Rep. Ellison arrested during Darfur protest

I’m not aware that any conservatives are howling at Rep. Keith Ellison for getting arrested yesterday.

I mean, sure – you’re one of the 500-odd most powerful elected people in the world; you’re in Washington in large part due to the efforts of a sychophantic mainstream media; you do  have some avenues to be heard on the issue.

On the other, it’s his First Amendment right, and I don’t disagree with him on the proximate issue.  The resolution is worth a little discussion (and that discussion needs to include Ellison’s coreligionists in Sudan, who are carrying out the genocide in the first place), but again, I don’t disagree with the motivation.

It was an apparently unprecedented act by a member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation and somewhat out of character for Ellison, a Democrat who has generally avoided controversy since he arrived in Congress, attracting international attention as its first Muslim member.Minnesota Republican Party officials, while saying they respect Ellison’s advocacy against genocide in Darfur, criticized his decision to get arrested as a “publicity stunt unbecoming of the office he holds.”

Also, any time that Ellison spends in jail is time that he’s not in the Capitol.

Perhaps we need to start this as a fad in Congress.

8 thoughts on “Rep. Ellison arrested during Darfur protest

  1. “Minnesota Republican Party officials, while saying they respect Ellison’s advocacy against genocide in Darfur, criticized his decision to get arrested as a “publicity stunt unbecoming of the office he holds.”

    Unbecoming? Have you seen Congress this year? Save the criticism for the stuff he actually does wrong. This is probably the best thing he’s done all year.

  2. I don’t mind him acting on his conscience if he is acting as an ordinary citizen and pays that price (jail, fine, whatever).

    I’d be upset if he tried to pull rank, using his Congressman status to claim he’s above the law and therefore above punishment for the offense.

    .

  3. It IS nice to see a precious few Democrats advance beyond Postcolonial Theory and begin to realize that we may indeed have to “save brown women from brown men” in Darfur (but maybe it’s just the “neo-colonialist” in me…).

  4. What?!?!?!
    “unbecoming of the office”
    No money in the freezer? No man on man hanky panky in the bathroom stalls? No gay prostitution brothel run in your apartment by your gay lover?

    Obviously, Unc, Ellison doesn’t know how congress critters act.

  5. So Ellison wants to enforce some sort of US imperialism on Sudan? How much you wanna bet Haliburton is behind this. It’ all a plot to get Sudan’s oil.

  6. nate Says:

    April 28th, 2009 at 8:20 am
    I don’t mind him acting on his conscience if he is acting as an ordinary citizen and pays that price (jail, fine, whatever).

    I’d be upset if he tried to pull rank, using his Congressman status to claim he’s above the law and therefore above punishment for the offense.”

    I remember when Ellison was first elected and Bush brought him to the white house as proof that Bush didn’t hate all muslims, just terrorists.

    Seemed odd to me that Ellison wouldn’t have the sense to protest more legally, with a group of people getting the proper permits etc. to properly protest. Perhaps that will be explained as more information comes out.

    Given that it was widely reported on the national news that Ellison spent four hours in jail before being released, it doesn’t seem like he has been using his position for special treatment.

  7. I’m not exactly a fan of Ellison, but he was right on this on the substance, and his means of drawing attention to the problem seems to me to be quite reasonable.

    Good for him.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.