Keith Ellison

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, perhaps the only Minnesota politician with the word “peace” in his job title, says the Nobel Peace Prize for President Obama is “deeply problematic. It rewards rhetoric over substance.”

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, DFL-Minneapolis, and Rep. José E. Serrano, D-Bronx, have a friendly wager going over which team will win the American League Division Series between the Twins and the Yankees. If the Yankees lose, Serrano has to praise the Twins from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. If the Yankees win, [...]

Back in fall 2006, before Glenn Beck was the household name he is today, he tried out a rhetorical tactic he’s now known for. He famously asked Rep. Keith Ellison, because the freshman legislator is Muslim, to “prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.” Critics of Beck have commemorated the Fox [...]

Don’t let health care reform put a new tax on med-tech companies. That was the message of a letter sent last week by a bipartisan group of Minnesota members of Congress to U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee that takes up a reform bill today. But somehow the letter failed to [...]

The U.S. House voted to suspend all federal funding for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) on Thursday afternoon by a vote of 345 to 75. Now the measure heads to the Senate, which passed a bill banning federal housing monies from going to the embattled nonprofit.

A bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] was introduced in the U.S. House on Tuesday, garnering 92 cosponsors including Minnesota Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum. The bill would direct the federal government to recognize same-sex marriage performed in states where the practice is legal.

Last week U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar expressed catty concern about whether voices Rep. Michele Bachmann hears are entirely divine. On Wednesday, another Democrat from Minnesota’s congressional delegation worried about the voices Bachmann is not hearing. She “uses her time at financial services to attack CRA,” Keith Ellison wrote on Twitter (referring to her repeated gripes [...]

You want to see some vein-popping, eyeball-bulging, fire-breathing, pissed-off progressive rhetoric on health care? Sample these speeches from Saturday’s DFL rally for health care reform in St. Paul, featuring U.S. Reps. Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison, and mayors R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis and Chris Coleman of St. Paul, in video clips via The UpTake. 

While touring the Mayo clinic on Monday, Sen. Al Franken indicated his support for a public option in the health care reform package being debated in Congress. Meanwhile, Sen. Amy Klobuchar pondered an alternative: health insurance cooperatives.

The absent congresswoman missed quite a commotion, including finger poking, shouted slogans and a fearful pup. But while Rep. Betty McCollum was traveling to her son’s wedding, she was left a clear message: People are angry about her support for health care reform.