G.O.P. Seizes on Mosque Issue Ahead of Elections

[TomCADem]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — Republican Congressional candidates on Monday intensified efforts to inject the divide over construction of an Islamic center near ground zero into the midterm campaigns while the Senate’s top Democrat said he objected to the mosque being built there.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader and a Democrat facing a difficult re-election fight, said through a spokesman that those who plan to erect the Islamic center should look elsewhere. That separates Mr. Reid from President Obama’s support of the developers’ right to build the center.

“The First Amendment protects freedom of religion,” said Jim Manley, a top adviser to Mr. Reid. “Senator Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built someplace else.”

* * *

“Ground zero is hallowed ground to Americans,” Elliott Maynard, a Republican trying to unseat Representative Nick J. Rahall II, a Democrat, in West Virginia’s Third District, said in a typical statement. “Do you think the Muslims would allow a Jewish temple or Christian church to be built in Mecca?”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/us/politics/17mosque.html?src=me

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I guess the key to winning in 2010 is to be bigotted and to demand the rescission of our rights. Look at the prevailing corporate narrative that Demomcrats will be harmed because of President Obama's opposition to Arizona's anti-immigration laws and his defense of religious freedom. The irony, of course, is that Republicans pushed for the passage of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), which protects the right of churches to build.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Of course they did. It's just the sort of bullshit non-issue that riles up

nitwits near far.

[Blue Owl]

2. America really needs Anne Coulter to weigh in on this mosque issue

lights... camera... and ACTION!

[Zambero]

9. Her Adam's apple will surely explode

The wingnut head is the body part that ordinarily explodes, but sadly in Coulter's case there's nothing upstairs to detonate.

[tridim]

3. Yep, sounds like something the asshole party would do.

[onehandle]

4. And our country of ignorant chumps will eat it up. nt

[Betty]

5. since they have nothing to offer in terms of solutions

to real problems this country faces.

[PSPS]

6. What a joke headline

This is nothing more than another media-created "controversy" to do two things:

1. Help the GOP get its base out to vote and, they hope, get a more corporate-friendly congress; and,

2. Attract viewers/listeners/readers which helps sell advertising.

The only place you're even hearing about this "controversy" is in the media -- the media echo chamber. They're all talking about each other.

[dflprincess]

7. And keep in mind it was the Republican Congressional incumbents

who defeated the 9/11 responders health bill. That just proves how "sacred" they really hold 9/11.

[Zambero]

8. Mosque-arthyism

Just think, voicing support for the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal rights for religious expression has now become anti-American.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Yup, I got asked about this in a political poll call earlier...

Apparently, there's a second Republican running for governor of NY besides Rick Lazio who lost to Hillary Clinton when she first ran for senator. I told the caller that I'd never heard of this guy, Carl Pelegrino, but I was sure I wouldn't vote for him anyway, LOL. Good thing, since I looked him up and I think I disagree with him on every single issue... x(

[LawnKorn]

11. Whenever there is an issue that divides Americans, the Republicans are right there taking sides

One glaring characteristic of Republican campaigns is their insistence on fanning the flames of social division. The pukes just love to make it an "us against them" issue where a Republican victory involves another group of Americans losing.

[Kolesar]

13. While important issues like demilitarization and the energy supply get ignored...eom

[Kolesar]

12. RLUIPA

http://www.becketfund.org/files/861488fc5325be844c5d284f1c341956.pdf

[DBoon]

14. They are already behind repealing the 14th amendment

Now they are working on the 1st as well

[Odin2005]

15. This country has gone insane.