Who Supports The "Ground Zero Mosque"? Wouldja Believe Con Talker Laura Ingraham?
That's from a December 2009 segment with Laura Ingraham guest-hosting The O'Reilly Factor, talking about "the Cordoba House." She notes, "I can't find many people who really have a problem with it… I like what you're trying to do." More background on how the mosque story became the shitstorm it has (hat tip: Julian Sanchez's Twitter feed).
Earlier this month, Ingraham appeared on Good Morning America and had something else to say about the matter: "There's a disconnect…between the elites and the way they think about this and most New Yorkers and most of the country… I say the terrorists have won the way this has gone down."
Not all conservatives are opposed to the mosque. As Josh Barro wrote at National Review:
So much of the complaint about the mosque has centered around the idea that, because hijackers acting in the name of Islam attacked the towers, Muslims should maintain a respectful distance. But the developers of Cordoba House (why do I even need to say this?) are not terrorists and did not attack the towers. Placing a burden on all Muslims to keep their institutions out of the Financial District is unfair.
Which isn't to say that President Obama hasn't massively mishandled the situation by failing to make a clear statement on the matter (or refusing to make a statement altogether).
But it is to say that the "Ground Zero Mosque" is a classic non-story that may well help whatever electoral swing is in the process of playing out be a bit more severe. Yet contrary to The New York Times' Ross Douthat, there isn't so much as two Americas split between tolerance for the mosque and absolute rejection of any it through any means necessary.
There's two Americas split between important issues - ranging from how the government for the past decade or more has screwed the economy with reckless spending and warfare to wondering how long the current jobless non-recovery is going to last to what to do to defend against actual terrorism not demagogic bullshit like the "Ground Zero Mosque" - and unimportant ones. And there's two Americas split between pundits who will say vastly different things on the same topic as the bandwagon cranks up and the rest of us, pundit or not, who try to be consistent based on principles.
