2012 elections

Santorum's New Iowa Staffers Have Ties To Shadowy Conservative Advocacy Group

Jillian Rayfield | January 28, 2011, 4:04PM

Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

Rick Santorum announced two new hires in Iowa today -- and though those new hires are veteran Republican operatives in Iowa, they both also have ties to a shadowy conservative group that tried to undermine robocall laws during the midterm election, and spent millions on attack ads against Democrats.

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DE-SEN

O'Donnell Scrubs Park51-Hater Geller Endorsement From Website

Evan McMorris-Santoro | October 21, 2010, 1:10PM

Pamela Geller and Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell (R)

Delaware Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell is generally pretty proud of the ultra-conservative company she keeps. O'Donnell made a big deal about her endorsement from Sarah Palin and was the very public star of the Values Voter Summit in September.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Morals, Morals, Morals! Conservatives Gather For Values Voter Summit]

But when it comes to support from the public face of hatred aimed at the planned Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan, the infamous firebrand Pamela Geller, it seems O'Donnell would rather keep her friends to herself.

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Rally To Restore Sanity

Jon Stewart: Our Rally's Far Enough From Ground Zero For Aasif Mandvi To Come (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | October 7, 2010, 10:03AM

Last night, Jon Stewart announced the location of his Rally To Restore Sanity on October 30, in Washington, D.C. "It's not the Lincoln memorial, where the historic Martin Luther King spoke, or the hysteric Glenn Beck spoke," he said. It is at the east end of the National Mall, between 3rd Street and 7th Street, known as East Seaton Park and Henry Park. "As far as we know," Stewart continued, "no huge iconic event has ever taken place there.

"And," he added, "it's far enough away from Ground Zero, 206 miles, for us to have Aasif [Mandvi] at the event. As long as he stays on the southernmost part of the stage."

Stewart also said that all donations in support of the rally should be made to the Trust For The National Mall.

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NV-SEN

Angle: Sharia Taking Hold In The United States

Eric Kleefeld | October 1, 2010, 4:09PM

NV Sen. candidate Sharron Angle (R)

Sharron Angle is now getting on board the latest Republican bandwagon, warning that sharia -- the term for Muslim religious law, which the American right has conflated to refer to its branches within Muslim extremism -- is taking over parts of the United States.

The Mesquite Local News reports on a Republican rally that Angle attended on Wednesday, where she took questions from GOP supporters:

One of the last questioners asked about "Muslims taking over the U.S.," including a question about Angle's stance on the proposed mosque near Ground Zero in New York.

"We're talking about a militant terrorist situation, which I believe isn't a widespread thing, but it is enough that we need to address, and we have been addressing it," Angle said.

"Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas are on American soil, and under Constitutional law. Not Sharia law. And I don't know how that happened in the United States. It seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States."

It's quite interesting that Angle is warning against a system of religious law taking control of the United States -- she has herself alleged that the Democrats' policies violate the First Commandment to acknowledge God as supreme.

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Carl Paladino

Paladino: No Mosque Wherever The 9/11 Human Remain Dust Cloud Landed (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | September 15, 2010, 4:36PM

Carl Paladino

Carl Paladino, the tea party-backed underdog victor in last night's Republican gubernatorial primary in New York, appeared on CNN this afternoon, and spent most of the time explaining his opposition to the proposed Cordoba House Muslim community center near Ground Zero. Host Rick Sanchez grilled Paladino on the legal grounds for his pledge to, if elected, use eminent domain to stop the project. And Paladino ended up defining the area in which he would prohibit projects like Cordoba House. Anywhere where the pulverized remains of 9/11 victims settled, he said, should be off limits to projects like Cordoba House.

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Islam

Poll: American Favorabilty Toward Islam Lowest Since Oct, 2001

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 9, 2010, 9:53AM

The site of the Cordoba House project

Fewer Americans have a positive view toward Islam today than in the wake of 9/11. According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll of national views on the Cordoba House project in Lower Manhattan and the planet's second-largest religion, just 37% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Islamic faith. That's "the fewest in ABC/Post polls dating to October 2001 (albeit by just 2 points)," according to the release.

In an ABC/Post poll released Oct. 9, 2001 -- less than a month after the attacks on New York and Washington -- 47% of Americans said they had favorable attitude toward Islam. Today, as we near the ninth anniversary of those attacks, that number is lower by ten points. In those years, the percentage of Americans viewing Islam positively dropped in ABC/Post polling, hovering at around 40% before dropping to it's lowest point in today's poll, which comes after a summer of open vitriol toward Islam by many prominent conservative leaders. The last time this few Americans told pollsters that they had a favorable view toward Islam came when American forces were still hunting down Saddam Hussein in Iraq -- back in September, 2003.

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Pres '12

Barbour: 9/11 Koran Burning A Bad Idea

Christina Bellantoni | September 8, 2010, 10:12AM

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said today that he opposes a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Koran on Sept. 11, and said he accepts "totally" that President Obama is a Christian.

"I do not think well of the idea of burning anybody's Koran, Bible, Book of Mormon or anything else," Barbour told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

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Ground Zero Mosque

Tim Pawlenty Says 'Ground Zero Mosque' Imam's Outreach 'Disgusting' And 'Dangerous' (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | August 17, 2010, 2:27PM

Add Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) to the list politicians with selective memory about Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's global outreach on behalf of the United States.

Pawlenty, a presidential hopeful for 2012, appeared on Fox News' "Hannity" last night to decry Obama's support for the Islamic cultural center proposed by Rauf's Cordoba House at a site two blocks from Ground Zero. He also criticized the State Department for sending Rauf on a diplomatic mission to the Middle East, saying that was "disgusting" and "dangerous."

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Ground Zero Mosque

Key Religious Groups Either Oppose Or Won't Weigh In On 'Ground Zero Mosque'

Brian Beutler | August 17, 2010, 1:19PM

Protesters against a proposed community center and mosque near ground zero called Cordoba House.

Few of the nation's most influential religious organizations have offered support for the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque." A survey of several groups by TPM finds that they either oppose the plan or take no position on the issue.

Most vociferously opposed is the Southern Baptist Convention.

"I take a back seat to no one when it comes to religious freedom and religious belief and the right to express that belief, even beliefs that I find abhorrent," said Richard Land, president of SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, on his weekly radio program. "But what I don't do is I don't say that religious freedom means that you have the right to build a place of worship anywhere that you want to build them."

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Ground Zero Mosque

How Republicans Might Drag The 'Ground Zero Mosque' Fight Into The Fall

Brian Beutler | August 16, 2010, 2:52PM

Sen. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Barack Obama

From Terri Schiavo to "death panels," Congressional recesses have long bred political controversies. But while some (like Schiavo) fizzle, others, (like "death panels") have a lasting impact on policy and politics. An open question for now is whether the row over the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" will be with us past August.

Republicans and conservative activists have made no secret of the fact that they want the issue to have legs, but that gets trickier when politicians return to Washington to actually govern. One option Republicans will have to pressure Democrats on the issue will be to force Democrats to vote on the question of whether they support the cultural center and mosque.

"There are no plans to do that at this point," says a top Republican House aide. "It's a month away, and I'd guess any chances we get to message...will be focused on jobs."

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Ground Zero Mosque

Is The Term 'Ground Zero Mosque' This Year's 'Death Panel'?

Brian Beutler | August 16, 2010, 1:51PM

Arguably, the recent partisan griping over the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" really went from a simmer to a boil in mid-July, when former half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin went on a Twitter rampage, calling on New York Muslims to "refudiate" the Cordoba initiative.

If that were truly the case, it would be a fitting tribute to the role Palin played last August when she popularized the conservative obsession with euthanasia by claiming the Democrats' health care bill contained "death panels."

But in reality, the loaded and inaccurate term "Ground Zero Mosque" had a much more organic rise to prominence beginning this past spring, when Palin and the GOP were instead politicking on the oil spill, the New Black Panthers and other right wing causes célèbre.

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