While the White House’s top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, has said that he’s seen no evidence that the controversy over the Park51 project has fueled extremism abroad, Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal begs to differ. Islamic radicals are seizing on protests against a planned Islamic community center near Manhattan’s Ground Zero and anti-Muslim [...]

Senator Al Franken, who resided in New York City for many years during his Saturday Night Live days, excoriated Republicans for their exploitation of the Cordoba House project, calling it out as a familiar wedge issue designed to divide Americans. Franken said conservative opposition to the mosque is “one of the most disgraceful things that [...]

I have to confess, when I heard about the zoning and planning for the Cordoba House cultural center within two blocks of Ground Zero, my impression was the developers were about to break ground on it. I hadn’t considered the most likely option, that wingnuts and the media never looked at the viability of the [...]

Peter King is not a reliable source, but given David Paterson’s previous foray into the Corboda House debate, trying to entice the developers with public money into moving elsewhere, this rings true: New York Governor David Paterson plans to discuss relocating a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque to a less emotionally charged location farther [...]

Chris Cillizza must have been the first one with his hand up in the Washington Post editorial meeting to volunteer to write the “Democrats in disarray” piece, about the Cordoba House project. He must have dialed with glee into all the campaigns and heard all the anguished responses. I particularly enjoyed the anonymous operative at [...]

Painful to even write about this: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that he’s opposed to building an Islamic center near the site of the 9/11 attacks. Reid, who is locked in a tough reelection campaign, broke with President Obama in calling for the New York center to be built somewhere else. Obama [...]

The President’s remarks on the Cordoba House project, now placed in their full context to mean a support of the right for any religious group to worship freely, consistent with local laws and zoning ordinances, has touched off one of these “get us through the summer” debates in the political realm (see Marcy on this). [...]