Mosque talk another hurdle for Democrats

August 17, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By LIZ SIDOTI

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Add another election-year hurdle for Democrats: President Barack Obama’s forceful defense of the right of Muslims to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.

His comments are giving Republicans a campaign-year cudgel and forcing Democrats to address a divisive issue within weeks of midterm contests that will decide the balance of power in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a competitive re-election fight, was the highest-profile Democrat to move away from Obama on the matter.

“The First Amendment protects freedom of religion,” Reid’s spokesman Jim Manley said in a statement Monday. “Senator Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built someplace else.”

Democrats privately called the issue a distraction when the party should be laser-focused on keeping comfortable majorities in Congress. The political climate already favors Republicans as economically struggling voters look to unleash their fury on the party in power.

White House aides have spent four days trying to explain exactly where the normally eloquent president stands on the mosque. Obama’s ringing statement in support of religious equality Friday, followed a day later by a caveat, stoked anew false Internet rumors about his citizenship and religion.

Some Democratic candidates fear the political fallout that Republicans suggest is coming against those who support building a mosque two blocks from the lower Manhattan site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And some Republicans are trying to walk a careful line in their criticism, lest they be tagged religiously intolerant or be accused of stoking fear.

For weeks, the White House had refused to interject itself into what it called a local zoning issue. Obama publicly commented on the issue only after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered an impassioned supportive speech and after the plan cleared a final city regulatory hurdle.

Obama waded into the debate Friday at the annual White House dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, saying: “Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

By Saturday, the president was in Florida — and elaborating.

“I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there,” he said.

That doesn’t mean Obama was backing off his initial remarks, aides said.

Republicans, led by several considering challenging Obama in 2012, assailed the president.

Gingrich accused Obama of “pandering to radical Islam.”

Including Reid, at least three Democrats broke from the White House — and party insiders expected more to follow suit, primarily moderates in conservative places.