Katherine Kersten's Korner

Blogger is being quite disagreeable, but here's another Katherine Kersten's Korner anyway. Today's kolumn is about something MDE has been harping on for a while: Congressional candidate Keith Ellison's former comments and acquaintances.

Wingnuttia Level: 8 (Give me a #*!@*% break!)

Well, I'm sure that there are some people who will take Ellison to task for the things he said when he was younger, as well as the people he hung around with. The Nation of Islam is not one of your more tolerant organizations, and many of its members are very good for inflammatory rhetoric. Ellison never said anything like "Kill Whitey", but when he was a student, like many students he was, ah, strident.

Count me as a person who is not impressed. I believe people can change and mature as they grow older and learn, and this appears to be the case with Ellison. He has said that he is no longer a member of the Nation of Islam and has not been for quite some time, and he has distanced himself from the comments made long ago. Since he was elected to the legislature, he hasn't made any controversial comments, nor has his record shown him to be far out of the mainstream. He does not act as if he is in favor of splitting the country into black and white nations.

Throughout the article, almost all of the rantings come from people other than Ellison, and Ellison is just tarred with the same brush. Others were gay-bashing and Jew-baiting, not Ellison.

Like I said, I am sure that for some people, Ellison's history will be a reason not to vote for him. And there is nothing wrong with writing about somebody's (accurate) history. But this guilt by association, along with ignoring how a person has changed, is pretty sad.