Republican operatives giddily telegraphed their desire (to Politico of course) post-Iftar speech to tie Democrats to Cordoba House. Democrats were all over the map last week, but the hate-fueled campaign against Muslims has failed to improve national support for a Republican Congress. Gallup pegs the generic vote at 47-44% for the dopes of nope, down from a 50-43% edge the week before.
Gallup's likely voter model has been known for wild swings, and this year has already seen a 6-point D lead (July) and the 7-point R lead two weeks ago.
But the Gallup numbers blunt the notion that Republicans can ride anti-Muslim bigotry to big gains in November. In reality, such obsessive lunacy seems to backfire on conservatives by peeling the bark off their empty economic agenda.
Jed Lewison has been right to counsel Democrats to play jujitsu on this. He highlighted Sherrod Brown's deft defense-to-offense maneuver:
QUESTION: Are you for or against the mosque issue?
BROWN: Oh, I think it’s a local decision. We’re not at war with a religion, we're at war with terrorism. And I thought it was interesting, the first clip on your news story is Karl Rove who is great at dividing the country and turning people against people. I mean, this and the Fourteenth Amendment and other issues -- conservatives who simply want the president to fail are using issues like this, the Fourteenth Amendment, the mosque, to distract the public away from what we need to be doing -- that's passing a jobs bill, paying special focus on manufacturing. We in Ohio know how to make things, and we ought to have a real manufacturing policy in this country.
Endangered Democrat Tom Perriello also followed the script, in a hostile environment no less:
During the Danville town meeting, Perriello called the debate over the mosque "distracting" and said fixing the economy and rebuilding the manufacturing sector are more important priorities.
"Let me start by saying, I cannot imagine wanting the government to be able to tell me and my faith community where we can build a house of worship on private property," Perriello said. "... I have opinions on whether it’s a good idea or not, but ... compared to the importance of solving the economy right now... this is a distraction of what our biggest priorities should be."
The crowd overwhelmingly applauded his answer.
Maybe Perriello was hesitant to go into attack mode due to the town-hall environment, but he still did well. The Gallup numbers should encourage other Democrats to copy the tactic of making the Burlington Coat Factory community center/mosque an opportunity to go on offense.
Update
Of course, anybody and everybody should defend Cordoba House on grounds of religious freedom and tolerance, but contrasting conservatives' obsessive hate with their failed economic policies is effective for all Democrats, especially those with tough races this fall.
itzik shpitzik points out Pat Leahy's succinct defense of the 1st amendment:
"It may be popular to jump on this, but it should never be popular to have our First Amendment freedom of religion apply to some religions and not others. That's not the American way."