Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
Rod Blagojevich was the headline act today on Fox News Sunday, and he filled that role gloriously.
Comparing himself at various moments to Batman, Robin and Winston Churchill, Blago dissembled, dodged, and ignored Chris Wallace’s questions with aplomb, even in the face of infamous “[expletive] golden” phone conversation clips.
Blago made big news, however (and Wallace did his best to press him) when he suggested that his legal team might call Washington stalwarts like Rahm Emanuel, Sen. Harry Reid, and Sen. Robert Menendez for defense testimony in a second trial, and insisted that he was guilty of nothing more than standard political horse-trading. Wallace asked Blago if he thought he was no more guilty than Harry Reid, Rahm Emanuel, or Bob Menendez, and Blago said: “That is exactly right…they are not guilty either…we are going to try to call them up…and President Obama too.”
He also said that he's not ruling out a return to politics. Remarking on Blago's self-comparison to Winston Churchill and his vow to break back into the arena, Wallace said, “You can’t be serious.”
Blago’s last words? “No, I’m not serious—I don’t smoke cigars [like Churchill], I don’t drink as much scotch …and I run faster than him…and no I’m not ruling myself out for coming back politically.”
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The Ground Zero Mosque was another hot story on FNS, This Week, and Meet the Press.
On FNS, by way of introduction, the panel discussed Obama's religious beliefs. A White House spokesman, responding to the belief among some Americans that Obama is a Muslim, noted that Obama is a Christian and prays daily. In part because of Obama’s support for the Ground Zero Mosque, 18% of Americans believe he’s Muslim (while 12% did last November, at election time). To Juan Williams, there have been concerted maligning efforts among conservatives to bring into question Obama’s religious beliefs. Williams noted that it doesn’t help that Rush Limbaugh calls the president “Imam Obama.”
I was surprised to see that the panel did not discuss at all the source of funding of the mosque itself, since there was an article in The Daily Beast just this weekend that questions the claims that the mosque is receiving funding from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, or radical Muslim groups.
In recent days, critics of the proposal to build a mosque and Islamic center near ground zero have linked the plan to everyone from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Islamist organizations Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. But the plan's real fundraising effort, thus far, is much more innocuous: a PayPal account with less than $9,000 in it, mostly from New Yorkers, raised by a group of Muslim moms in Manhattan whose original aim was to host a peace march.
Daisy Khan, the wife of Feisal Abdul Rauf, appeared on This Week today with Christiane Amanpour and one topic of discussion was funding. Khan said that the funding plans are a long time off (as The Daily Beast article attests--they've only raised $9,000 dollars). First, the organization needs to establish a board, and then that board needs to establish a financial arm. Once it does, Khan said that in their fundraising, the center would adhere to the strictest dictates of the Treasury Department.
I think it's becoming clearer and clearer at the GZM will not be the bastion of radicalism that some people have claimed it would be. Add the seemingly harmless sources of the mosque's funding to Imam Rauf's moving speech at a service for Daniel Pearl where he said "I am a Jew, I have always been one," to the fact that Rauf is a Sufi, and I think that Americans will find an ally, not an adversary, in this center and its leader.
For instance, the idea that the center would have Saudi funding, or funding from other Wahhabist or jihadist groups, is misguided. In Saudi Arabia, Sufism can be a capital offense. Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have a history of attacking Sufis and Sufi shrines. Rauf's center near Ground Zero is not so much an affront to Americans as it is to the jihadists that we all abhor.
For those who may not know, Sufism is a mystical arm of Islam--the flower-children of Islam, diametrically opposed to the radicalism of the jihadists. I grew up in a Sufi meeting house in Montreal. Twice a week, a mix of Western and Middle Eastern Sufis met, meditated, drank black tea, and smoked cigarettes. They spoke with love about the ecstatic poetry of Rumi. Many of them being Iranian expats, they despised the theocratic regime in Iran. They, in short, are the type of Muslims that Americans would want as partners in their efforts of combat radical Islam.
Regardless, on Meet the Press today, Rick Lazio said, "There are millions of peace-loving Muslims in America…this Imam, Abdul Rauf, is not one of them." Lazio is running for governor of New York.
One point that Daisy Khan made on This Week, which struck me, was that the opposition to the "mosque"--which isn't really a mosque, but a community and athletic center that will also have a prayer room--is shocking to her. It is like "metastasized anti-semitism. It's not even Islamophobia, it's a hate of Muslims. We are deeply concerned." Is that a fair characterization?
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Christiane Ammanpour had President Hamid Karzai on this morning's This Week, and she tossed him a few softball questions before getting into some meatier ones, first about Karzai's recent order requiring the disbandment of private security contracts within Afghanistan within the year.
A little bit of news was made when Ammanpour asked about the recent arrest of a close Karzai associate, Mohammad Zia Salehi, who is charged with taking bribes and providing luxury cars to presidential allies. Immediately after his arrest, Salehi was released, prompting serious concerns among American officials about the seriousness of Karzai's commitment to anti-corruption initiatives.
Earlier this week, Karzai's people denied that Karzai had any role in securing Salehi's release. But on questioning from Ammanpour today, Karzai proudly announced that he had secured Salehi's release, likening the nature of the arrest to Soviet-style political persecution. Karzai did himself no favors with his American audience, looking by turns weak, vacillating, and aloof.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
Message to Daisy Khan: if you wish not to be hated, please refrain from poking your fingers into our eyes.
Jun '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
I think Blago was guilty as hell, but he also makes a good point that the only difference between him, and most of his colleagues, is the phone taps. They have him talking a lot about deals, but no transactions. I think, like Martha Stewart, he'll do a few months on the one conviction, and not see a retrial.
Jul '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
I wonder if Blago would be successful in appealing, now that a court has over-turned the "Stolen Valor" law. The court held that lying when not under oath is protected under the 1st Amendment. Blago was convicted of lying to a Federal officer. But he was not under oath.
I am very leery of the idea that lying to a Federal officer is a crime.
May '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
I listened to Rush on Friday as he wasted a full hour on the religion of "Imam Obama" (a phrase he uses jokingly). Rush is so accustomed to making fun of Lefties that, when he doesn't have the ammunition on a particular issue, he'll stretch to make the jab.
It's sad when show hosts have uncharacteristically bad days, because you just know someone received a very poor first impression and will not return for another try.
May '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
I'm sorry, are you really asking if it's a fair characterization to say that opposition to the Ground Zero mosque is like metastasized anti-semitism, something beyond Islamophobia and that represents a hate of Muslims? And it was that point of Daisy Khan's statement that somehow struck you as meaningful or true? Because if so, perhaps I've wandered onto The Nation by mistake. Sorry for the snark but isn't this getting a little old, now we're a bunch of Metastasized Muslim-Haters?
Jun '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
I am not at all sure that you need to write for a traditionally Left-Wing publication to question ANY characterization, quite the opposite. Right or wrong, there does seem to be an extraordinary amount of vitriol over building an Islamic community center --run by Sufis, supported by the Jewish Community -- blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood. I’d get the outrage it if it were a Wahabi mosque within blocks of the site.
Reflecting back on Newt's comments comparing the Islamic Community Center to the Nazi's building near the Holocaust Museum, it would have been a more honest comparison to say that a group from the German resistance wanted to construct something near a sensitive American site than to suggest that their opponents in Germany, the Nazis, wanted to do it.
In much of the Middle East, Sufi's are politically persecuted by the fundamentalists and are often not allowed to build there centers there. Distinctions matter.
Jul '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
Aaron Miller: I listened to Rush on Friday as he wasted a full hour on the religion of "Imam Obama" (a phrase he uses jokingly). Rush is so accustomed to making fun of Lefties that, when he doesn't have the ammunition on a particular issue, he'll stretch to make the jab.
It's sad when show hosts have uncharacteristically bad days, because you just know someone received a very poor first impression and will not return for another try. · Aug 22 at 9:44am
I prefer to listen to someone who tells me something I don't already know. These days, if you've read Drudge, you know what Rush is going to say.
The absolute best, most enlightening guy on radio these days is John Batchelor. Not a day goes by that I don't hear something fresh on his show.
Jun '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
...In my last post, I meant to say that the "Jewish Community Center" supported the building of the "Islamic Community Center," according to their spokesperson on "This Week."
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
Hi Jeanne -- The head of the Jewish Community Center (the JCC), Rabbi Joy Levitt, appeared on This Week alongside Daisy Kahn. Rabbi Levitt is supporting Kahn and her husband in their effort to build an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan. Kahn specifically said that she hopes to model that center after the JCC.
When Kahn made her comment about metastasized anti-semitism, Amanpour asked Rabbi Levitt what she thought of that remark. Here is what the rabbi said: "There's some part of it that feels very familiar...We understand some of this pain and yet we have also experienced tremendous amount of support in this country. So I think we actually are in a position to understand and be helpful to support religious tolerance in this country."
I agree with the Rabbi's point. The creation of this Islamic center is an opportunity for Americans to come out and support moderate Islam, rather than to recoil from Islam.
May '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
Tim, I'm not sure I'm getting your point exactly. What I'm trying to get away from at Ricochet is the overheated rhetoric on both sides. I can get that at The Nation or at Right Wing News and especially from the MSM right now. While I agree with you that distinctions matter, my problem with parts of this piece is the lack of distinction between those using rhetoric on both sides. I did apologize for the snark and I realize it was wrong of me to go there. I'm tired of all the name-calling. It not only prevents honest discussion, it is causing real damage. But my snark won't help either. Sorry again.
Jul '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
There's no question that there's a lot of anti-Muslim vitriol out there right now. All you have to do is follow the #tcot hashtag on Twitter or read through the comment sections of blogs to see what kind of stuff people are saying.
Certainly, hardcore Muslim-haters aren't the norm. But, they're being given significant rhetorical cover by people like Gingrich, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck et al.
Emily has a strong record of calling regressive and radical Islam to task for its abuse of women's rights, its hostility to modernity and the West, and all the rest. I think it's really vital that the conservative movement have a vibrant internal conversation about the Ground Zero community center/mosque, precisely because the people behind the mosque are not regressive or radical. I think it's worth noting that there's already a mosque -- Masjid Manhattan -- that is much more conservative, just a stone's throw from Ground Zero.
This needn't be left/right issue. It's a constitutional rights and national security issue. Doing right by moderate Muslims will do the US well. Let's hope Park51's founders aren't forced to move.
May '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
Emily so you're OK with Daisy's statement that objections to the mosque reflect metastasized anti-semitism & go beyond Islamophobia to a hate of Muslims because she has the support of the Jewish Community Center? You don't find it troubling that this moderate Muslim who is supposedly building the mosque to build bridges is accusing people who don't want the mosque there, including victims' families, of hating Muslims? How exactly does rhetoric like that build bridges & heal rifts?
My company lost 200 people on 9/11 and I lost several friends. While I fully accept the constitutional rights of the Raufs to go ahead with the project, having Daisy Rauf state that any objections I might have makes me a Muslim hater tells me what I need to know about how moderate how she is.
Anyway, I see I'm falling into the trap of discussing the merits of the mosque again. My original point was that I am tired of the heated rhetoric and that I was surprised to see it endorsed on this site. And I did mean it for both sides. So I'm taking my toys and going home. Enjoy yourselves.
May '10
Re: Sunday News Shows: Blago, the Mosque, and Karzai
Kenneth
I prefer to listen to someone who tells me something I don't already know. These days, if you've read Drudge, you know what Rush is going to say.
The absolute best, most enlightening guy on radio these days is John Batchelor. Not a day goes by that I don't hear something fresh on his show. · Aug 22 at 1:30pm
I'll check him out. Thanks.
I actually prefer Rush's show when Steyn hosts.