon. Rep. Jan Schakowsky spearheaded the letter.

Liberals double down: No entitlement cuts

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:00:00 +0000

In a story already making waves across Washington, Politico’s Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen reported this morning that a bipartisan “grand bargain” is emerging from talks between the White House and Republicans. The contours of the deal are this: About $1.2 trillion in new tax revenue, most likely from an rate increase on income over $250,000, along with at least $400 billion over 10 years in entitlement cuts “and perhaps a lot more,” mostly from Medicare.

Liberals have drawn a hard line against entitlement cuts and $400 billion is a lot of money, so some progressives are not pleased with the idea.

Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, the chairman of the 77-member Progressive Caucus, told Salon that his members would not support entitlement cuts. “Any agreement to meet our end-of-the-year deadlines will need a large portion of the House Democratic Caucus to pass. Progressives will not support any deal that cuts benefits for families and seniors who rely on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to put food on the table or cover their health costs,” he said.

The 10 most Islamophobic moments in the 2012 elections

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 19:00:00 +0000

When we're all proven wrong and living in a bacon-less hellscape of Shariah law ruled by the iron fist of Mullah Obama, we can't say we weren't warned. According to the right-wing fringe, racism is dead -- but long live Islamophobia, for there is jihad in every mosque and we must be vigilant.

But Islamophobia -- even from elected officials -- is still dramatically undercovered by the media. So you might easily have missed some of these 10 most disgraceful examples of bigotry, ignorance and hate -- from obscure county parties to the halls of Congress -- during an election cycle with plenty to go around:

10. Allen West is Allen West -- Florida Rep. Allen West is known for making inflammatory statements about pretty much everyone, but he has particularly targeted Muslims. This cycle alone, he’s commemorated 9/11 by screening an anti-Islamic film, said that Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison “really does represent the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established," and another time theorized that “George Bush got snookered into going into some mosque, taking his shoes off, and then saying that Islam was a religion of peace.”

Dem representative apologizes for calling opponent “lowlife scumbag”

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:55:00 +0000

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., apologized for referring to his Republican election opponent Chris Fields as a "low-life scumbag" in their debate this morning.

The Minneapolis City Pages reports that during the debate, things got so heated that the radio network carrying the debate "temporarily put on hold" and cut away. From Aaron Rupar at the City Pages:

"The highlight came about halfway through the debate when Fields accused Ellison of raising money to research Fields personal life. Earlier this month, City Pages reported on a restraining order Fields' ex-wife filed against him back in 2006, though it's unclear who paid for the research that dug up the court filing. Ellison, who accused Fields of lying repeatedly throughout the debate, took particular umbrage with the you-spent-money-to-get-dirt-on-me accusation and went into meltdown mode.

'You're really stupid for bringing up the domestic violence," Ellison said. 'You're a scumbag. You're a lowlife scumbag.'"

"I look forward to your concession speech, sir," Ellison also said.

Ellison said in a statement that his comments were "uncivil" and "over the line," though he stipulated that Fields' comments were "over the line" as well.

Keith Ellison: GOP “basically a bigoted party”

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 17:14:00 +0000

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., referred to the Republican Party as "basically a bigoted party" in an interview with Mother Jones' Tim Murphy. Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, has apparently noticed that the majority of the GOP is boiling over with hysterical paranoia about American Muslims and the more supposedly "moderate" elements refuse or are unable to sideline the kooks and rebut their claims. And now the GOP platform actually has an anti-Shariah line! This is insane.

"I'm sad that they have decided to go into this dark ugly place where they see the whole world as their enemy," Ellison continued. "And this is the thing: I don't mind debating taxes and spending; we probably should. But they're the party that is basically a bigoted party and they have now officially declared themselves against a whole segment of the American population, because if we said we were going to put a plank opposing Jewish law, or Catholic canon, it would be an outrage. This is also an outrage. But you know, it'll pass."

Keith Ellison slams Bachmann’s “galling” witch hunt

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 10:30:00 +0000

Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, has been leading the charge against fellow Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's Muslim witch hunt. The first Muslim elected to Congress, Ellison has now had his own loyalty to the United States questioned. He speaks with Salon about his motivations for the fight, Bachmann's $1 million fundraising haul and why he's optimistic that Americans will fight Islamophobia.

Why did you decide to take on this issue?

I just thought it was galling, absolutely. That she would make unsupported allegations of disloyalty and subversion against a person who’s a decent civil servant and person. But it wasn’t always Huma Abedin. I mean, she’s kind of the poster child of this thing, but one of the other people mentioned by name is a guy named Mohamed Elibiary. He’s a fellow who worked hard on interfaith dialogue. He’s a Muslim religious leader, but he traveled to Poland with Hannah Rosenthal, who was the special envoy to combat and monitor anti-Semitism, and visited Auschwitz. He came back and made it his personal mission to speak to Muslim congregations against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. And so this is the kind of caliber of person he is. And then Michele is going to just trash him? I just think that it’s wrong. And I said, you know, I’m just not going out like that. I actually didn’t want to stick my nose out, but then I felt like, if I don’t say something about it, who is going to?