Howard Dean Sounds Like a Conservative Blogger (Update: Dean Responds)

Update:

Gov. Dean explains his position to Glenn Greenwald, who has been highly critical.

***

First Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid went all coward on us, now liberal darling Gov. Howard Dean wants the two-blocks-from-ground-zero Muslim community center moved. The worst part is, he seems to be getting his facts from Sarah Palin.

First of all, Dean refers to the YMCA-style project as a mosque, which is misleading and has been widely debunked. Second, he says, “That site doesn’t belong to any particular religion.” Does he mean Ground Zero, located blocks away? Again, the notion that this is the “Ground Zero Mosque” has been pushed by conservative demagogues but it’s not true. Even if it were, last we checked Muslims qualified for American citizenship and the Constitution was still in play.

Dean says, “We have to understand that it is a real affront to people who lost their lives, including Muslims.” No we don’t. We do not have to understand why murdered Muslims should be offended by their own religion.

As Glenn Greenwald, whose post on the subject brought this to our attention, points out: “Making this more repellent is that he doesn’t even have the ‘I-want-to-get-re-elected’ excuse.”

Speaking of which, all of the spineless Democrats out there not motivated by principle (you know, that founding American one we learn about in grade school) and thinking about pulling a Harry Reid, know this: According to Nate Silver, the polling on this has been widely misinterpreted. Two-thirds of Americans, roughly, believe the dreaded Muslims have a right to build the thing, even if it’s a giant mosque on top of Ground Zero. Because this is America, dummies. — PZS