During an MSNBC conference call on Thursday night, Senators Charles Schumer, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren weighed in on their pick to replace Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Donna Brazile: Representative Keith Ellison from Minnesota (shown). Warren told MSNBC that Ellison would make a “terrific DNC chair.”
Ellison mouthed homilies about how the Democrat Party must get back on track in the face of its loss of the White House and control of Congress on Tuesday, declaring: “The key here has got to be a turnout-based, grassroots-based, Democratic Party that uses relationship building, one on one.” Whatever that means, it is clear from a review of Ellison’s background that he has all the credentials needed to chair the DNC:
• In 2006, he became the first Muslim to be elected to the House;
• During his swearing-in ceremony (a photo-op as the swearing-in ceremony was done for all members en masse), Ellison insisted on using a Koran rather than a Bible;
• He is a leader of the House Progressive Caucus;
• He is a former steering committee member of the communist National Lawyers Guild;
• He has received an endorsement from the Communist Party USA;
• He is one of eight members of Congress (all Democrats) arrested in 2013 for blocking traffic on Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C. during an immigration rally;
• He has suffered repeated suspensions of his driver’s license for his failure to pay various traffic tickets and fines;
• He has failed to pay income taxes in five separate years, forcing the IRS to place liens on his house;
• He has endorsed the far-left radical Louis Farrakhan, claiming that he “is not an anti-Semite” and “is a sincere, tireless and uncompromising advocate of the black community”;
• He has been sanctioned repeatedly for election campaign rule violations and was sued twice by Minnesota’s attorney general over them;
• He has had a 10-year relationship with Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood from whom he has received campaign contributions during his reelection campaigns; and
• His voting record reflects his monumental disdain for the Constitution. His Freedom Index (a congressional scorecard based on the Constitution that rates congressmen on their adherence to limited government, fiscal responsibility, and national sovereignty) is a mere 25 out of 100.
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When the Republican Party’s platform in 2012 contained a statement that “there must be no use of foreign law by U.S. courts in interpreting our Constitution and laws … nor should foreign sources of law be used in State courts [or for] adjudication of criminal or civil matters,” Ellison responded, “It’s an expression of bigotry.… Why do [the Republicans] want to become the party of hate? They’re hating on immigrants … they’re demonstrating hatred toward Muslims.”
In other words, in designing the perfect profile for the next chairman of the DNC, it would look like Ellison’s. He’ll announce his formal intention to run for the office on Monday. With endorsements from the likes of Schumer, Sanders, and Warren, how could he lose?
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
