Archive for the ‘Keith Ellison’ Category

One of the first things out of Nancy Pelosi’s mouth is potentially stupid. In her op-ed, cowritten with Jim McGovern, Pelosi said “In November, the American people went to the polls and sent an unmistakable message to Washington. By a historic 10 million vote margin, they asked for a Congress that would be more transparent, ethical and focused on debating and advancing good ideas no matter where they come from. They asked for a Congress that would prioritize a positive, forward-looking agenda for the people.”

It’s worth remembering that Ms. Pelosi didn’t initiate a review into Keith Ellison’s alleged molestation of Karen Monahan. Further, Ms. Pelosi is the personification of the Swamp, having started serving in Washington, DC, in 1987.

Ms. Pelosi didn’t check into Rep. Ellison’s alleged misdeeds because that might’ve gotten into her way of becoming speaker again. Is that the personification of a person who’s going to clean the swamp? I don’t think so. Then there’s this:

Third, we will restore Congress’ constitutional role recognizing that the legislative branch is Article I, the first branch of government, coequal to and a check and balance on the executive and the judiciary. We will strengthen the representation of all Americans, and expand the voting rights of representatives elected by our more than 4.5 million fellow Americans from Washington, D.C., and the territories.

This is nothing more than the Democrats’ justification for non-stop investigation into President Trump rather than passing legislation that helps people. The truth is that expectations aren’t high that Pelosi’s House will attempt to accomplish much substantively.

During her speech, Ms. Pelosi said that they “would debate good ideas no matter where they came from.” She’s already failed on that count because walls have protected Israelis from terrorists and South Koreans from invading armies. Frankly, Ms. Pelosi lied during her speech because that’s the Democrats’ nature.

The only question left is how long it’ll take before Democrats go too far.

Last Tuesday night, Keith Ellison was elected to replace Lori Swanson as Minnesota’s Attorney General. In this post, I wrote about Skip Humphrey and Walter Mondale’s op-ed endorsing Ellison for the AG position.

Prior to that op-ed, I’d thought of them as terrible on policy but somewhat of a family legacy. After that op-ed, I’m forced to admit that they’re just like most DFL politicians. They’re a pair of political hacks who put the DFL ahead of what’s best for Minnesotans. They’re a pair of losers, too.

Skip Humphrey’s biggest claim to fame isn’t that he’s Hubert Humphrey’s son. Skip Humphrey’s biggest claim to fame is that he’s the politician who finished last to this clown:

Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura defeated Norm Coleman but he thrashed Skip Humphrey. After that thrashing, Skip had gone into hiding. He would’ve been better off if he’d stayed out of the limelight.

Walter Mondale’s biggest claim to fame is that he’s the only politician who’s lost elections in all 50 states. In 1984, he lost 49 states in President Reagan’s re-election victory. Mondale won Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes and DC’s 3 electoral votes that year. President Reagan won the nation’s other 525 electoral votes. After Paul Wellstone’s tragic death in a plane crash in northern Minnesota, the DFL recruited Mondale to run against Norm Coleman. That’s when Mondale lost in Minnesota. BTW, everyone my age and older remembers this moment:

Those moment have been eclipsed by Skip Humphrey’s and Walter Mondale’s endorsement of a man who has frequently supported cop-killers. Keith Ellison is a low-life who isn’t qualified to be Minnesota’s AG. It’s quite telling that the DFL hasn’t shown any remorse for endorsing a man credibly accused of beating his ex-girlfriend and who has begged the Castro government not to release Assata Shakur back into US custody.

It’s amazing that 2 men with legitimate legacies would throw them away for a politician like Keith Ellison. Still, that’s precisely what Skip Humphrey and Walter Mondale did in this counterpoint op-ed.

It proves beyond a doubt that there aren’t any moderates left in the DFL. Humphrey and Mondale open their counterpoint op-ed by saying “The Star Tribune Editorial Board erred in its decision not to endorse in the Minnesota attorney general’s race (“Two deeply flawed AG candidates,” Nov. 2). As two former Minnesota attorneys general, we can say with confidence that Keith Ellison is well-prepared to fulfill the important duties of this essential constitutional office and is the only reasonable choice for Minnesota voters in this election.”

Here’s a question for Mssrs. Humphrey and Mondale: What makes Ellison “well-prepared”? His frequent support for cop-killers?

Keith Ellison has always told Minnesotans exactly where he stands, and has acted on his word. He has been a strong advocate for equal opportunity and justice for all in Congress. He has the legal experience necessary to lead this public interest law firm. Over a 16-year career of civil rights and defense law, Ellison headed the state’s premier nonprofit public defense organization, the Legal Rights Center, for five years. He has real experience trying dozens of cases before the court and juries, experience that Mr. Wardlow lacks. Keith Ellison has the right priorities for the office, pledging to protect consumers and workers, and to enforce Minnesota’s strong civil rights laws to protect the rights of all.

Mssrs. Humphrey and Mondale, is it a Minnesota priority to file lawsuit after lawsuit against the federal government because you disagree with a president? Mssrs. Humphrey and Mondale, is it a Minnesota priority to support cop-killers like Assata Shakur and Sharif Willis? Mssrs. Humphrey and Mondale, is it a Minnesota priority to you to support a man credibly accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend?

As far as I’m concerned, Mssrs. Humphrey and Mondale are just typical politicians who put the DFL first and Minnesota last. How disgraceful.

It’s pretty clear that Keith Ellison knows a thing or two about being slippery. With a week left before Election Day, Keith Ellison is still attempting to slip away from Karen Monahan’s accusations.

It’s fun reading that “Keith Ellison stood in front of reporters this week desperate to redefine the attorney general’s race as his poll numbers slide. The Democratic congressman’s campaign has been overshadowed for the two months since his ex-girlfriend accused him of physical and emotional abuse.” As the candidate with near universal name recognition, he’s fighting a difficult problem:

Ellison has denied the allegations, but the damage was done. Once leading Republican opponent Doug Wardlow in polls, Ellison trails by 7 percentage points in the most recent Minneapolis Star Tribune/MPR News survey. Still, Ellison has hope: the same poll shows 16 percent of voters say they’re not sure who they’ll choose. So there he was Thursday in the basement conference room at the state Capitol, imploring voters to examine Wardlow’s record instead of his own troubles.

Ellison doesn’t have much hope. Most undecideds break away from well-known candidates. If they know who you are but are still undecided, that isn’t a vote of confidence. That’s a sign that voters aren’t satisfied with their options.

Here’s mathematical proof that Ellison is in trouble. Let’s suppose that 1,000 likely voters were polled. If Ellison is getting 36% of the vote, then convinced 2/3rds of undecideds to vote him, which is highly unlikely, Ellison would finish with 467 votes. Wardlow is getting 43% of the vote. If he convinced 33% of the undecideds to vote for him, he’d finish with 483 votes.

The reality is that Ellison isn’t likely to win 67% of undecideds. He’ll be lucky to convince 50% of undecideds to vote for him. If Ellison and Wardlow each won half of the undecideds, Wardlow would finish with 51% of the final vote. Frankly, Ellison’s support of Assata Shakur should disqualify him from being Minnesota’s Attorney General:

Then, too, so should Ellison’s statement that he wouldn’t uphold Minnesota laws he doesn’t like. It’s time to end Keith Ellison’s political career.

In this article, Keith Ellison, the DFL’s disgraced candidate for Minnesota’s Attorney General’s office, is quoted as saying “I value and honor all members of law enforcement and am grateful for the work they do every single day.”

With all due respect to Rep. Ellison, that’s a pile of BS. This letter supports #BlackLivesMatter, not law enforcement:

In the letter to the Bloomington City Attorney, Ellison is quoted as saying “I am writing in response to reports that you are considering issuing charges against the organizers of the Black Lives Matters protest at the Mall of America on Saturday, December 20.”

He then adds this:

I request that you reconsider using your prosecutorial discretion to issue such charges. The purpose of the protest was to draw attention to concerns about police-community relations in light of the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and others in confrontations with police.

Ellison finished his letter by saying this:

The demonstrations didn’t damage property and protesters remained peaceful the throughout the demonstration. Many Minnesotans were inconvenienced during the holiday shopping season and I understand their frustration. Nonetheless, I encourage you and city leaders to consider the broader context of what the protest represented…

Does that sound like a letter who “values and honors all members of law enforcement”? It sounds more like something that a Black Lives Matter activist might say.

Keith Ellison isn’t hiding the fact that he won’t uphold laws he doesn’t like. That’s what he’s saying in this video:

Ellison said “If the state legislature passes laws that don’t make sense, but are constitutional, then I’m going to have to cross that bridge when I get to it.” That statement is what I’d expect from a narcissist who thinks he’s the ultimate decider of which laws get enforced and which once won’t. Ellison isn’t arguing for the principle of prosecutorial discretion. He didn’t mention a lack of resources.

Specifically, Ellison talked about laws “that don’t make sense” but that are constitutional. Who gives him the authority to determine which laws makes sense? I’m certain that Minnesota’s Constitution doesn’t. What are Ellison’s criteria for judging which laws make sense?

Apparently, being Minnesota’s chief law enforcement officer doesn’t interest Ellison, either:

Apparently, Ellison thinks that the Minnesota Attorney General’s office should be used to thwart President Trump’s agenda or advance the Democrats’ agenda. What else did he mean when he said “Some of my opponents have been trying to argue that I’m going to sort of leave the federal Congress to come back to Minnesota to try to use the state Attorney General’s Office as some sort of political platform. And the truth is I do plan on doing some national litigation.”

If Democrats want to sue President Trump, then let them raise the money and open their own law firm. Minnesota’s taxpayers shouldn’t pay the price for Keith Ellison’s or the Democrats’ activism.

The choice couldn’t be clearer. A vote for Keith Ellison is a vote for advancing the Democrats’ agenda of obstructing President Trump by any means necessary. A vote for Doug Wardlow is a vote to restore law and order in Minnesota.

Tim Walz just couldn’t resist the opportunity to play politics after the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. After the shooting, Walz took to Twitter to say “As we learn more about what’s happened in Pittsburgh, my heart goes out to the victims, loved ones, first responders, and Jewish community at large. This is a pain that is all too familiar in America. We can and must take action to reduce gun violence in our communities.”

Does anyone seriously think he cares about the people killed by this gunman? I certainly don’t. This is just another attempt by Walz to curry favor with the gun grabber fringe in the DFL.

As we learn more about what’s happened in Pittsburgh, my heart goes out to the victims, loved ones, first responders, and Jewish community at large. This is a pain that is all too familiar in America. We can and must take action to reduce gun violence in our communities.

— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) October 27, 2018

It’s clear that Tim Walz has gone from being a reliable vote for the NRA to being a reliable vote for Michael Bloomberg. He’s no longer a centrist. He’s a leftist. On Nov. 6, it’s time to retire Tim Walz, Tina Smith and Keith Ellison.

This accusation was inevitable. With Keith Ellison trailing heading into the final week of the campaign, it was inevitable that the Ellison campaign would create this type of BS story at the last minute.

According to the article, “For Ryan Durant, a former high school classmate, Wardlow’s views aren’t just a question of policy. They’re personal. Durant remembers Wardlow as a high school bully who repeatedly harassed him for being gay and as the person who mocked him after he attempted suicide in the 10th grade. Both Durant and Wardlow attended Eagan High School and graduated in the class of 1997. In an account corroborated by several other students, Durant, 39, alleges that Wardlow, who is now 40, bullied him for years because of his sexual orientation. He said Wardlow called him derogatory terms like ‘fag’ and ‘faggot,’ and then escalated to more personal insults such as ‘people like you should be shot.'”

Why wasn’t this reported decades ago? Where’s the evidence that this happened? Further, how does Durant explain this?

I categorically deny these allegations about me when I was 14 years old. I never did or said anything remotely like the things alleged. … Clearly, Ryan Durant is politically motivated. In late 2009, before I held any political office and just after I announced my candidacy for State House, Durant posted on Facebook that he would consider voting for me.

The statement continues:

“Now, Durant frequently compares Republicans to Nazis on his Facebook page, and he recently ‘liked’ Ellison attack dog William Davis’s Facebook comment that Republicans should be sent to the guillotines. The change demonstrates that the allegations are politically motivated lies. Ellison has shopped this story to multiple media outlets as a last-minute ‘Hail Mary’ to save his failing campaign. It will not succeed.”

Clearly, Durant is a partisan. Clearly, the Ellison campaign is flailing. If ever there was a match made in heaven, it’s between Durant and Ellison. Ellison won’t admit that he bullied his ex-girlfriend:

Ken Martin won’t admit that his ‘independent’ investigation was a sham. Ryan Durant can’t afford to admit that he’s now a bitter partisan. Whichever way you slice it, this is a match made in political hell.

Last night on Almanac, Ken Martin, the DFL Party Chairman, did his best to appease the #MeToo movement activists while still defending Keith Ellison. Suffice it to say that he didn’t exactly thread the needle. Martin started by saying that all victims of sexual abuse or assault need to be taken seriously, which is why the DFL undertook an “independent investigation” conducted by the DFL’s official law firm.

Martin failed to highlight the fact that the ‘investigating’ law firm has contributed $500,000 to DFL candidates in the past, including $50,000 to Ellison. Then again, what’s a half-million dollars amongst friends, right.

Another thing that Martin didn’t highlight is the fact that Karen Monahan produced evidence of Ellison’s attack by having her doctor release a document that stated she was physically and mentally abused by Keith Ellison. Despite that proof, Martin still doesn’t believe her:

“I support Karen bringing her allegations forward, and I support there being an investigation into those,” Martin said. “We conducted an outside, independent investigation, and that investigation showed we could not substantiate her claim of domestic abuse. And so I do not believe her; I believe our investigation.”

I can’t take seriously an investigation conducted by a highly conflicted law firm. One conservative I talked with put it this way:

You also have the spectacle of a paunchy, bloated DFL chairman Ken Martin telling us he doesn’t believe her. Instead, we are implausibly expected to believe the DFL’s own “outside” investigation of the matter. Yes, the fox has definitely concluded that there is no evidence he was in the hen house on the night in question.

What could possibly go wrong with an investigation like that? Here’s Chairman Martin tap-dancing as best he could:

Calling that investigation an “independent investigation” is insulting. Further, while Martin used a soft tone of voice, the truth is that he still called Ms. Monahan a liar. That’s one of the reasons why I think Martin isn’t a man of integrity.

Another reason I think Martin isn’t a man of integrity is because he’s defending Keith Ellison, a man who has supported cop-killers like Assata Shakur in the past. Martin is defending Ellison for purely partisan reasons. It’s impossible to think he honestly thinks Ellison is an innocent man.

When the Democrats’ target was Brett Kavanaugh, the #MeToo and #BelieveHer movements were urgent matters. The minute Justice Kavanaugh got confirmed, the Democrats’ war cry died. When Keith Ellison became the focus, the DFL circled the proverbial wagons and started protecting the alleged sexual assaulter.

Harold Hamilton summed things up perfectly when he wrote “With no GOP targets on the front burner, the volume has been turned down, especially since the weapon is now focused on Democrats like Keith Ellison. In fact, the hypocrisy is shameless and appalling. The faces of Minnesota’s feminist movement, including Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith, and erstwhile gubernatorial candidate Erin Murphy (she of the corny and childish “politics of joy” campaign) have all voiced their support for Keith Ellison and his campaign for attorney general.”

Then he wrote “There is no shortage of photos and video of these leaders happily standing with this credibly accused assaulter and friend of anti-Semites. You also have the spectacle of a paunchy, bloated DFL chairman Ken Martin telling us he doesn’t believe her. Instead, we are implausibly expected to believe the DFL’s own ‘outside’ investigation of the matter. Yes, the fox has definitely concluded that there is no evidence he was in the hen house on the night in question.”

The sad thing is that the DFL’s defense of Keith Ellison won’t save him. At this point, it isn’t likely that he’ll win the AG election. In fact, after he’s defeated, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was forced to resign as deputy chair of the DNC. Once that happens, Ellison’s political career will essentially be over.

When this election passes, the DFL will have lost an important tool to affect progressive change. They will have lost the Minnesota AG’s office to torment companies. That will really hurt when you add their loss against Justice Kavanaugh.

After that string of losses, will the DFL take the time to examine what they did wrong? Anything’s possible but I wouldn’t expect a major shift away from their insanity. That wouldn’t be convenient.