You got to hand it to Rep. Keith Ellison, the Minnesota congressman to be who is going to be the first Muslim elected to congrressional office.

You may recall that he caused some flack when he said that he wanted to be sworn in on the Koran, his holy book which is sacred to him.

This caused some silly controversy among religious bigots who thing that being a "true" American means believing only in the Bible.

Ellison announced today that he will get sworn in using the Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson, a wonderfully rich symbolic showing that Christianity isn’t a prerequisite for patriotism. 

The real beauty of Ellison’s crafty manuever is that his biggest critic, the bigotted Rep. Virgil Goode, is the representative from the district of Thomas Jefferson’s birthplace.