Franken & Ellison: Purveyors of Hate (opinion)

Calls for civility ring hollow when these two routinely engage in hateful political rhetoric.

“Civility” in politics is always pushed when the Left, yet again, oversteps the bounds of decency, unable to defend their latest transgression and forced to respond in some way. “Civility” is a handy cudgel because it allows the Left to claim the Right is equally offensive, equally bad. It isn’t but, of course, there are too many on our side who readily agree in an attempt to be liked by them and their handmaidens in the press. Minnesota republican politics is full of such types, usually showcased in news stories or on television political shows. They’re repulsive in the same way Sen. Ben Sasse is repulsive, though not surprisingly they’re big fans of his.

The “civility” argument falls apart, however, when looking at the public statements of our own local national embarrassments, Sen. Al Franken and Congressman Keith Ellison. For pure nastiness, anger and incivility, this is your pair to draw to. Well done, Minnesota.

Ellison has a well of obnoxious, bigoted, anti-semitic comments over decades on which to draw from. Local media, of course, downplays or ignores altogether many of them. Only when national, oftentimes international, media report on them do the dishonest members of the Fourth Estate in Minnesota report on them, in their trademark “one and done” fashion.

At a time when the Left is attempting to kill Republican members of Congress and their staff, it’s good to remind ourselves that two of the largest contributors to this climate of violence reside among, and, regrettably, represent us.

Ellison has a long history of anti-Jewish comments which, if a Republican had uttered any of them, would be cause for the media to destroy that person’s public life. With any luck, they’d destroy their personal lives a well.

Ellison wrote glowingly in law school at the University of Minnesota about the Nation of Islam, of which he was a member for a number of years and about which he has lied. Scott Johnson, writing at Powerline, has covered this history better than anyone. Of course, during this time he used terms like “white barbarism” without a second thought. A college classmate quotes Mr. Hakim (his Nation of Islam name) as saying “European white jews are trying to oppress minorities all over the world.”

His rancid public career is of a piece, the past truly being prologue. For example, he compared the 9/11 attacks to the 1933 Reichstag fire, met with a radical Saudi cleric on a trip funded by the terrorist group Muslim Brotherhood, said the Germans attacked Pearl Harbor (the man is seriously not bright), and has been arrested twice because he’s down with the struggle.

Sen. Franken is only slightly less odious but, of course, he being Jewish hasn’t been cause for him to distance himself from Ellison. The Left sticks together, you have to give them that.

Franken recently refused to cancel a book signing appearance with Kathy Griffin after her notorious photo shoot with the severed head of President Trump made international headlines. Only after several days of realizing the depth of public revulsion did he cancel, albeit at the same time calling her a friend. Displaying the breadth of his hypocrisy, he claimed Trump calling Sen. Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” was racist while insisting that Bill Maher was not despite him using the N word on his show “Real Time.” Mind you, this is the man who said, after years of serving with him, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was a bigot. Not even uber squish Joe Scarborough could let that pass, mocking him on his dreary morning cable show.

Senatorial collegiality is absent from his character as Franken has referred to Sen. Ted Cruz as “full of s***, like a Carnival Cruise.” Do Minnesotans know he ran that joke past Sen. Amy Klobuchar? A thigh slapper, that one. In a pre-publication interview for his latest unfunny book (with an advance of $332,750) he cheerfully said he “hated” Cruz and at another point called him the love child of Joe McCarthy and Dracula.

Like Ellison, there is no aspect of life that Franken won’t cheaply politicize. When Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater suffered a gruesome injury in 2016, Franken said “It’s like finding out Hillary’s having an affair with Anthony Weiner.” He quickly apologized and all was forgiven by the liberal apparatchiks in the media.

Appeals to civility then, need to be met with scorn by those of us on the Right (that includes, candidly, only some Republicans). The comparative scorecard should be rejected outright but, even if one does accept, it tilts overwhelming in the disgraceful favor of Ellison, Franken and others on the Left.

Ann Coulter recently wrote that in the past year there have been at least a hundred physical attacks on Trump supporters or presumed Trump supporters, with the mainstream media ignoring all of them. You can Google “Anti-Trump Hate Map” for the grim details. Coulter is absolutely right when she says “[t]o talk about ‘both sides’ being guilty of provocative rhetoric is like talking about ‘both genders’ being guilty of rape.’”

Minnesotans should reject the equivalency argument whenever liberals here trot it out to cover for their behavior. A good start in doing so would be to keep firmly in mind that two of the leading practitioners of what they pretend to condemn come from this state and remain in high office.

Photo credit: MinnPost

John Gilmore

John Gilmore is an author, freelance writer & former opinion columnist for Alpha News. He blogs at minnesotaconservatives.org & is @Shabbosgoy on Twitter