'Ground Zero Mosque is Radically Insensitive' — But the Developers 'Have Been Bridge-Builders', Blah, Blah...

No one should be surprised that the editorial board at the New York Times has been totally in the tank for a victory mosque a stone's throw (and plane parts) away from the hallowed ground of the WTC attack zone. And as Pamela Geller wrote yesterday, "New York Times Soils Itself Again with Ground Zero Bus Coverage."

So I'm intrigued that the paper is using the front-page to at least appear critical of the backers. I won't be as cynical as others, so readers can judge for themselves: "For Mosque Sponsors, Early Missteps Fueled Storm." I will say that it's a pathetically squishy piece. The Times argues that Daisy Kahn and Imam Rauf are "bridged-builders." Clearly they are not, but at least the Times helps point out the utter mendacity of folks who thought it'd be cool to put up a victory mosque at the symbolic heart of America's fight against Islamist extremism. So, FWIW:

Joy Levitt, executive director of the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, remembers her first conversation with Daisy Khan around 2005, years before Ms. Khan’s idea for a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan morphed into a controversy about Sept. 11, Islam and freedom of religion.

“Strollers,” said Ms. Levitt, whom Ms. Khan had approached for advice on how to build an institution like the Jewish center — with a swimming pool, art classes and joint projects with other religious groups. Ms. Levitt, a rabbi, urged Ms. Khan to focus on practical matters like a decent wedding hall and stroller parking.

“You can use all these big words like diversity and pluralism,” Ms. Levitt recalled telling Ms. Khan, noting that with the population of toddlers booming in Manhattan, “I’m down in the lobby dealing with the 500 strollers.”

Clearly, the idea that Ms. Khan and her partners would one day be accused of building a victory monument to terrorism did not come up — an oversight with consequences. The organizers built support among some Jewish and Christian groups, and even among some families of 9/11 victims, but did little to engage with likely opponents. More strikingly, they did not seek the advice of established Muslim organizations experienced in volatile post-9/11 passions and politics.

The organizers — chiefly Ms. Khan; her husband, the imam of a mosque in the financial district; and a young real-estate investor born in New York — did not hire a public-relations firm until after the hostility exploded in May. They went ahead with their first public presentation of the project — a voluntary appearance at a community board meeting in Lower Manhattan — just after an American Muslim, Faisal Shahzad, was arrested for planting a car bomb in Times Square.

“It never occurred to us,” Ms. Khan said. “We have been bridge builders for years.”

I have my doubts about that (considering all the reporting I've done already, and not to mention the Imam's scheduled tour to Saudi Arabia on the State Department's dime). So what is it? An attempt to make Little Miss Daisy look the innocent? Either way, lax oversight or not, the Ground Zero Mega Mosque is a mistake. The development has done nothing but polarize America, and the terror-enabling left sees this as a chance to win some points while going down for the count in November. Most of all, we've got a year of tremendous historical significance coming up, and if somehow, some way, Bloomberg and his surrender-chorus succeed in getting this thing built, there's going to be political hell to pay.

I wish I was in New York.

Added: Terror-apologist Adam Serwer has a piece up taking NYT to task for descending into ...

... a kind of "liberal" media known-nothingism when it comes to how this became a controversy, suggesting that " a combination of arguable naïveté, public-relations missteps and a national political climate in which perhaps no preparation could have headed off controversy." This is a remarkable formula that manages to place the blame everywhere except where it belongs -- on a right-wing smear machine that went into overdrive in an effort to portray Rauf and Khan as terrorist sympathizers, an experience no one outside of contemporary partisan politics could have possibly been prepared for. The conservative media lied about the location of the project, they lied about Rauf's background, they lied about the project's funding, they lied about when the project would be built, and they lied about Rauf's political beliefs. And it would have been one thing if it had just been a small group of people lying, but they had an entire cable news station to lie for them, and politicians who were willing to amplify their smears. This controversy isn't about the "political climate." It's the fruit of a conscious, deliberate, and sustained effort.

Whoa.

It's like I said: This thing has become THE political event heading into the 9th anniversary of 9/11. The leftists are really getting extreme in their pushback, and Serwer's allegations of "lies" reveal a level of desperation I've not seen for some time, and that's saying something.

More at NewsReal, "Ground Zero Mosque Fraud Exposed."