Republicans "We were for the meeting before we were against it"

Gopher state Republicans are ganging up on Keith Ellison, the Dem candidate who's on track to become the first Muslim member of Congress. In particular, they are pointing to his relationship with Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as evidence of moral turpitude and anti-American sentiment. Now, I love the guilt by association game as much as anyone, but the problem with this exercise in character assasination is that it implicates Our Infalliable Leader, George II. As TPM tells it:

On Sept. 17, 2001, Bush stood with Awad, and presented him and others as people of Islam who oppose terrorism. Standing with Awad, Bush said:

Like the good folks standing with me, the American people were appalled and outraged at last Tuesday's attacks. And so were Muslims all across the world. Both Americans and Muslim friends and citizens, tax-paying citizens, and Muslims in nations were just appalled and could not believe what we saw on our TV screens...

The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war.

Source
Hat tip: CA