Via Greg Sargent, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid comes out against the planned Islamic community center near Ground Zero, in an obvious attempt to prevent his Republican opponent from gaining any ground on the issue:
The First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Senator Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else. If the Republicans are being sincere, they would help us pass this long overdue bill to help the first responders whose health and livelihoods have been devastated because of their bravery on 911, rather than continuing to block this much-needed legislation.
Sort of hard to establish some kind of partisan generational realignment when Democrats are as eager to get in on the Muslim-bashing as Republicans. Democrats have developed a bizarre political strategy where they hope Republicans will stop attacking them as weak as long as they can find new and creative ways to concede the argument. Republicans call Democrats weak, and Democrats say, "You're right I'm weak. Now please stop hitting me."
During the 2008 election, Colin Powell mentioned the above picture of American soldier Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan's mother at his gravestone in Arlington Cemetery during an appearance on Meet The Press. Responding to the false rumors that then-candidate Obama was a "secret Muslim," Powell said, "Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America."
Harry Reid begs to differ. Personally, I think every congressman or senator who opposes the Park 51 project should write the families of every Muslim service member in Iraq and Afghanistan to explain how the freedoms they're supposedly fighting for don't apply to them.
