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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Brad Schrade and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about 5th District

Ellison recalls Reagan on the 'Third Rail' of American politics

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: November 28, 2012 - 1:54 PM

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Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison and U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, delivered a letter Wednesday to every House Republican office urging them to listen to President Reagan and take Social Security off the table in current negotiations about the year-end “fiscal cliff.”
 
The letter quotes Reagan from a 1984 presidential debate:
 
“Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. Social Security is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on employer and employee. If you reduce the outgo [payments] of Social Security, that money would not go into the general fund to reduce the deficit. It would go into the Social Security Trust Fund…Social Security has nothing to do with balancing a budget or erasing or lowering the deficit.”
 
A host of experts, however, have challenged the claim that Social Security doesn’t contribute to the deficit.
 
While that might have been true in Reagan’s time, it’s a suspect argument today. By most estimates, Social Security passed the tipping point between income and outgo in 2010. It now relies on annual infusions of borrowed federal funds to pay benefits.
 
Some of that money is owed to Social Security because of government borrowing from years past, when the system was flush and Congress could use it as a piggy bank to pay for other things. But that doesn’t change the fact that Social Security is no longer funded by payroll taxes alone.
 
It’s a predicament made worse by the retiring Baby Boom generation -- and the temporary “payroll tax holiday,” which is also up for discussion as part of the fiscal cliff talks.
 
Where liberals are on more solid ground is in arguing that Social Security is not nearly as big a drag on the budget as Medicare and Medicaid. But Social Security’s own trustees reported earlier this year that the program’s trust fund will be depleted by 2033, the point at which either scheduled benefits would have to be cut or more money borrowed.
 
For memory's sake, here's Reagan:
 
 

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Ellison, Fields debate canceled

Posted by: Corey Mitchell Updated: October 22, 2012 - 11:30 AM

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A Tuesday debate between Democratic U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison and his Republican opponent, Chris Fields, has been canceled.

Days after a live radio debate where Ellison called Fields a "lowlife scumbag" and "gutter dweller" and Fields called Ellison a liar, the two will not meet for their final debate, which was scheduled for Tuesday at the Minneapolis Urban League in north Minneapolis.

The two candidates vying to represent the Fifth Congressional District will instead field questions, during separate interviews, from representatives of the Coalition of Black Churches and African American Leadership Forum this week. Al McFarlane, editor and publisher of weekly newspaper Insight News, will moderate the forums.

Fields' campaign spokeswoman Erica Schumack said that he never agreed to cancel the debate.

"We never agreed to that, nor wanted it," Schumack said Monday.

Ellison, a three-term incumbent, issued a public apology for his comments during last Thursday's debate, saying he acted beneath his "personal standard as a public official." Fields issued a statement that said Ellison "lacks the right temperament" to serve in Congress.

The candidates debated several times before last Thursday's blowup.

Ellison, Fields debate turns nasty

Posted by: Corey Mitchell Updated: October 19, 2012 - 4:23 AM

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A live radio debate between Democratic U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison and his Republican challenger, Chris Fields, in the Fifth Congressional District race turned nasty this morning, with the two candidates trading accusations and insults and Ellison calling Fields a “lowlife scumbag.”

During the debate on KFAI-FM, sparks flew when Fields accused Ellison of paying a Washington, D.C.-based political research firm to dig up dirt on Fields’ personal life. Media reports recently revealed that Fields' ex-wife filed a restraining order against him in 2006 when he lived in southern California.

 
Ellison, who accused Fields of lying repeatedly throughout the debate, called Fields stupid for discussing the domestic dispute. Ellison denied that he had anything to do with the revelation.

"You're really stupid," Ellison said. "You're a scumbag. You're a lowlife scumbag," said Ellison, who would later offer a public apology for the statement.
 
From there, Fields began offering commentary on Ellison’s recent divorce, which was finalized in late September.
 
During the exchange, Ellison told Fields: “My daughter is in the next room. I’m exercising a lot of self-control right now.”
 
During the heated argument, KFAI went silent and cut away from the exchange while the candidates calmed down, but afterwards they continued to trade barbs.
 
Things became heated again as they debated the education and employment disparities between black and white residents in the Fifth District.
 
“I’m trying to remove the biggest obstacle to fixing things,” Fields said at one point. “You.”
 
As the debate ended, Ellison told Fields: “I look forward to your concession speech.”
 
Even as the moderator wrapped up the broadcast, the candidates, still arguing, could be heard talking over her.
 
Ellison's campaign released this statement after the debate:
 
"Today during a radio broadcast debate, my opponent made false statements about an intensely personal family matter. My teenage daughter was present in the next room listening to the debate.
 
In response to my opponent's false statement, I made an uncivil reference to him. I should not have done so. I acted beneath my personal standard as a public official, and I apologize.
 
In the course of this campaign, we have been focused on creating economic prosperity for working families, protecting our constitutional right to vote, and making sure that everybody counts and everybody matters--and yet, my opponent has repeatedly and personally attacked me.
 
His untrue reference to the terms of my divorce was over the line, but my comment to him was over the line too. His tactics are no excuse for my departure from civility.
 
I will not allow this to happen again, and I regret my action."
 
Fields offered his own statement:
 
“At a time when we need civility and leadership from Washington politicians Congressman Ellison has proved that he cannot deliver and as a result we all suffer.
 
Since Ellison has been in office he has pursued a senseless foreign policy agenda, failed domestic policies and pointless legislation such as reparations for slavery. Our campaign has been centered on providing credible and workable solutions for the people of our district. 
 
We have focused on two areas; closing the achievement gap and unemployment gap between blacks and whites. These gaps affect everyone in our district and pose a very real threat to Americans nationwide.
 
In addition, we are also focused on protecting the most vulnerable among us; our seniors, veterans, the middle class and single parents.” Fields said in a statement released following the debate.
 
The Ellison campaign has been engaged in name-calling and various other political games designed to detract attention from Congressman Ellison’s record of failure. This month alone Fields has been attacked as a “liar” dozens of times without provocation or factual justification. 
 
“While I cannot apologize for Congressman Ellison’s violent outbursts, I do believe the voters of the Fifth Congressional District are entitled to a Representative who more accurately reflects their values of people working together regardless of their background or political beliefs. If I elected I will work to continue to build bridges with all communities and provide the focused attention needed to move us forward.

 
Here's a link to audio from the debate: http://kfai.org/news/2012/10/31971

 

Ellison says they don't all hate us

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: September 19, 2012 - 10:26 AM

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Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, who has been getting extraordinary air time to explain the past week’s tumult in the Middle East, appeared on Morning Joe Wednesday to refute the contention that the entire Muslim world hates the United States.
 
“It’s a struggle for power, something that’s going on in nearly every country across the region,” said Ellison, a Minneapolis DFLer and the first Muslim elected to Congress. “In Libya, you have a huge number of people who were out with signs, professing their support for not just [slain U.S. ambassador] Chris Stevens, who lost his life supporting peace and our relationship, but you had them saying, ‘Look we apologize.’ Same thing in other countries. Many of the leaders have expressed the same sentiments.”
 
Ellison came on the show two days after host Joe Scarborough opined on the air that “if you scratch the surface, and if you gave every street vendor to prime minister in that region a chance to throw a rock at the U.S. embassy, they would.”
 
“You know why they hate us?” added Scarborough, arguing that it’s naïve to expect that to change. “They hate us because of their religion, they hate us because of their culture, and they hate us because of peer pressure.”
 
Ellison framed the battle for hearts and minds in the Middle East in terms of domestic politics:
 
“What we’re basically doing is saying groups that are as disparate as the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement. We’re just saying ‘They’re all Arabs or they’re all Libyans.’ No they’re not. There are different elements that are at work here and we need to know that.”

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Ellison says Middle East in crisis needs U.S. help

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: September 17, 2012 - 11:09 AM

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Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told a national Meet the Press audience this weekend that yanking U.S. aid over the anti-American riots taking place in the Middle East would be a "dangerous and bad idea."
 

“The last thing we need is to start making quick emotionally-charged decisions," Ellison said in his first appearance in a Meet the Press roundtable. " We need consistent steady leadership like the president has shown.”

Ellison, as the first Muslim elected to Congress, has been getting more air time than usual since the fatal attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission, reportedly sparked by an anti-Muslim video produced in the U.S.

 
“We need to understand that everybody’s not on the same side," said Ellison said. "You have some radicals who want to push back.  Some-some loyalists from the old regime, some extremists, who want to exploit the situation, and you have people who want a Democratic society.  They’re both contesting for who’s going to come out and the United States should stay on their side.”
 
Like other Middle East analysts, Ellison has been trying to emphasize that there's more to the region than anti-American mobs, and that the U.S. has a role to play in backing the right people.
 
“We have a lot of influence in terms of culture, in terms of just the way America is a democratic society.  We should use that," he said.

 

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