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STAR TRIBUNE EDITORIAL: “ELLISON FAILS PART OF ROUTINE ETHICS TEST”
By Ryan Flynn | June 26, 2009
“U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison could use some advice on transparency in government. Fortunately, he’s on friendly terms with two good sources: Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Tim Walz, two Democratic colleagues who have decided not to accept privately funded travel while in Congress.
Once enlightened, Ellison should quickly release all available details about a fall 2008 trip he took to Mecca courtesy of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.” Source: Star Tribune, June 25, 2009
Click here for the complete editorial.
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32 Responses to “STAR TRIBUNE EDITORIAL: “ELLISON FAILS PART OF ROUTINE ETHICS TEST””
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June 26th, 2009 at 1:24 PM
Even if the the trip is ‘ethical’ – he should still have to count the cost as income and pay the associated taxes – I wonder if he happened to forget that detail?
June 26th, 2009 at 1:52 PM
Oh please. This is such a non-story. It has zero impact on the DFL lemmings that exist in his district. Elison could be found with millions in cash and dead bodies in his basement freezer and still win re-election by 10 points.
June 26th, 2009 at 2:28 PM
Does anyone no if Mohamed Atta paid for his trip to Mecca?
D, Hakim Ellison could be got handing out dirty bombs on E 24th Street and he’d still be elected.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:41 PM
Chile,
Are you always such a bad speller (does anyone no (sic)) or are you just stupid?
As for Mohammed Atta, are you also a bigot? You sound like the kind of person that thinks the Holocaust museum shooter was just another misunderstood conservative.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:20 PM
Tom,
It is properly called “The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum”.
One would think that someone so concerned about spelling would be equally concerned about proper names.
Does that make you a bigot?
June 26th, 2009 at 7:23 PM
Right,Tom. Atta helped kill almost 3,000 innocent people, and your`re worried if sombody`s a bigot or not. Typical Liberal. Political correctness- the shield of a coward.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:36 PM
Liberal danbrome, are you posting as “Tom” now, or is their someone else here who also has a queer eye for the dotted “i”.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:40 PM
If he has a queer eye for the dotted “i”, you must just be a queer.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Octavian, er…Tommy!! – you must have spent days in the library searching for that name.
June 27th, 2009 at 12:51 PM
Octavian sounds like another danbrome pseudonym.
Liberal danbrome, whatever happened to your “Yoda” screen name? You could also use “Deep Throat”, it would be an apt description.
June 27th, 2009 at 9:04 PM
F U chile
June 27th, 2009 at 11:46 PM
chile..
You suggest that I have posted as Yoda in the past.
Not true, and you know it.
June 28th, 2009 at 5:20 AM
This is a fun website!!
June 28th, 2009 at 7:46 AM
Keith isn’t one of my favorites. I don’t have a lot of patience with politicians who have a history of screwing up. Obviously, he shouldn’t be accepting gifts on this large a scale. Obviously, if he does accept such gifts he should make full disclosures concerning them. That said, he is just a back bench Congressman, and he will never be anything else of consequence. His job is to warm one of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and I am sure he does that job quite adequately.
June 28th, 2009 at 9:29 AM
I have to say, I am amused that Keith Ellison has joined his political fortunes with Matt Entenza’s, another politician with a history of screwing up big time. There are technical political reasons why such an association is desirable, I suppose, but in terms of the way each politician wants to present himself to the public, the link does remind voter of each politician’s failings.
June 28th, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Ellison has done quite a bit of stuff concerning Foreign Affairs and going to the Middle East and such. He hasnt done anything legislatively that he can tout but he’s done plenty through traveling.
Now Klobuchar, that woman just racks up the accomplishments. Read about some other piece of legislation that she’ll probably get passed concerning wiring during road construction. read that at MNPP or MnPublius I believe.
June 28th, 2009 at 9:55 AM
Ellison has a certain prominence, but very few things matter less to the people who live in the fifth district, then the fact that there congressman likes to wander around in the middle east. And the fact of Ellison’s ethical insensitivity has to have an isolating effect within Congress.
June 28th, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Hiram, welcome back! I hope you enjoyed your short time away from MDE.
Back bench or not, Hakim is still a congressman making 174K a year and vesting himself into a lucrative federal pension.
Andrew, what foreign affairs “stuff” has Hakim done? (Besides getting arrested at the Sudan Embassy.) Who does Ellison represent when he travels, the United States or the Nation of Islam?
Liberal danbrome, put on your grammar-nanny hat and tell us what you think of Andrew’s post.
June 28th, 2009 at 12:10 PM
I am no big fan of Congressional junketeering generally, and certainly not by back bench junior Congressmen, and part of the reason is the issue you raise. Who Ellison represents on these excursions is not clear. He doesn’t represent the federal government or the people of the fifth Congressional District because he doesn’t work for the state department.
I have long held the view that people elected to Congress, as a condition of assuming office, should be required to turn in their passports. I wouldn’t ban Congressional foreign travel altogether, but while abroad would insist they be kept on the shortest lease possible, and never be allowed to say or do anything.
June 28th, 2009 at 12:42 PM
I agree with having members of Congress remain state side. Unfortunatley, that advice comes thirty years too late for Leo Ryan.
How about Jimmy Carter traveling the world and stirring up trouble, while living off his presidential pension?
June 28th, 2009 at 1:25 PM
“How about Jimmy Carter traveling the world and stirring up trouble, while living off his presidential pension?”
He may draw a pension, but he doesn’t work for the government. The situation for Ryan is somewhat different; he was looking out for his constituents.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:28 AM
This editorial is simply political cover. It gives the Red Star editorial people an example of how they want to hold DFL officials to the same standard as GOP.
It gives them the “cover” to say they treat both sides fairly. So the next time they get a chance to twist Bachmann’s words or pull something out of context, they can point to this example as the balance.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:47 AM
Say what you will about Michele, I don’t know of any expensive gifts she has received from constituents. The comparable case, I suppose is Norm and his free suits, but even I will concede, that’s trivial and not nearly as cheezy as accepting extremely expensive foreign trips.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:17 AM
D., the Libune is convering the story now only because Powerline and Frater Libertas has already has exposed it.
Yesterday, on “At Issue”, both liberals Cathie Hartnett and Ember Reichgott Junge stated that Hakim Ellision should disclose details of this trip.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:26 AM
Didn’t Coleman address the “free suit” issue?
June 29th, 2009 at 2:56 PM
Please, D, nobody has to twist Bachman’s words. Those gems come out that way! She’s comedy gold!
June 29th, 2009 at 3:19 PM
“both liberals Cathie Hartnett and Ember Reichgott Junge stated that Hakim Ellision should disclose details of this trip.”
Obviously he should. Ellison’s refusal to disclose is completely indefensible.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:52 PM
I agree. How is this any different than Norm’s suits? (clothing, not law)
Maybe he needs a better spokesperson.
“Rep. Ellison has reported every gift he has ever recieved.”
June 30th, 2009 at 8:59 AM
“MUSLIM AMERICAN SOCIETY PROPAGATING ANTI-JEWISH,
ANTI-CHRISTIAN AND PRO-JIHAD HATRED”
http://www.americansagainsthate.org/press_releases/PR-EllisonMAS.php
Leroy, you jackass, “How is this any different?” You make this too easy.
First, lets look past MAS-MN’s links terrorism and Hakim Ellison’s links to the Nation of Islam. Ellison took this trip shortly before the ACLU (yes your liberal buddies at the ACLU) sued the madasah operating under the name of TIZA, for using tax dollars to promote religion.
Months earlier, Katherine Kersten informed us of the connection between TIZA and MAS-MN.
TIZA’s strong religious connections date from its founding in 2003. Its co-founders, Zaman and Hesham Hussein, were both imams, or Muslim religious leaders, as well as leaders of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS-MN).
“Since then, they have played dual roles: Zaman as TIZA’s principal and the current vice-president of MAS-MN, and Hussein as TIZA’s school board chair and president of MAS-MN until his death in a car accident in Saudi Arabia in January.
TIZA shares MAS-MN’s headquarters building, along with a mosque.”
http://www.startribune.com/featuredColumns/16404541.html
Open your eyes Leroy, you jacksass.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Leroy, you’re doing it wrong. You need a smug grin as you repeat that line over and over and over as the answer, no matter what the question.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:43 PM
Chile, you twat.
Norm Coleman received gifts from an Iranian businessman.
Last I checked, Islam was not a member of the famed axis of evil.
What ever happened to, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us?”
Was that as much of a crock as Mission Accomplished?
June 30th, 2009 at 10:00 PM
Leroy, you jackass, do you have any proof Norm received free suits? Hakim has admitted he recieved a free trip to Mecca – he just refuses to disclose the details.