Congressman Ellison seeks out critic Virgil Goode (R., VA) on House floor

CNN: Thursday, January 04, 2007
Muslim congressman seeks out critic on House floor

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On his first day in Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, finally met the Republican who criticized him for his decision to use the Koran at his ceremonial swearing in.

Ellison asked another Democratic member to introduce him to Rep Virgil Goode, R-Virgina, who spoke out against Ellison in a letter to constituents last month. Ellison told CNN that he approached Goode on the House floor and the brief meeting went well.

"I shook his hand and shook mine. We greeted each other." Ellison asked Goode to grab a cup of coffee with him soon and Goode accepted.

Asked if he was felt singled out as the first Muslim member, Ellison said no and added, "By reaching out to Congressman Goode I'm not trying to be accepted, I'm trying to build bridges. In this world there are too many misunderstandings. I want to put a human face on things."...

Last month, Goode wrote a letter to his constituents, stating, "The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran."...

http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/01/muslim-congressman-seeks-out-critic-on.html

Shows Goode as the douche he really is.

But I think an old school b*tch slapping might have been more fun.

absolutely wonderful...I am so very proud of our party today. I am embarrassed to admit that Keith Ellison is more of a man than I am. I hope that his offer is recieved "in kind".

I saw the video and saw Kucinich holding him close to Goode while somebody was trying to pull Goode away from Ellison. Excellent move. Be nice to them, it makes 'em look bad. Smart move.

!

excellent move.
dp

wonder what sort of lame shit Goodie 2 shoes muttered? Hope DK will talk someday.

Will work hard in VA-5 to remove that clown. Come on Dem Party, give us someone to work with, another Webb-type for VA-5!!

The idea, whether his or not, to use the Jeffereson Koran for the PHOTO OP swearing in - brilliant.

I wonder if corporate network tv will stop telling the lie that is was his official swearing in - even though it is documented on C-Span.

Official swearing in - NO RELIGIOUS BOOKS AT ALL. Group swearing in - over in seconds. All of them in one swoop.

Follow up swearing in for photo recording only - with Speaker Pelosi and family - WAS NOT OFFICIAL.

No more lies.

The new awareness of the existance of this book must be quite a revelation to a lot of people! I hope some are actually curious about it.

:patriot:

k/r

Very, very classy.

I dont think that approach is always right-but in this instance it seems to be...

... pardon the pun!

But it sounds like the screws are starting to clamp down on Brent Wilkes now and they've just moved Duke Cunningham to Tucson, so the wheels of justice in the MZM investigation, etc. are starting to turn now.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20070105-9999-1n5bribe.html

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/05/news/top_stories/20_25_261_4_07.txt

As the one remaining congressman now in office that had the highest contributions from MZM, Goode should be worried when they're coming after him now! Payback can be a **** Virgil!

He got so much grief about it that he switched parties. He was the ultimate DINO.

Good riddance, Mr. Goode. I don't want any redneck segregationists in my party.

with Dem backing (and fundraising) to make the announcement of switching parties?

I guess the best thing to do as a group is to ignore that kind of ignorance, and the best thing for Ellison to do is to confront it in a calm and rational manner. Between Glenn Beck and Virgil Goode, I think Ellison has shown an uncanny degree of class. We'd be lucky to have more men and women like him in Congress; if more immigrants means more lawmakers with integrity, then we need to start incentivizing immigration, not build farcical security fences.

Except Goode apparently did not know (or care) that Ellison is a native American. Born in Detroit, IIRC.

I guess to Goode, Beck, Prager and their base, there can be no such thing as an American Muslim. :eyes:

(I'm home from school for Christmas and I have a lot of time on my hands) and he renounced Goode's racism and actually got rather indignant with the suggestion that using the Koran was un-American. He defended religious freedom with reason, though not eloquence. As a Mormon, Beck faces a shade of the religious ostracism visited on Muslims by the likes of Goode. He may be bigoted, but at least he is inconsisent.

That really blew.

It wasn't that long ago he implicated Mr. Ellison's patriotism, his assumption being that just because Mr. Ellison is a Muslim he must be in with the "Bad Muslims". Somebody must have explained how racist he was being, because he seems to have figured out the difference during the interval.

They changed parties in the 60's/70's but they were the racist Southern Democrats who fought desegregation. Now they are the old fart racist pubs.

Some never bothered changing parties, just how they voted. I hated running across them when making phone calls for Clinton in 1992.

Racist statements are not only okay, they are appealing to these characters.

I guess the best thing to do as a group is to ignore that kind of ignorance, and the best thing for Ellison to do is to confront it in a calm and rational manner. Between Glenn Beck and Virgil Goode, I think Ellison has shown an uncanny degree of class. We'd be lucky to have more men and women like him in Congress; if more immigrants means more lawmakers with integrity, then we need to start incentivizing immigration, not build farcical security fences.

I had a malfunction with my browser