One of my favorite politicians we encountered on the road was Representative-elect Keith Ellison from Minneapolis. The man is a true progressive in the spirit of Paul Wellstone and in the hour we watched him interact with a crowd on the issue of environmental justice I came away quite impressed with his honesty, his commitment to his constituents, and his seriousness about what he is trying to do. I was extraordinarily happy to hear his name announced on election night.

Of course, if you’re only following corporate media sources you probably don’t know anything about him other than he is a Muslim, and the first one in Congress at that. Which is enough for some to accuse him of “working with our enemies.” Yes, Glenn Beck is a massive douchebag.

If that wasn’t enough to get you interested in Keith, check out what he did last night.

Keith Ellison, the first Muslim ever elected to Congress, hasn’t even taken office yet, but he already appears to be charting his own route in Congress. The Associated Press reports that Ellison skipped a swanky private White House reception for other freshman Congressman hosted by President Bush — and went to a reception for the AFL-CIO instead. “It wasn’t even a close call,” Ellison says. “Maybe one day I’ll get to meet the president. He’s the president, and I respect him in his role as the president, but I have exceedingly sharp differences with him on a policy level.”

Check out Keith Ellison on DoubleSpeak as well as fellow Rep.-elect Bruce Braley from Iowa.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. voted to spend 40 million dollars in targeted races for 2006. This will be the most money ever spent by organized labor in a mid-term election and we’ll have to hope their efforts help.

Union leaders said they would concentrate their efforts on 15 Senate races, 40 House races and governors races in California, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

John Sweeney, the head of the A.F.L.-C.I.O insists that his union is nonpartisan but has also called President Bush the most antiworker president ever, citing his tax cuts favoring the wealthy and his efforts to revamp Social Security.

You can read more in the NYTimes…