Some of you may know of Ted Olson as one of the lead attorneys on the Prop 8 litigation. Others Bush’s lead attorney in Bush v. Gore and still others as a high-profile Republican lawyer in 1990s. But, of course, he’s also a 9/11 widower. And now he’s speaking out on Cordoba House. Powerful stuff. Take a look.
Quite a moment when Ted Olson, whose wife was murdered by the 9/11 hijackers, can see what’s at stake here more clearly than the ADL. Actually, deeply sad.
What is Mark Halperin saying exactly? A short time ago, President Obama told a reporter at an event in Ohio that he had “no regrets” about discussing the mosque issue. Here’s Mark Halperin’s response …
Really??!! Another presidential comment on this sensitive matter made on the fly in response to a press question? The political and substantive damage will continue until Obama explains his position in detail and (in a dignified and uplifting way) explains why his critics are wrong. This is a classic case of a politician losing control of his public image on a key issue — only in this instance, it has implications for the whole world.
Sharron Angle’s long history of advocating for the elimination of Social Security is complicating her efforts to convince voters that she never wanted to eliminate Social Security.
TPM interviews the fiercely anti-mosque right-wing blogger Pam Geller, who helped gin up the entire “Ground Zero mosque” pseudo-controversy.
Rarely will you see a more contorted statement than this one from Nancy Pelosi on the New York mosque controversy:
“The freedom of religion is a Constitutional right. Where a place of worship is located is a local decision.
“I support the statement made by the Interfaith Alliance that ‘We agree with the ADL that there is a need for transparency about who is funding the effort to build this Islamic center. At the same time, we should also ask who is funding the attacks against the construction of the center.’
“For all of those expressing concern about the 9/11 families, we call upon them to join us in support of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act when Congress returns in September.”
It’s like Patrick Henry famously said, “I support the idea that I should have liberty, so much so that I might prefer death, but that’s not really my choice to make and I understand not everyone will agree with me on that.”
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land tells TPM:
For nine years now we’ve had a lot of calls for American people who are not Muslims to be sensitive to concerns of American Muslims and not in any way make them feel like they’re not wanted. I think that America has done a pretty good job of responding to that [and] I think now is the time for Muslim Americans to be sensitive to the concerns of their fellow Americans.
I question the wisdom of urging Muslim Americans to treat us non-Muslim Americans the way we’ve treated them these last nine years. But that’s just me.
Some of these Democrats speaking out on the Cordoba House project, I mean, jeez, maybe it’s just better not to say anything at all. Dr. Howard Dean, who’s had a lot of sage moments, managed not to have one today about the mosque project.
Here’s a sampling …
“I’ve gotta believe there has to be a compromise here. This isn’t about the right of Muslims to have a worship center, or Jews or Christians or anybody else to have a place to worship, or any place around Ground Zero. This is something we ought to be able to work out with people of good faith. And we have to understand that it is a real affront to people who’ve lost their lives — including Muslims. That site doesn’t belong to any particular religion, it belongs to all Americans and all faiths. So I think a good, reasonable compromise could be worked out, without violating the principle that people ought to be able to worship as they see fit.”
Okay, it’s been a long day. And maybe I’m being uncharitable. But this strikes me as genius. I’m not really sure this is an ‘affront’ to the Muslims who died on 9/11 since they’re dead. But frankly, I’m not sure it’s an affront to their families either.
The families of Muslim Americans who died on 9/11 are insulted that they’re building a Muslim community center a few blocks from the World Trade Center site? I’m not sure I buy that.
And as for the site, are the porn shops on the same block claiming it for their religion? (And can I join?) I mean, what’s so humorous about Dean’s sweating the pain of Muslim 9/11 victim families who are going to be offended about a Muslim community center being built is that I really don’t get a clear sense that Dean has any idea what’s even being discussed. Does he know it’s not at Ground Zero? It’s almost like he piled on some ‘Muslims are Americans too’ and 9/11, 9/11 and the rest and just let his mouth run for a few minutes.
Late Please Make It Stop It’s Too Painful Update: Sam Stein at Huffpo rung up Dean to see if he wanted to revise and extend his remarks and Sam basically ended up giving the good doctor another chance to demonstrate that he apparently doesn’t know anything about what’s going on. Dean says the Cordoba House proponents are being inflexible. And maybe they are. But he also makes clear that he takes “the congregation at its word that it is a moderate congregation trying to heal the wounds of 9/11.” Only there’s no congregation. It’s a investment group (Soho Properties) and a Muslim non-profit (the Cordoba Initiative) trying put this together. Ahh, never mind. But he does point out that “best way to heal the wounds is not to have a court battle, but to sit down and try to work things out.” Good point, only there’s no Court battle. It’s done. They got the approval. Maybe someone will get Mayor Bloomberg ginned up about Muslim plot to make us all eat Halal food. But there’s no court battle.
Doing your homework. What a concept …
Let me start by saying this clearly has no bearing on any of the pertinent questions. But it’s come up a number of times. So I thought I’d flag it just for the sake of clarity. As you know, the proposed spot of the Cordoba House project is the one formerly occupied by a Burlington Coat Factory location a couple blocks from the WTC complex. Wikipedia says that they have locations in 45 states. But on a number of people who’ve written in seem to be thinking that this was a coat factory, as in a place that manufactures coats. It’s not. Burlington Coat Factory is a chain of general interest department stores, mainly focused on clothing and shoes. Again, not that it sheds any real light on the current controversy. But just thought I’d note it.
As we’ve seen from a number of polls, clear majorities of Americans appear to believe that the Cordoba Initiative organizers have the right to build their community center in Lower Manhattan. But substantial majorities don’t support their plan to do so. With this in mind I’d been wondering (and even half considered commissioning a poll, though our budgets really wouldn’t bear it) what answers to some other questions would be. Like, how many people think Muslims should be able to become American citizens? Or serve in Armed Forces? How many think they should be able to run for office?
These are uncomfortable questions both for what the questions and the answers might suggest. And how Time has asked at least some of them.
A couple revealing data points. Number of Americans who believe Muslims should be barred from sitting on the Supreme Court? 28%. Number of Americans who believe Muslims should be barred from serving as president? 32%. Read More