The Repubs are frothing over a Muslim Congressman-elect

swearing to his oath of office with his hand on a Quran instead of a Bible.

Conservative talkshow host and columnist Dennis Prager wrote last week about his outrage that Congressman-elect Keith Ellison of Minnesota will be taking his oath of office on a Muslim Quran instead of a Christian Bible. (TownHall.com)

The conservative blogosphere picked up on the column almost immediately, and the feeding frenzy ensued.

Laurie Roberts of the AZ Rep mentioned it in her AZCentral.com blog, where it immediately became the most-commented upon entry of the day, pushing aside the ever-popular illegal immigration as the biggest hate-magnet.

A couple of points here -

1. I cannot find any MSM references to any such announcement by Congressman-elect Ellison. I'm not saying that he *isn't* going to have a Quran at his swearing-in, but I'd like a more credible source than Mr. Prager.

2. As noted by Stacy of AZCongressWatch in a comment on Laurie Roberts' blog, members of Congress don't swear their official oaths of office with religious books. They can have them at private swearing-in ceremonies/photo ops. (The Hill)

It seems that Mr. Prager (and a large part of the conservative blogosphere) doesn't let little things like facts, or the lack thereof, get in the way of his bigoted and hypocritical rantings.

Personally, what I'd like to see is all Congressfolk swearing their oaths of office on a printout of the Congressional ethics rules that the outgoing Republican leadership actually enforced for the last 12 years.

It's something that all of them would revere equally, and it would be environmentally-friendly, given all the trees that would be saved.

Later!