Rep. Ellison on Apr. 27 before his arrest for civil disobedience (SaveDarfur.org)

Getting arrested for civil disobedience is “unbecoming” the office of U.S. Representative, said outgoing Minnesota GOP chair Ron Carey of Rep. Keith Ellison, who along with four other House Democrats was hauled off during a protest at the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., on Monday. But is it?

Ellison and seven others were arrested for crossing a police line Monday in protest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s decision to expel 16 international aid agencies from the country. In Sudan’s Darfur region, some 450,000 people have been killed since civil war began there six years ago. Ellison was arrested along with civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.); Donna Edwards (D-Md.); and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), as well as local activists.

“While we respect his advocacy for the cause of stopping genocide, members of Congress are offered no shortage of platforms to advocate for their passions that don’t involve crossing police lines and getting arrested,” said Carey in a statement. “This is a publicity stunt that is unbecoming of the office he holds and the responsibility he bears as a representative of Minnesota.”

But Jack Nelson Pallmeyer, an assistant professor of justice and peace studies at the University of St. Thomas, disagrees: he thinks it’s well within Ellison’s role as legislator and that it fits the wishes of many in Ellison’s 5th Congressional District. Further, he thinks Ellison’s a patriot.

“That the Republican party would challenge one’s patriotism based on a creative act of civil disobedience shows a great ignorance of history,” he said. “The history of civil disobedience goes back to before the founding of the country. That’s what the Boston Tea Party was.”

“For me this is an extension of why we elected him,” he added. “I’m thrilled he would represent us in that way,”

Plus, many others have taken the same route — some at the same location, for the same cause. On Apr. 28, 2006, five Democratic legislators were arrested in front of the Sudan embassy in Washington, the same one where Ellison was arrested. The late Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the first Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, was arrested along with Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), Jim Moran (D-Virg.), John Olver (D-Mass.), and Jim McGovern, who was arrested in Monday’s protest with Ellison.

“We have been calling on the civilized world to stand up and to say, ‘Enough,’ ” Lantos said at the time. “The slaughter of the people of Darfur must end.”

That was three years ago today — and five months before Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the United Nations excoriated world leaders for “shameful passivity” on Darfur.

The GOP’s Carey says the likes of Ellison have myriad “platforms to advocate for their passion.” Five years ago this summer, members of Ellison’s body had full access to one of them. In a “never again” moment, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution calling the killing in Darfur “by its rightful name: ‘genocide.’”

Given this history, it’s no surprise Ellison and his fellow congressional protesters are tired of waiting for more “becoming” ways of bringing relief to Darfur.

John McCain responded by calling Lewis’s words “shocking and beyond the pale.” This after — AP’s description — “supporters have shouted ‘traitor,’ ‘terrorist,’ ‘treason,’ ‘liar’ and even ‘off with his head’” during rallies featuring Sarah Palin and McCain.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi kicked off the final day of the Democratic National Convention at about 4 p.m. Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson then led the Pledge of Allegiance and Jennifer Hudson belted out the National Anthem, complete with red fireworks shooting off over the jumbotron. People have been waiting for hours to get through security, but Mile High stadium is now about three quarters full.

Democrats wasted no time in attacking John McCain. “I’m Howard Dean; I’m the chairman of the Democratic National Committee — and I know exactly how many houses I own,” the former Vermont Governor said at the beginning of his address. He then painted the GOP nominee as a lackey for the Bush administration. “John McCain is not a maverick,” he said. “John McCain is a yes man.”

On the floor of the stadium I spoke with Omar Adams, a 36-year-old Brooklyn Center resident who’s attending his first national convention. “Barack Obama motivates people,” he says, surrounded by dancing Minnesota delegates. “It was a phenomenal race beteween him and Hillary Clinton. Hillary stepped down gracefully. Now we have an opportunity to elect someone who’s going to make fundamental sweeping changes across our nation.” Adams has been overwhelmed by the convention. “It was phenomenal,” he says of the first three days at Pepsi Center. “I got there at three o’clock each day, stayed until the very end. You just can’t get enough of it. We’re going to have 75,000 people in this stadium. That tells you people are fed up with what’s going on. People can’t afford the things they want to buy. Wages haven’t gone up, yet gas has doubled. We need to stop fighting the war in Iraq and start paying for things at home.”

I also ran into state Sen. Mee Moua and her husband Yee Chang just outside the floor. They’d just waited two hours to pass through security. “It’s been awesome,” says Chang about the convention. “You see all the people here. They’re from all walks of life, all colors and creeds.” Moua says the family interactions of the Obama and Biden families over the first three days of the convention impressed her. “You don’t stage stuff like that,” she says. “It’s those moments of humanity. Not everything was staged and orchestrated. The tremendous affection that people have for one another, it really showed through.”

An early highlight of day four was the appearance by Rep. John Lewis, speaking on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. “We’ve come a long way, but we still have a distance to go,” the civil rights leader told the crowd. “We’ve come a long way, but we must march again. On November 4, we must march in every state, in every city, in every village, in every hamlet; we must march to the ballot box. We must march like we have never marched before to elect the next President of the United States Senator Barack Obama.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi starts the proceedings

A surprisingly common sentiment

The view from the fifth level

DNC chair Howard Dean

The Minnesota delegation gets down

St. Paul City Council member Melvin Carter III, with his mother Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter