Ellison Calls Cops on Stogie Smoking Neighbor
Freshman Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who has made headlines as the nation’s first Muslim member of congress is already having problems with one of his new neighbors.
Ellison’s press secretary, Rick Jauert, called the cops on Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), their next door neighbor in the Longworth House Office Building because Tancredo’s cigar smoke was coming through the walls.
This is how it all went down. On Wednesday evening, around 6 p.m., Tancredo was preparing for his trip to Mississippi. And as he so often does, he was unwinding with a cigar.
Soon enough, however, a police officer walked in to check on the smoke. The officer told Tancredo that the officer came because he was required to do so and not because the officer wanted to. The officer had already told Ellison that Tancredo was permitted to smoke in his office. The visit was more a formality.
Tancredo said he would not stop smoking in his office. “Heck, no!” he said. “If he [Ellison] would have [had] the courtesy to say something I’m sure I would have been more accommodating to his wishes.”
Who knows where this neighborly feud will lead? Cigar ashes on the Ellison doorstep? Backbiting and gossip in committee meetings?
