Congressman Gave Binder of Muslims to Obama?

Critics have tried to make something out of nothing regarding Mitt Romney’s “binder” statement regarding women. Somehow, the fact that the Governor of Massachusetts sought out women to hire at the highest levels of state government is embarrassing because of the physical object which he says housed their résumés.

Some pundits on the left have claimed the “binder” comment reflects a condescending or patronizing view towards women. But how might they react to a reported binder of Muslim Americans that was handed to the Obama White House in an effort to secure jobs within the admin?

According to blog site Boker tov, Boulder!, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) passed on a collection of 45 Muslim potential hires to President Obama. The effort to match these 45 individuals with jobs inside the administration was moving slowly and quietly until White House officials recently sped the process up.

Said J. Saleh Williams, program director for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association: “It was mostly under the radar. We thought it would put the president in a precarious position. We didn’t know how closely he wanted to appear to be working with the Muslim American community.”

It would seem, then, that sometimes it takes a binder to help minorities break that glass ceiling — a lesson the President was bound to learn eventually.