You know, it was only a few months ago that right-wing fundamentalist Christians were issuing dire warnings that if newly elected Keith Ellison were permitted to put his hand on a Koran in a privately taken photograph in the afternoon after his swearing-in as a member of Congress, all sorts of bad things would happen. Terrorists would blow up our shopping malls, dark-skinned people would undermine our great White Christian population, dogs would eat our children, dengue fever would plague the land, chocolate and peanut butter would just not taste great together any more, and Aunt Matilda’s zit creme would no longer work its wonders.

Well, Ellison went ahead with his private photograph and I can’t see much bad that’s happened as a result. In fact, when I look into Ellison’s record of legislative action, I can’t help but smile. Here are just a couple of instances in which Rep. Ellison has put himself on the right side of politics:

1. The Military Commissions Act is a big deal. The loss of Habeas Corpus rights, the end to the enforcement of the Geneva Conventions, the legalization of torture, the replacement of the presumption of innocence with the presumption of guilt, the introduction of hearsay evidence, the establishment of kangaroo courts to replace the system of American justice, indefinite detention and unchallengeable enemy designation are just part of what the Military Commissions Act imposes on the United States of America.

I get gloomy when I think about the MCA, and not just because most Americans are too worked up about the elimination of Sanjaya Malakar from American Idol to notice the erosion of their constitutional liberties. No, what really gets me down is that the people who really, really should know better are sitting on their hands rather than restoring the rule of law in the United States of America. Only 12 Senators have thrown their weight behind S. 576, a bill to overturn the most onerous provisions of the Military Commissions Act. And only 37 members of the House of Representatives have sponsored (thank you, Rep. Jerrold Nadler) or cosponsored H.R 1415. That’s 12% of U.S. Senators and just 8.5% of U.S. Representatives who give an empirically-measurable crap about the rule of law in this country. There are people who should really know better who haven’t cosponsored this bill. In the Senate, Hillary Clinton, Richard Durbin, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Sheldon Whitehouse should have added their support to the bill by now. Their silence speaks volumes. In the House, where is the cosponsorship of otherwise progressive politicians such as Neil Abercrombie, Earl Blumenauer, John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Tom Lantos, or Louise Slaughter? If your Representative isn’t on the list of supporters of H.R. 1415, please get their contact information and give them a call.

But do you know who is on the list of people supporting H.R. 1415? Yes. Rep. Keith Ellison is on the list. He’s been counted among the bill’s supporters for well over a month. Rep. Ellison’s swearing in as a member of Congress has been for the good in this instance, regardless of the name of the holy book he touched in a private ceremony.

2. I also read this morning that, when confronted by the impending introduction of Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney, Rep. Ellison found himself making a nuanced statement. He strongly stated that he was pro-impeachment, that he was “with the impeachment movement,” and that “impeachment should be on the table.” But Ellison also stated that he wouldn’t commit to supporting any particular articles of impeachment until he could read them and make a decision about the quality of evidence laid out to support them. Although I believe that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are worthy of impeachment, I’ve read a lot of arguments for impeachment that are based on moral judgments that the two are bad men, rather than being based on legal judgments that the two committed high crimes or misdemeanors. Ellison was right in his meeting with Impeach for Peace activists to insist on waiting for a quality case for impeachment before jumping on the bandwagon. This sort of thing is too important to toy around with in a scattershot, jingoistic Ramsey Clark fashion.

In short, I’m impressed by Rep. Ellison’s performance in the House so far. If he were to start pushing for Islamic law in America or begin insisting otherwise on pushing his religious standards down others’ throats, I’d be one of the first to speak up. But he hasn’t done this. The most Rep. Ellison has done is to introduce the Koran in his private ceremony after his swearing-in ceremony, and since that day seems to have begun amassing a solid secular legislative record. We need more people in Washington with the courage and integrity of Keith Ellison.