Conservative Fox News commentator Sean Hannity went after Rep. Keith Ellison in an interview Wednesday evening, criticizing the Minnesota congressman for saying Fox News has contributed to the scapegoating of Muslims.

Hannity asked Ellison about a statement he made recently: “I think if you listen to Fox News, the station 24-7 is trying to incite and divide Americans along religious lines, scapegoating the Muslim community, and this is a sort of well-worn, right-wing tactic.”

Hannity asked, “This is an incredible charge. This is a charge of bigotry. Can you give me a specific example?”

“I don’t apologize for it,” Ellison said. “If you are telling me you are going to be more even-handed on issues of religious tolerance, that’s a good step, and I thought that by inviting me here, I thought that’s what you were trying to do.”

Ellison didn’t have any specific examples available, but Media Matters did. A good example was Hannity’s criticism of Ellison for taking his oath of office on the Qur’an.

At the time Hannity said Ellison’s oath “will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones” and suggested that using the Qur’an for a swearing-in is comparable to using “Hitler’s Mein Kampf, which is the Nazi bible.”

“When you only identity terrorism and extremism with one religion, I think that’s too bad,” Ellison told Hannity. “We are at war with violent extremists who would kill Americans, they might be Muslims, they might be white supremacists, they might be people who would kill at abortion clinics. We are trying to protect Americans from any violent extremists, Muslim, Christian or Jewish, anybody.”

Watch it:

“Well, I think it’s another example of him playing the role of law professor,” said Pawlenty. “This isn’t about the technical, hyper-technical legal issues. This is about basic decency, judgment, respect, and appropriate recognition of the tragedy and crisis that was 9/11.”

“And to suggest this is somehow going to be lawyered up, and we’re gonna hide behind his legal arguments — we can have a great debate about the legal arguments — but it’s not about that. It’s about being sensitive, being respectful, and having good judgment about not putting a mosque within two blocks of Ground Zero. Anybody with common sense can see that.”

Pawlenty concluded by discussing his repeat trips to Iowa. Pawlenty says he’s trying to help 2010 candidates through his PAC. As for his own plans and whether they involve him gunning for Obama’s job, Pawlenty said, “We’ll decide that early next year.”

Pawlenty has consistently performed poorly in early presidential polls; the most recent, a survey of Iowa caucus goers, had him finishing in a tie with South Dakota’s John Thune, with 1 percent of the vote.

Pawlenty’s earlier comments about the Ground Zero-area Muslim center earned him rebukes from leaders of local and national religious groups and from Rep. Keith Ellison, who highlighted Pawlenty’s White House ambitions. “I know he wants to be president really bad,” he said on Friday, “and I know he’s trying to appeal to the most extreme elements of his party to do that, but I hope he doesn’t want to be president so bad that he’s willing to dishonor the First Amendment and our heritage of religious tolerance.”

Relevant comments start at 2:25:

Via GOP12.

Bachmann dismissed claims by former President Bill Clinton, Rep. Betty McCollum and others that Republican and Tea Party rhetoric could incite violence. She said that when Democrats feel attacked, they cry “violence.”

“Well, one word that we’ve heard a lot just in this last week is the word “violence.” And that when people on the right are disagreeing with the Obama administration that we’re fomenting violence. Well, I think violence is when the Democrat-controlled base, whether it’s President Obama, Harry Reid or Speaker Pelosi — when they feel like their political position of power is being attacked, that’s what they equate violence with.”

And as CityPages pointed out, Bachmann seems to misunderstand the concept of net neutrality, calling it “censorship.”

“So whether they’re attacking conservative talk radio, or conservative TV or whether it’s Internet sites, I mean, let’s face it, what’s the Obama administration doing? They’re advocating net neutrality which is essentially censorship of the Internet. This is the Obama administration advocating censorship of the Internet. Why? They want to silence the voices that are opposing them. Despite the fact that they continue to have much of the mainstream media still providing cover for all of these dramatic efforts that the Obama administration is taking. So they’re very specifically and pointedly going after voices that they see are effectively telling the truth about what the Obama administration is trying to do.”

The altweekly notes that Obama has been pretty clear on net neutrality: “We’ve got to keep the Internet open,” he said on the issue in February.

Here’s video of Bachmann’s appearance on Hannity on Monday:

Hannity asked Bachmann whether Republicans should accept Obama’s invitation for the bipartisan summit (Minnesota Rep. John Kline is one of the Republicans invited to the health care discussion).

“If his intent is to get a photo op so he can check the box and claim he has bipartisanship and transparency, then that seems pretty disingenuous,” she said. “We don’t want just a political dog and pony show. We want real negotiations, and real discussion. We would love to present our great ideas.”

Then, doing a little political forecasting, Bachmann told Hannity that Republicans need to unify with Tea Partiers.

“Splitting the vote won’t get us to victory. We have to have unity so we need to unify around constitutional principles. And we’ll prevail like gangbusters.”

Early on, she announced that Fox News’ Sean Hannity will be joining Sarah Palin at her campaign appearance for Bachmann in April. “We are going to show you how to party in Minnesota. It is not too late to take back our country. It is not too late to have hope.”

She emphasized the importance of not flinching in the face of criticism. “I am speaker Pelosi’s high-value target this next fall. I am. I am not making this up.”

And she reserved criticism for Twin Cities media outlets.

“I just read something last night that called me a political monster,” a reference to Steve Marsh’s recent interview with Bachmann in Mpls-St. Paul Magazine.

“‘Michele Bachmann the she-devil’ every day in the Twin Cities media,” she added. No Twin Cities media have actually called her a “she-devil.” The closest thing on search engines was Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s 1975 song called “She’s a Devil.”

“You have to know who you are and what you believe and you have to grow a titanium spine because I am here to tell you, it doesn’t even take two months,” she said. “Because they will get to you if you don’t know who you are because these people are experts they are paid to do that to wear you down.

“‘Cause they want to win, because what do they have? They have the biggest ATM in the world; your back pocket. And so all they need are shills to go and put their hand your back pocket. And they win!”

Here’s how Bachmann wrapped up her speech:

“I say to you my fellow Americans here in North Dakota: We stand on the shoulders of greatness and of great men and women who gave to us a pearl of great price called freedom and a land like none other in the United States.”

“And I say to you, we are enough to take it back. We are enough and we will,” she said choking back tears. “We will take our country back because it is no longer about us. It is about the generations yet unborn and its about those in Haiti and Thailand who depend on us for freedom and for going forward.”

The full hour of Bachmann’s appearance:

Part 1

Part 2

Bachmann told Fox’s Sean Hannity that “President Obama’s bill will mean 5.5 million jobs lost, and that’s according to his own economist, Christina Romer.”

But Romer has never said such a thing. That number was cooked up by Republicans based on a faulty analysis of Romer’s research, according to the St. Petersburg Times’ PolitiFact.

Romer’s actual take on jobs and health care reform: “Controlling health care cost growth would allow lower unemployment in the short and medium run, without putting pressure on inflation. Employment could be 500,000 higher for a number of years.”

Bachmann’s repeated mis-citation of Romer came near the end of the interview, but she made another misstatement right at the beginning, when she presumably was most ready with prepared remarks.

“Sixty-one percent of Americans do not want to have this bill,” she told Hannity. “Only 34 percent are in favor.”

As near as the Minnesota Independent can tell, Bachmann was citing a CNN survey (pdf) released last Thursday in which 36 percent said they favored the Senate bill.

And that survey question carried this disclaimer in all caps:

**IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS POLL WAS TAKEN BEFORE TUESDAY’S SENATE COMPROMISE ON THE PUBLIC OPTION. THE POLL DOES NOT REFLECT VIEWS OF THE NEW LANGUAGE ON THAT TOPIC BECAUSE IT WAS TAKEN LAST WEEK.

Here is the video of Bachmann on “Hannity” Monday. She starts at about the 1:20 mark.

Both complaints involved Bachmann’s Nov. 5 rally against health-care reform in front of the U.S. Capitol.

Israel, of New York, used YouTube to voice his displeasure with prominent protest signs at the Bachmann event depicting Holocaust victims. A statement Bachmann released this week contains an apology of a sort.

On his TV show, Stewart took Hannity to task for inserting footage from another, larger rally into scenes from Bachmann’s event. Here’s Stewart’s take on Hannity’s sort-of apology.

Media Matters has a rundown of Fox’s past video trickery.

Here is Hannity’s original Fox News segment about Bachmann’s rally:

Update: On Wednesday’s show, Hannity acknowledged that Fox used the wrong footage.

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

ST. CLOUD: Michele Bachmann bans press, makes quick cameo at own public forum. People who can’t take her for more than 10 minutes didn’t have to. [St. Cloud Times]

MINNEAPOLIS: Memo to self: Try that chokehold again. Coleen Rowley revisits a local angle on the U.S. government torture program, in light of the latest revelations. [MN Progressive Project]

ST. PAUL: Tony Sutton’s long ascent to become MNGOP chair. His cure for the “Obama hiccup”? Slam another Diet Coke. [City Pages]

MINNEAPOLIS: City council could go to court to block referendum from ballot. The park board’s bid for independent taxing authority might burn out like a 2004 medical-marijuana reeferendum. [Star Tribune]

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Budweiser can’t do the can, says “U.” The King of Beers’ gold-and-maroon cans go the way of Victoria’s Secret U of M–themed togs. [Star Tribune]

AVON: Bones of prehistoric woman dug up at construction site. Since it’s going to be a credit union, she’ll be reburied with no added fees. [St. Cloud Times]