The Principle Of Principle, What Obama Said & The Nearby Ground Zero Mosque

Some librul commentators are taking to their fainting couches because of what they assert is President Obama's walk back from his endorsement of the Cordoba House Mosque on Friday with a statement on Saturday explaining he was merely endorsing the right to build it.

Try as I might -- because, of course, we must examine Obama's every uttering and jot and tittle with a fine-toothed comb to reveal code words, hidden agendas and such -- I did not see the Friday statement as a specific endorsement as much as a defense of the Constitutional dictum that church and state be separate, although the Saturday statement had the effect seeming like some sort of capitulation.

And just to make things even more idiotic, some librul commentators are questioning why the prezdent would weigh in on something that so many people tell pollsters they oppose at a time when his approval ratings continue to head south.

So much for the principle of principle, right?

Anyhow, now that the Leader of the Free World has spoken and the battles lines over the Not Ground Zero But Nearby Ground Zero Mosque have been starkly drawn, it's reassuring to see that some Republican Party leaders not in need of frontal lobotomies, let alone crash courses in what the Constitution actually says and what the Founding Fathers actually meant, are suggesting that the Muslim bashers among them need to cool their jets.

These leaders include George W. Bush, who can be criticized for many things but not his embrace of religious tolerance, although not Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich, to name two whose principles reside in the dark cavities between their ass cheeks. (Oh, and Harry Reid is a coward.)

* * * * *

Ross Douthat is not a librul but rather a died-in-the-wool conservative New York Times columnist and blogger whom I like and usually agree with.

But Douthat needs to be taken to the woodshed after the flapdoodle he wrote yesterday about waves of immigrants coming to America and assimilating into our culture by jettisoning some of their dearly held religious values -- like (cough) polygamy in the Mormon Church -- and suggesting that Muslims must do the same.

Well, Ross baybee, the vast majority of Muslims have done so, which in no way is an argument for not building the Not Ground Zero But Nearby Ground Zero Mosque.

* * * * *

Conveniently forgotten in the spittle-laced outcry over Obama's statements is that he not only did not endorse building the mosque but made it explicitly clear, as had Bush before him, that:

"Al Qaeda's cause is not Islam -- it is a gross distortion of Islam. In fact, Al Qaeda has killed more Muslims than people of any other religion, and that list includes innocent Muslims who were killed on 9/11."

CARTOONS (from top): Mike Luckovich/Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Nick Anderson/Houston Chronicle; Matt Davies/Westchester (N.Y.) Journal News; Tom Toles/The Washington Post; Steve Benson/Arizona Republic.