Greg Sargent: How many commentators will denounce GOP mosque strategy?

[ProSense]

How many commentators will denounce GOP mosque strategy?

Mark Halperin has a great piece today in which he calls on Republicans to "do the right thing" and not make Obama's support for the Islamic center an issue in the midterm elections.

Which gives rise to a question: If Republicans do take this route, how many commentators will come out and unequivocally take sides on whether it's acceptable or whether it's wrong?

Halperin notes, crucially, that if the GOP adopts this strategy, it will be bad for America and good for the "Jihadists":

There are a handful of good reasons to oppose allowing the Islamic center to be built so close to Ground Zero, particularly the family opposition and the availability of other, less raw locations. But what is happening now -- the misinformation about the center and its supporters; the open declarations of war on Islam on talk radio, the Internet and other forums; the painful divisions propelled by all the overheated rhetoric -- is not worth whatever political gain your party might achieve.

It isn't clear how the battle over the proposed center should or will end. But two things are profoundly clear: Republicans have a strong chance to win the midterm elections without picking a fight over President Obama's measured words. And a national political fight conducted on the terms we have seen in the past few days will lead to a chain reaction at home and abroad that will have one winner -- the very extreme and violent jihadists we all can claim as our true enemy.

As I said, Republicans, this is your moment. As a famous New Yorker once urged in a very different context: Do the right thing.

I don't know if the GOP will adopt a concerted midterm election strategy along these lines or not. But many of the 2012 potential GOP presidential hopefuls have already gone down this road. A House GOP official told Mike Allen that the party would be using Obama's speech to make the case that he's insensitive to 9/11 victims and "out of touch." And the NRSC has already seized on Hamas's support for the mosque to bludgeon Chuck Schumer for his silence and signaled more generally that Obama's speech makes it open season on Dem candidates.

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[Kber]

1. This is going to drive me nuts...

A House GOP official told Mike Allen that the party would be using Obama's speech to make the case that he's insensitive to 9/11 victims and "out of touch."

Look, I can hardly be called a 9/11 "victim" because all of my family were fine at the end of the day, but I worked in the WTC once upon a time (although I changes jobs before 2001) and my husband was down-town on that day (and came home looking like someone hosed him down and rolled him in white chalk because he was on the streets when the buildings came down).

We live on the commuter line in NJ and in my son's preschool there were two dads and one mom who never came home. Plus two teachers lost their husbands.

Which is a long winded way of telling the House GOP official that when it comes to being "out of touch" or "insensitive" to 9/11 victims that he (I am presuming he's a "he") can go pound sand. I cringe every time some out of town yahoo climbs up on the graves of the 9/11 victims to make some "national security" point. Enough already! Go find your own national tragedy to exploit.

I mean, Fuck.