Rhythmic Admirer of the Day
Harry Reid. What a disgrace, and if he thinks this will actually help Democrats in tough races this fall he’s delusional.
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quite literally the very thought that went through my mind: i mean, i think harry reid has, all things considered, done a pretty good job, but this is bullshit.
any democrat who doesn’t start out by saying “it’s not a mosque and it’s not at ground zero” is behaving disgracefully: the fact that so many dems do not understand the enthusiasm gap is, in fact, beyond comprehension.
Show a little compassion, Harry needs to outflank Sharron Angle.
He is indeed exposed on his left flank to her on the key chicken-bartering issue.
wengler, i assume you’re being snarky, but to be serious for a minute, all he had to say was “it’s not a mosque, it’s not at ground zero, but even so, were i a member of the new york planning commission, i’d probably vote no, but as a senator, i have nothing to do with the decision.”
in short, you can protect your flank in all kinds of ways that don’t involve accepting describing cordoba house as the ground zero mosque.
Harry Reid should have asked, “Is Sharron Angle so crazy she thinks she’s running for mayor of NYC? Or is she just trying to avoid talking about what a Senator from Nevada should do, because she doesn’t know how to deliver for Nevada like Harry Reid?”
He’s a boxer, so it’s OK if he uses the 3rd person to speak about himself.
Although I thought pretty highly of Obama’s first statement on the mosque matter, the President is not facing the end of his political career in November and other Democrats are. Reid is in trouble partially because he was a loyal water carrier for the White House, pushing Obama’s crappy healthcare bill through the Senate. If he decided he’s toted enough Aquafina for the time being that seems a reasonable choice. The guy’s in enough trouble right now and I for one am disinclined to be too hard on him or any other Democrat up for re-election who says whatever he’s gotta say to make this “issue” go away.
The best course of action for Reid would have been to hush up, but one drawback of Obama’s statement, clarification, clarification clarified, etc., is that it’s now that much harder for Democrats to do that.
It is likely that Reid has screwed up, jeopardizing liberal votes without moving anyone off the fence, but perhaps his campaign polling is telling him something different. This thing seems to be reaching beyond the wingnuts.
Do you honestly think that Reid’s saying this will make this issue “go away”?
As much as the Democrats are generally doing their damnedest to make this election a repeat of 1994, Reid has just put in a bid to make it, instead, a rerun of 2002.
I’m not sure what, if anything, will make this go away. As I said, the fire seems to be spreading. But I think it’s most unfair to Reid to say, as Sargent did in his article, that he’s the one putting Democrats on the spot. Obama is the one who did that, for better or worse. If the President speaks out, then it’s difficult for Congresspersons up for re-election to say that it’s a local community issue and the New York Planning Commission’s problem, not theirs. Reid’s statement was clumsy. But we already knew that about him.
I hope he loses, so we can have someone with stones as Majority Leader.
Reid has them. I’m not the president of his fan club but he’s been a huge improvement over Daschle and he’s done a pretty good job, as Howard said.
No. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin are putting Democrats on the spot.
The notion that if Democrats just stuck to substantive issues, the bullshit will go away is almost as silly as the notion that pandering to the wingnuts will make them stop.
The wingnuts made this non-issue an issue.
Mayor Bloomberg responded fairly well.
Obama did a fine job at iftar, then decided to muddy the waters by qualifying his remarks the next day and making the Cordoba House sound like the Nazis marching in Skokie.
There is no simple way out of this political mess, but the way out begins with being honest and forthright: Islam did not attack us on 9/11. And acting as if it did is conceding that Al Qaeda represents Islam in general. What President was it who said that Islam is a religion of peace?
Thanks, IB, this is a good comment.
I agree, IB. I would add that Democrats need to remind the public (not the nutters, who don’t care anyway) that it was Bush who started the tradition of acknowledging Ramadan at the White House in the spirit of outreach after 9/11 and that embracing tolerance in the spirit of Dubya is the best course here.
I can taste the vomit in my mouth but it would be nice to remind people how completely bonkers the right really is on this issue, they’re far to the right of a man who referred to the war on terra as a crusade.
You are right that the wingnuts, with dishonorable mention to Gingrich, started the brushfire but I don’t agree that there was no way for the Democrats to avoid falling into the trap prepared for them. Yes, they would have been attacked in any case, but now any chances of deflecting those attacks without taking a position have pretty much vanished. Obama has never been willing to say outright that there is no harm done in allowing the Cordoba Center to be built on this particular plot of land – and with his revision of his own statement the President didn’t exactly raise an unsullied standard that the party could rally around. In fact, the White House spent days trying to explain what Obama “really” meant. I am unable to see how negative fallout from all of this is somehow the fault of Harry Reid. Reid’s handling of Angle’s challenge to him to side with Obama or not was dismal, but the general public doesn’t pay a lot of attention to what senators, even the Majority Leader, has to say. When the President wades in it’s another story.
I for one am disinclined to be too hard on him or any other Democrat up for re-election who says whatever he’s gotta say to make this “issue” go away.
Well, now that he’s opened his mouth and caved to the bigoted crazies, even using right-wing frames, I’m sure it will “go away” now, right?
Pfft.
But wasn’t he leading Angle in the latest polls? (And she isn’t being shy about exploiting this.)
A Mormon should know better than to join in on the bashing of a minority religion.
Shame on Reid. Wimp. I hope he loses, so we can have someone with stones as Majority Leader.
Fixed
Well, he is Mormon, and you know how they hate those weird exotic religious cults.
What could go wrong?
Snicker
I don’t understand your assertion that this cowardly pandering by Reid won’t help his reelection, or rather that a responsible stand on principle would not give Angle an issue with traction.
Why assume it’s pandering?
Because the entire issue is nothing but pandering.
If this is what is required by Reid to get re-elected then he has a conflict of interest and should not tank the entire Democratic party just to beat the crazy on the Right. We have a name for that, and it is John McCain.
Amen.
If Harry Reid has something to say about what is built in New York, New York, then he should just tell the casino operator.
This is why democrats needs to start electing majority leaders from reliable blue states. If some chickenshit redstate democrat in a tough reelection campaign feels he has to sell out every single principle of decency, equality and liberalism, why force the whole party to answer for his idiocy?
My disgust with Reid is matched by my disgust with Chris Van Hollen, DCCC chair, who apparently waffled big time on MSNBC this morning when asked if Democrats would protect Social Security from cuts.
Republicans pander to lowest traits of their base, Democrats debase the highest traits of theirs. Without this balance of power, irrational bigotry would no longer be a key factor in defining public policy.