It’s not just Harry Reid. Jeff Greene, a Democrat running for Senate from Florida, had a strongly worded response to President Obama’s remarks at the White House Ramadan dinner: “President Obama has this all wrong and I strongly oppose his support for building a mosque near Ground Zero especially since Islamic terrorists have bragged [about] and celebrated destroying the Twin Towers.”
Greene was careful to distinguish legal right from moral rectitude: “Freedom of religion might provide the right to build the mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero, but common sense and respect for those who lost their lives and loved ones gives sensible reason to build the mosque someplace else.” He suggested that Obama could have shown better leadership by “calling on the mosque’s supporters to find a more appropriate location.”
Rep. Jason Altmire, a Democrat from Pennsylvania’s 4th district, echoed Greene. In an interview on KDKA radio he emphasized that “there should be some discussion about what is right morally, as well as just what you’re allowed to do.” He added, “I think that the people who are supportive of putting the mosque there are missing the point of the impact and the devastation that [Sept. 11] had to us as a country.”
Altmire, Greene, Harry Reid, and the majority of registered Democrats (54 percent in last week’s CNN poll) agree with what conservatives have been saying for weeks: The Cordoba Initiative has the right to build the mosque, but that does not make it right to do so.