Is Keith Ellison's decision to take the oath office not just with a Koran, but with Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Koran, a brilliant move? Yes.

If Virgil Goode had any sense, would he drop the subject now? Yes.

Will he? No.

Virgil Goode is a Republican. Republicans don't admit error or defeat.

Goode will press on. He'll call Jefferson an atheist, and point out that he was a slaveholder. (Republicans, even the racist ones, love to act as if they have a monopoly on anti-racism.) And he'll reserve the right to question Ellison's loyalty any time Ellison votes in a way Goode thinks is "disloyal" or "un-American."

And maybe that's good -- maybe they should keep sparring. If Ellison is as smart as he looks right now, he might get a chance to trump Goode's ace every couple of weeks or so.

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UPDATE: Goode hasn't invoked Jefferson's slaveholding so far, and maybe (as Cautious Man notes in comments) he simply can't, given Jefferson's hero status in Virginia, but I see that one of the Goode's ideological soul mates in the right blogosphere has played the slave card for him.