Howard Dean hasn't received this much attention since January 19, 2004, when he addressed his supporters after a disappointing third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. (Those remarks, of course, included the infamous Dean Scream.)
His remarks on the mosque at Ground Zero have rocked the Democrats. In an interview with WABC Radio's David Goodman, Dean expressed his opposition to the location of the mosque. That sent the Dems over the edge.
Leftists didn't want to believe it. Because the audio appeared on Andrew Breitbart's site, some questioned whether Dean's comments had been artfully edited for maximum political effect. Their Tweets revealed their desperation.
Example:
.@jedlewison @benpolitico I'm still holding out hope that this is one of those Breitbart edit jobs and that Dean isn't saying this mess.
Example:
@RFernandez666 I got it from @benpolitico, @ggreenwald is trying to find another source for the audio. It's just you can't trust Breitbart.
That was wishful thinking by the Leftists.
Dean's words weren't edited to mislead. They weren't taken out of context.
Here's the audio:
Transcript
DAVID GOODMAN: Governor, what's your position on the controversy surrounding the mosque near Ground Zero?
HOWARD DEAN: I've got to believe there has to be a compromise here. Um, this isn't about the rights of Muslims to have a worship center, or Jews, or Christians, or anybody else to have a place to worship, any place at Ground Zero. This is something that we ought to be able to work out with people of good faith.
And we have to understand that it is a real affront to people who've lost their lives, including Muslims. That site doesn't belong to any particular religion. Uh, it belongs to all Americans and all faiths. So I think a good reasonable compromise could be worked out without violating the principle that people ought to be able to worship as they see fit.
GOODMAN: You're calling for a compromise. So are you calling for the mosque to be moved?
DEAN: Well, I think another site would be a better idea. Again, but I would look to do that with the collaboration of the people who are trying to build the mosque. There's no point..., I think, I believe that the people who are trying to build the mosque are trying to do something that's good. But there's no point in starting off trying to do something that's good if it's going to meet with an enormous resistance from a lot of folks.
This is a very delicate, difficult religious, uh, and cultural issue.
Uh, I think it's great to have mosques in American cities. There's a growing number of American Muslims. I think most of those Muslims are moderate. I hope that, I hope that they'll have an influence on Islam throughout the world, because Islam is really back in the 12th century in some of these countries, like Iran and Afghanistan, where they're stoning people to death. And that can be fixed. And the way it's fixed is not by pushing Muslims away. It's by embracing them and have them become just like every other American, Americans who happen to be Muslims. So the way you do that is to integrate people into the fabric of the United States, which I think is what this congregation wants to do. But I do think that we ought to work out a compromise so that everybody is accommodated by this.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Dean made it clear that he meant what he said earlier in the day on WABC -- not at Ground Zero.
In an interview late Wednesday, former DNC Chair Howard Dean reiterated his belief that the controversial "Ground Zero" mosque should be re-located, arguing that critics of his position were "guilty of" the same type of absolutism on the issue that they've accused Republicans of harboring.
The former Governor of Vermont told the Huffington Post that he "stood by" the remarks he had made earlier in the day on WABC radio in which he called the mosque plan "a real affront to people who lost their lives [on 9/11]." But in a clarification of sorts, he stressed that he would not have a problem if the proposed Islamic cultural center ultimately ended up being built in the current location.
"It won't upset me," Dean said, "except I think it is a missed opportunity to show some flexibility... I don't believe all this nonsense the right wing is putting out about radicals and all that stuff. I take the congregation at its word that it is a moderate congregation trying to heal the wounds of 9/11. But the best way to heal the wounds is not to have a court battle, but to sit down and try to work things out."
..."They don't have to move," Dean said. "But the fact of the matter is, for better or worse, since 9/11 this country has been badly divided -- particularly by right wing politicians exploiting those divisions -- and this is an opportunity to bring the country together."
Dean's sentiments put him in, what surely seems like, rare political standing. The former DNC chair is not the first Democrat to oppose the current location for the Cordoba House. But he is the first critic to hail from the progressive community that, by and large, has viewed the debate over the mosque as a litmus test of sorts for a politician's commitment to constitutional rights and religious tolerance. Indeed, when Dean's viewpoints were broadcast, it was met with a mix of horror and anger from, what usually are, his chief defenders.
"I've seen a lot of the comments about this and a lot of it is silly that I'm agreeing with Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich," Dean said in response to the criticism. "That's just silly. I don't believe in race baiting..."
I don't know if Dean's shots at Palin and Gingrich will be enough to placate the angry Left.
There is such a divide in this country. The Democrats and Republicans sometimes seem like opposing armies, enemies at war with well-drawn battle lines. You're either with us or against us, that sort of thing.
I'm so sick of it.
At least with Obama vacationing on Martha's Vineyard for the next ten days, maybe we'll get a breather. A little ceasefire would be nice.
That's unlikely. The media abhor a vacuum.
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