Don Lemon returned to the question of whether Islam is an inherently violent religion on Monday's CNN Tonight, as he interviewed Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison and author Reza Aslan. Lemon turned to his two Muslim guests for their take on a recent Tweet by atheist HBO host Bill Maher: "ISIS, one of thousands of Islamic militant groups beheads another. But by all means let's keep pretending all religions are alike."

Whatever the question, politicians have a way of working their issue of the day into the answer.  Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) took that tendency to new heights today.

Asked on Morning Joe to explain the disproportionate amount of terrorism against the United States that emanates from the Islamic world, Ellison, the first Muslim Member of Congress, asserted that it is the struggle for democracy, not the Islamic faith, that motivates the terrorism.  In a giant leap, Ellison then compared people in Islamic countries "who don't want to yield power to the vast majority" . . . to the struggle in the United States over "income inequality." View the video after the jump.

Ed Schultz blasted Republicans on the June 15 edition of his eponymous Ed Show program for “sticking it” to “American families who desperately need” the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps. In an interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) later in the program, Schultz griped that there’s “no fat in food stamps, as I see it.”

Well, apparently good ol’ Ed can’t stay on message for more than one week, as the bombastic MSNBC host berated Republicans again for cuts to SNAP on Saturday – but this time because dining with food you can buy from SNAP assistance contains “everything that makes America fat.” Schultz’s tirade, which I debunk later, came in response to a Republican congressional staffer’s success with the SNAP Challenge, a movement by the Food and Research Action Center that challenges Americans to live on a $4.50 per day food budget for one week.

As NewsBusters reported, Fox News host Sean Hannity was rudely treated by Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) Tuesday.

Rather shockingly, the Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz and Lauren Ashburn, in a video posting at the website Daily Download, said Wednesday that Hannity was "in the right" and that it was indeed Ellison that behaved poorly (video follows with transcript and commentary):

NPR's afternoon talk show Tell Me More promoted the left-wing Take Back the American Dream conference on Tuesday by granting an almost ten-minute interview to ultraliberal Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Conference, who blurted out "Koch brothers" every two minutes.

"This week, progressive activists are meeting in Washington, D.C. with the goal of answering what they see as the corrupting influence of money with the power of numbers," Martin announced. "Organizers of the Take Back the American Dream conference are hoping to energize the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party ahead of the 2012 election." Martin asked Eliison why they are faced with the mystery that this is a close election, as if Obama should be far ahead at this point despite the very sluggish economy: