The Ellison question: Just shut up

Turning his Fifth District congressional seat over to Ilhan Omar, Keith Ellison was elected Minnesota Attorney General last month. Entering the race after the DFL had held its convention and endorsed him for reelection to Congress, The position of Minnesota Attorney General is of limited interest, but Ellison has been a national figure since his election to Congress in 2006 as the first Muslim. Indeed, he currently serves as deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Ellison did not become the endorsed DFL candidate for attorney general until he defeated “gay millennial” Matt Pelikan in the August primary. On the day after the primary, with the prospect of Ellison’s ascent to Minnesota’s top law enforcement job staring us in the face, I asked “Can Keith Ellison turn lawman?” (Editor’s note: The linked column posed question in the Weekly Standard. Download the column while you can!)

I asked the question on the morning after the Minnesota primary because of Ellison’s long public record of words and deeds evidencing his contempt for law enforcement. Ellison’s contempt goes wide and deep. It has resulted in his outspoken advocacy of cold-blooded cop killers including Joanne Deborah Chesimard, a/k/a Assata Shakur. Chesimard is not just a convicted cop killer, she is an escapee from prison. She is on the lam in Cuba. Chesimard is now one of the FBI’s most wanted. Ellison prayed for her continued refuge there.

Ellison is unfit for higher office in general and unsuited for the position of attorney general in particular. I hoped that raising the question of Ellison’s fitness for office and putting the evidence out there in a timely manner might have some impact on Minnesota media covering the race, but it didn’t. There’s something about Keith.

On Sunday St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Dave Orrick asked the question in a story with this headline: “A lot of cops don’t like Keith Ellison. How’s that going to work when he’s attorney general?” Orrick’s article is not just late, it’s pitiful. It omits most of the story I tell in the Weekly Standard column and turns into a thinly veiled brief for Ellison. Orrick quotes Ellison: “All of this — the office’s duties, Ellison’s distinctive background — make Ellison, in his words, a ‘great fit’ for the job.”

On second thought, forget it. Sorry I asked. Please, just shut up.

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