Gimme An "E"

The Star Tribune's Rochelle (from Milan to Minsk?) Olsen breaks out her pom-poms and pens a puff piece on Keith Ellison that would make the peppiest cheerleader proud:

When Rep. Martin Sabo announced he wouldn't run again after 28 years in Congress, Keith Ellison emerged as the front-runner by winning the DFL Party endorsement in a district that is solidly Democratic.

Ellison, a state legislator from north Minneapolis, won the endorsement in May by successfully tapping into the base of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone. Ellison laid claim to being "the progressive" in the race -- aggressively promoting labor and union issues and the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

It is no accident that Ellison T-shirts are the same shade of spruce green as the T-shirts worn by Wellstone supporters.

"I am going to speak up for peace. I'm going to speak up and be able to challenge the drug companies and pharmaceutical companies and demand economic justice for people, the union movement and the right to organize," Ellison said. "Republican-lite has failed us as Democrats. I believe progressive values are better."

After four paragraphs praising Ellison, Olsen finally gets around to addressing some of his "issues":

But Ellison's campaign barely got going before issues arose about disarray in his personal life.

Many of them came up because he became the prime target of bloggers and anonymous e-mailers. Ellison was hit by revelations of dozens of unpaid parking tickets.

Fines for late campaign finance report filings and a tax lien against his house became issues. Also, questions were raised about his ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, because Ellison was involved with the group for about 18 months in the mid-1990s.

Those damn bloggers. How dare they bring up revelations, TRUE by the way, about Keith Ellison's past conduct that may raise doubts among voters in Minnesota's Fifth District (like me) about whether Ellison is fit to represent them in Congress. Olsen's attempt to blame the messenger is particularly galling since there would be no need for the bloggers to bring such matters to light if there was a decent newspaper in town. The reason that the bloggers are talking about Keith Ellison's past is because the local media, particularly the Star Tribune is not.

By the way, those three skimpy paragraphs, eighty-five words in all, are the only part of Olsen's entire article, 746 words total, that address Ellison's difficulties in any detail. And even then it's a quick dismissal, especially on his ties to the Nation of Islam. Move on. Nothing to see here.

The rest of Olsen's piece focuses on how Ellison has put these little trifles behind him and what a swell guy he really is. It also includes the obligatory unenlightening quote from Larry Jacobs, who apparently must be consulted on damn near every political story that appears in the paper. I don't know if an Ellison campaign brochure could come up with better hagiography than this:

Ellison grew up in middle-class Detroit, the son of a social worker and doctor. His three brothers are a doctor, a lawyer and a preacher. A passionate speaker, Ellison often jumps to his feet in debates, jabbing the air with a finger to make a point. He's a voracious reader, consuming four or five books at a time.

Ellison moved to Minnesota with his wife, Kim, to go to law school. Four children and a career as a public defender followed. When he makes his closing arguments to juries, he tells them that the greatness of this country lies in its people and in the Constitution.

His affinity for the underdog came from an upbringing steeped in civil rights, human rights and racial equality. He was often told by his mother about how his maternal grandfather -- who died before he was born -- organized black voters in rural Louisiana more than 50 years ago. His father was a United Auto Workers member who paid his own way through medical school by working on the assembly line. "We never had the lights turned off. We always had food in the house, but service was important. Justice was important," Ellison said.

He grew up Catholic, but converted to Islam while studying economics at Wayne State University. He was drawn to the law, especially litigation and defense, out of a desire to see that "vulnerable people, poor people, politically unpopular people have a fair shake."

About 10 years ago, he complained to his wife about a lack of progress on an issue at the Legislature and she surprised him, he said, by challenging him to do something about it. "It's easier to shake a tree than to gather up all the berries and make jam," Ellison said.

As a state representative, he got passed a repeal of vagrancy laws that criminalized homelessness, and secured $400,000 for outreach. He also fought for more school funding. He fought against cuts to local government aid.

Straight down-the-middle reporting that. And what a flair for the language. "He got passed a repeal" just flows off the tongue, doesn't it?

Ellison, Ellison, yeaaaahhh, ELLISON!

UPDATE: Scott Johnson from Power Line, the leader of those damnedable bloggers targeting Ellison by daring to ask hard questions about his past, looks at Olsen's puffery and asks, What is the Star Tribune?

Scott also links to a New York Sun article on Ellison by Josh Gerstein, which Scott describes:

By itself, however, Gerstein's New York Sun article shines more light on the race than the Minneapolis Star Tribune has in three months. This despite the glaring fact that the race has taken place in the Star Tribune's back yard. Gerstein's story puts the work of the four or five Star Tribune reporters who have covered the race and the two Star Tribune lefty columnists who have run interference for Ellison to shame. Pathetic.