I’m sure there are good cases to be made for some of the other candidates for DNC Chair, but the battle lines are now clearly drawn: the forces of the conservative Party establishment, sadly led by the ADL in this case, have made defeating Ellison their #1 priority.
If progressives are ever going to claim ascendancy in the Democratic Party (both so we can advance good policy and start winning elections again), we need to rally behind Ellison and make sure he is elected Chair. Ellison is the candidate supported by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. He even has the backing of significant, more middle-of-the-road Dems like Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid. It should be a slam-dunk.
Enter the ADL, however, which is trying to make a Ellison’s truthful statement about the outsized (relative to its size) political influence of the Israel lobby — in the context of saying that the Muslim community needs to learn how to push its own concerns more effectively — into a “disqualifying” event. Josh Marshall covers this very well:
The quote itself, dug up by one of the most scurrilous and tendentious Islamophobes in Washington, make me wince a bit. But the quote is also true to a significant degree. Do we really think US policy on Israel isn't significantly impacted by the activism of American Jews and even more in recent years by that of Christian evangelicals? Do we also think the Cuban embargo has nothing to do with the power of the Cuban emigre community? Ellison says the recording is edited and taken out of context - here's his reply to the ADL. (The guy who released it, Steve Emerson, is the dirtiest, most tendentious kind of player out there. He should release the entire recording.) But I'm talking about the quote as is. Ellison is not an anti-Semite. He's not anti-Israel. I think the ADL is wrong to call the comments "disqualifying" and wrong about how it's treating this entire issue.
(Ellison’s response to the ADL, linked in the above quote, is very much worth reading. I should also note that more progressive Jewish groups such as J Street are siding with Keith. The full audio and transcript of Ellison’s 2010 remarks can be accessed here.)
Now those with the larger agenda of beating back the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party (again!) are jumping all over this and using the compliant corporate press to claim Ellison is “toast” as reported in the Huffington Post article, Journalists Are Enabling A Smear Campaign Against Keith Ellison:
Rather than provide measured, reporting-based commentary, Todd and Marcus exemplify how journalists are capable of doing politicians’ bidding. Intentionally or not, they are boosting the conservative forces in the Democratic Party who want to block Ellison because of his strong stance against the Israeli occupation, for the Iran nuclear deal and other progressive Middle East policies.
So the question for progressives is do we rally together behind Ellison and have the most progressive possible voice leading the DNC or do we let ourselves get rolled (again!) while the forces arrayed against progressives (the ones who care more about keeping the Party beholden to the same corporate interests than they do about actually winning elections) notch yet another victory?
I know which side I'm on.
UPDATE: I’m seeing a lot of comments about the full time vs. part time Chair thing so FYI: Ellison open to leaving Congress if elected DNC chair