Time
magazine's Mark Halperin engaged in the ultimate condescension Monday morning,
arguing that families of 9/11 victims need to be guided by others into the
Ground Zero mosque debate.
"For the families of the victims of 9/11,
whatever emotions they want to have, I respect and I honor. But somebody needs
to lead them through a discussion," Time's senior political analyst lectured on
MSNBC's "Morning Joe." He mentioned a meeting that reportedly took place between
the mosque's planners and the 9/11 families, which he insisted "needs to
happen."
Halperin said the meeting "did not go well," but added it was
and is necessary. "As I said before, whether it moves or stays, that discussion
must happen. This must be done with reconciliation. And it's got to be led by
leaders, not by people like Rick Lazio...and facts," Halperin noted.
The
show picked up fresh from where it left off last week, bashing the supposedly
inflammatory rhetoric from the right opposing the mosque and sympathizing -
while disagreeing - with the families of 9/11 victims over the planned mosque
two blocks away from Ground Zero.
Host
Joe Scarborough added that reconciliation doesn't necessarily entail moving the
mosque. "The leaders of this Islamic cultural center, Mark, have to show
reconciliation towards the victims of 9/11," Scarborough responded to Halperin.
"That doesn't necessarily mean moving the Islamic center."
"But what it
may mean is asking them, say, 'It's not going to move. What can we do, though?
What can we put inside of this center that, as a memorial to the memory of your
father, or your son, or your daughter? What can we do to help
you?'"
Scarborough cried that the situation has already become an
international problem, and Halperin warned it could escalate to greater
proportions. "If the resolution is not handled well," he remarked, "the signal
it could send abroad could put us at war with a billion people forever."
Scarborough argued that moving the mosque now would constitute "giving
into the hate speech of Newt Gingrich and people like him."
"To fear the
building of this center down there at Ground Zero is to admit America is weak,"
he asserted. "This is a chapter in our history that we're going to - we as a
country, the people associated with this - are going to be ashamed of," he said
of the heated debate over the mosque.
A transcript of selected quotes
from the show, which ran on August 23 from 6 a.m.-9 a.m. EDT, is as
follows:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: To fear the building of this center down there
at Ground Zero is to admit America is weak, is to admit that we can't handle the
building of a community center which is - somebody said it yesterday, and this
is what I thought was all along - it is basically a Muslim version of a 92nd
Street ___. That's what this place is going to be.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: It's
not just fear, Joe. They're demonizing the Imam. They're demonizing the people
who want to do it. They are creating lies to promulgate hatred in this country.
This is where we are, all over again.
(...)
SCARBOROUGH: This is
a chapter in our history that we're going to - we as a country, the people
associated with this - are going to be ashamed of.
(...)
SCARBOROUGH: This is an international situation. ... This
is sending a horrific message across the Muslim world.
(...)
MARK
HALPERIN: As bad as this is for relations in the United States, the signal that
it sends abroad - the debate now is sending a bad signal. If the resolution is
not handled well, whether it moves or not, if it's not handled well, the signal
it could send abroad could put us at war with a billion people forever.
(...)
SCARBOROUGH: This would not be happening if George W. Bush
were President, for two reasons. First of all, a lot of these people on the
right wouldn't be trying to sully his name, that's what this is about for a lot
of these freaks on the far right. They want to embarrass Barack Obama, because
oh gosh, his middle name is Hussein.
(...)
HALPERIN: You gotta
confront the people who find it bothersome. Why is it bothersome? Why is it
bothersome? If it's not a center that meant to celebrate the violence of 9/11,
if it's not a recruitment center, why is it bothersome to anybody?
(...)
HALPERIN: For the families of the victims of 9/11, whatever
emotions they want to have, I respect and I honor. But somebody needs to lead
them through a discussion. ... Discussion needs to happen, as I've said before.
(...)
SCARBOROUGH: The leaders of this Islamic cultural center,
Mark, have to show reconciliation towards the victims of 9/11.
HALPERIN:
And confidence.
SCARBOROUGH: That doesn't necessarily mean moving the
Islamic center. But what it may mean is asking them; say "It's not going to
move. What can we do, though? What can we put inside of this center that, as a
memorial to the memory of your father, or your son, or your daughter? What can
we do to help you? There has to be some reconciliation. They can't stiff-arm the
9/11 families.
(...)
BRZEZINSKI: But there's no basis in order to
worry that this would be insensitive. There are other things near Ground Zero
and at the Pentagon that are similar. ... They have a mosque 12 blocks away from
Ground Zero, isn't there one at the Pentagon? Am I wrong?
(...)
SCARBOROUGH: But at this point, if you want to move it up
to the Upper West side? ... At this point, I don't know that we can do that. I
don't know that we can do that as a country, because it's giving in to the hate
speech of Newt Gingrich, and people like him, Rick Lazio who's stoking fear,
people down yesterday, trying to beat somebody up because they thought they were
a Muslim. We can't give in to that as a country.
-Matt
Hadro is News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. You can follow him
on Twitter here.
