In an email to supporters on Wednesday, he wrote:

Republican leaders are pouring money into our communities to air a TV ad filled with misleading and downright false information. These commercials are designed to scare people with the hope they will derail our efforts to fix our broken health care system.

Republican leaders think if they yell loud enough, we will become distracted, lose focus, and they will disrupt the health care debate.

Using the phrase “our grassroots organization” three times — clearly a counterpoint to charges that town hall protesters are part of a rightwing astroturf campaign — he states that what’s needed is “a constructive message” [emphasis his] and “an honest and productive discussion.” He urges supporters to send letters to the editor — and money to him — to help him counter GOP messages he implies are in service to special interest groups like the health insurance industry.

He links to a Media Matters post that fact-checks the “Reforma” ads and finds that through them the Republican National Committee “drastically distorts information about health care reform.“

Diaz wrote that Ellison faces a review by the Ethics Committee for his “decision to keep the trip’s costs under wraps — even though it was paid for by a local Islamic nonprofit and typically would be reported as a gift to a public official.”

Yesterday, the Minnesota GOP cited the paper’s report in a letter to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, concluding:

Rep. Ellison’s actions and stonewalling are clearly wrong and he should apologize to the people of Minnesota. Taxpayer money intended for students must never be used for a politician’s personal travel. To avoid the appearance of inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, we also believe he should reimburse the state for any and all expenses incurred during this travel immediately.

In his letter to the editor Thursday, Ellison said the Strib story’s “opinions and spurious connections… do not stand up in light of the actual facts. The Star Tribune’s account must be corrected.” He says he submitted the invitation from the Muslim nonprofit to the House Ethics Committee, where it was approved.

“The Star Tribune knows that I followed the spirit and the letter of the House rules, as communicated to me by House ethics lawyers, at every step of the process,” he wrote, adding that the ethics review is a standard procedure in the House, sparked by the newspaper’s inquiry.

Ellison, Congress’ first Muslim member, said that despite his public stature he deserves a private life.

“Privacy is not undiscovered dishonesty,” he wrote. “Some things are private. For example, family and religion. My trip, which was not at taxpayer expense, and paid for by a nonprofit organization that does not lobby, was handled according to the House rules, which balance disclosure and privacy.”

Speaking to the College Republicans’ national convention over the weekend, Pawlenty commented on NBC’s “Inside the Obama White House” special: “I haven’t seen something that staged since that half-naked Austrian fell onto the face of Eminem at the MTV music awards.” He continued:

“Eminem was mad. And so, just like Eminem getting dumped on, we’ve got to kind of regroup. We’ve got to continue to fight. And we’ve got some things worth fighting for.”

His meaning could be interpreted in several ways. The GOP is white and angry? Or, like Eminem — who was apparently in on the stunt from the start — is the party merely feigning being “mad”?

Of course, likening the Republican Party to Eminem comes with other baggage: The rapper has been accused of being homophobic and sexist… and recently wrote a song about his wish to “nail” Sarah Palin.

Pawlenty did pick up a familiar refrain, presenting his vision for a new GOP. He said:

“Think purposely about elevating and promoting people who are running for office who don’t fit the stereotype of Republicans. The value of that is the messenger sort of matters. It does matter.”

“And if we have a message which we agree on,” Pawlenty added, the party must “be able to convey it in a modern way” that is appealing to those to whom it is trying to reach out.

Photo: Minnesota Independent

Woodbury attorney Chris Johnston says he is “mulling a run” against Rep. Michele Bachmann in the next Republican primary. Johnston says the district needs to be represented by a Republican “who thinks before they speak.”

Johnston, a self-described “common sense conservative attorney” who has a practice in Roseville, says he is only exploring a run. On his blog he had some harsh words for Bachmann:

“You may have heard of her…Michelle Bachmann. Yes, that Michelle Bachmann — the hiding in the bushes during a gay rally, the “anti-American” hurling, malaprop spouting, they took me out of context, Congress woman. Mrs. Bachmann and I do share some strong conservative beliefs but it has become painfully aware that the people of the 6th District deserve to be represented by someone who thinks before they speak and will work hard to effectively represent every citizen of the district.”

Johnston says he’s had quite a bit of support, but that some prominent Republicans are worried that anti-Bachmann crossover voting from DFLers will spoil the primary. But Johnston said he isn’t too concerned about that.

“Seems to me that what is in the best interest of the party is to have the best candidate on the ballot in November,” he wrote.

It passed the state Senate too. If Gov. Pawlenty were to sign it, the revenue raised would close the state’s budget gap.

Here’s a video of the last eight minutes in the Minnesota House, as posted to YouTube by the Minnesota GOP (without apparent editing besides the clip’s given title):

“Sign me up for your Tea Party, patriots,” she said in a video message. “God bless you and keep up the great work!”

While Bachmann lent her full support for the movement, Republican Reps. Erik Paulsen and John Kline remained silent on the tea parties.

Local organizers decided to forgo speeches by elected officials but didn’t shun words of endorsement.

“Although we had many requests, we did not want any elected officials to speak at this event,” Tea Party organizer Margaret Lee said in a press release.

When Gov. Tim Pawlenty gave the RNC Weekly Republican Response last weekend, he didn’t mention the Tea Party to be held right outside his office a few days later. Other speculative Republican presidential nominees ran with the Tea Party cause, however, including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who all showed up at their local gatherings.

Some elected officials were cautious about the Tea Party. “I’m just thinking what I should say because it can be used against me in a court of law,” Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, joked to the Star Tribune.

While Minnesota’s organizers left Republican leaders out the mix from the get-go, their presence at other rallies left a bad impression, the Washington Independent reports. Jason Pye, a libertarian organizer in Atlanta, Ga., was not pleased when Newt Gingrich became involved.

“Newt Gingrich enabled George W. Bush,” Pye told the Washington Independent. “He enabled the big spending. He lobbied conservative Republicans to compromise their principles and support Medicare Part D. He supported the bailout.”

In fact, a number of signs at the St. Paul rally served to remind tea party attendees that Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, “was right” and that mainstream Republicans were late to the party.

Bachmann’s message to Tea Party-goers:

Tom Horner, Minnesota Public Radio’s (MPR) Republican analyst and an adviser to Republicans including former Sens. Norm Coleman and Dave Durenberger, told “Midday” that Bachmann is sending the wrong message.

“She is an embarrassment to some republicans, myself included,” he said. “She is intentionally provocative, and does it in a way that is designed to exploit fears, to exploit mistrust in government, to do all of the kinds of things that America is not needing right now.”

He continued, “I don’t think that’s what the Republicans ought to be doing and I don’t think it’s how we need to be defined. We need leadership in this party that can stand up and say, ‘Michele Bachmann is not my kind of Republican.’”

Predictably, MPR’s Democratic analyst, Todd Rapp, welcomed Bachmann as a leading voice for the Republicans.

“In a state like Minnesota, if Michele Bachmann wants to be the voice of the Republican Party, I think most Democrats would say, ‘That’s great!’”

The Fix’s Chris Cillizza fixed Pawlenty’s current rank among “Ten Republicans to Watch” thusly:

7. Tim Pawlenty: T-Paw, the governor of Minnesota, continues to stay out of the national limelight but watch for him to ramp up his national profile in the early summer. Pawlenty also has to make a decision about whether or not to seek a third term in 2010 after winning in 2006 with just 47 percent. A loss would likely close out his presidential prospects, a fact that leads us to believe Pawlenty will retire to focus on building a national organization rather than risk his political future on a single statewide race. (Previous ranking: 6)

UPDATE: That may be the view from D.C., but an argument can be made that Pawlenty has a good shot at a third term.

Noah Kunin (Aaron Landry, Flickr)

When it comes to rejection and Norm Coleman’s campaign, Noah Kunin knows a thing or two. As senior political correspondent for The UpTake, he’s seen his questions ignored at official Coleman press conferences; his UpTake colleagues have been dubbed not “legitimate media” and refused access to campaign “media availabilities“; and GOP chair Ron Carey called The UpTake a “partisan, liberal blog” as a way of attacking Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who referenced The UpTake’s video feeds in an email.

But what Kunin wasn’t prepared for was the rejection of his absentee ballot. This afternoon, Kunin sent out a message on Twitter from the Senate contest trial that his name  appeared in a database of some 150 names of voters whose absentee ballots Team Coleman alleges were rejected. (His last name was misspelled “Kunim,” an error on the Coleman team’s part, he says; he checked with his Plymouth polling place, where it was correctly spelled.) He hasn’t yet responded to my query for comment, but the Pioneer Press’ Rachel Stassen-Berger, who has likely covered as many hours of the recount and contest as Kunin has, did. “That is righteously funny,” he said.

Update: Reached this afternoon, Kunin said he was unaware that his absentee ballot was rejected. “My brain is pretty blown right now.” He’s confused about why his ballot was rejected. He’s certain his ballot was witnessed correctly, sealed in the proper envelope and mailed properly. In fact, since he was close to the deadline, he over-stamped: “I remember distinctly putting extra stamps on it; I wanted to overpay just to make sure it got there.”

How has this news been received in the courtroom?

“The Coleman campaign has been cool to this revelation,” Kunin says. “We’ll see if I’m called to the stand or not.”

As for the earlier rejections of The UpTake from Coleman’s events, perhaps that problem will ease up a bit. This week, The UpTake was officially accepted into the capitol press corps [pdf].

Photo courtesy of Aaron Landry.

In a curious but not unrelated footnote, a private memo surfaced today in which RNC chair Mike Duncan told Republican National Committee members that “Republicans have grown accustomed to having our party recognized as the ‘Party of Ideas,’ but we must acknowledge that many Americans today believe the party is stale and does not deserve that label.” He continued, “All Republicans have an obligation to develop principled solutions rather than falling back on ideology alone; we must show how our ideology can be applied to solve problems.”