Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota DFL Party, didn't miss the opportunity to try to draw the state's GOP congressional delegation into the controversy over comments made by Congresswoman Michele Bachmann about a State Department official and Congressman Keith Ellison.
Martin called for the state's three other Republican Members of Congress — Chip Cravaack, John Kline and Erik Paulsen — to join top national Republicans "in denouncing this hateful act."
U.S. Sen. John McCain and House Speaker John Boehner are among those who've already attacked Bachmann's assertion that Ellison and Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a political movement in many Arab states.
Wrote Martin in a statement:
"It's ironic and unfortunate that for all her talk about religious freedom, Bachmann has turned to religion as grounds to try to undermine the integrity of someone of another faith. But it is this kind of duplicity that we've come to expect from Bachmann, who has shown time and again that she will do what it takes to remain in the limelight at any cost, even if it means viciously tearing down her own colleagues on the basis of faith.
"Bachmann's slander of an innocent public servant this week is just another obvious attempt to advance her own ambitions. This vile attack represents the worst kind of politics we have in this country: a politics of division and cynicism that America simply cannot afford. And with everyone from Speaker Boehner to Senator McCain to her own own former campaign manager condemning her actions, there can be no doubt that she's gone too far.
"Bachmann's attack on Huma Abedin, Rep. Keith Ellison and, by extension, millions of Muslim Americans, is both anti-freedom and anti-American. It is a disgrace to the office to which she was elected, and I am calling on her Republican House colleagues Rep. Erik Paulsen, Rep. John Kline and Rep. Chip Cravaack to join their leaders in denouncing this hateful act."