Right v. Rectitude: The ground zero mosque and the Restoring Honor rally

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Ken Connor, Chairman of the Center for a Just Society, comments on the incongruity of the left's support for the ground zero mosque on constitution grounds while it opposes the right of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to rally at the Lincoln Memorial:

The growing opposition to plans for a Muslim cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero have prompted some on the Left to speak out in defense of religious freedom in America. On August 16th, pundit Keith Olbermann took opponents of the project to task in his “Special Comment” segment...

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It is easier for demagogues like Olbermann to condemn the opponents of 45 Park Place as First Amendment-hating xenophobes than to recognize the legitimate “right v. rectitude” question at the heart of the controversy. What’s ironic, however, is how quick the Left is to dispense with the Constitution when those invoking it happen to fall on the politically incorrect side of the ideological divide.

When news broke that Glenn Beck would be hosting a “Restoring Honor” rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, that Sarah Palin was slated to speak and that the rally would take place on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech, the cry of outrage from the Left was immediate. Keith Olbermann was so distressed by the news that he invited uber-liberal talk radio personality Bill Press to weigh in on the matter:

"Unbelievable isn’t it? [When] I first heard about this – from you, by the way – you know I was just outraged that the park service would even consider giving Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin a permit to hold a political rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, that sacred shrine, on this historic date. . . . Clearly – I don’t care what he says – he chose that site, on that day, to kind of supplant Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech with his message, whatever it is."

So, not only is Mr. Press outraged by Beck’s presumption and insensitivity, he openly suggests that the government should prevent him from doing so! In one fell swoop Mr. Press commits a constitutional double-whammy, assaulting not only Beck’s right to speech but his right to assemble. And how did Olbermann respond? Did he “speak out” against this diatribe with solemn recitations of Holocaust poetry and a condemnation of Press’s “stoking of enmity” against Beck and Palin? Why, of course not. Instead of defending Beck’s constitutional rights, Olbermann chooses instead to focus on rectitude, even going so far to suggest that Beck rally will be a “racist desecration” of Dr. King’s memory.

So, as far as the Left is concerned, when it comes to the Ground Zero mosque controversy, the principle of constitutional right rules the day, but when it comes to Glenn Beck, MLK and the Lincoln Memorial, rectitude is the driving factor. The only thing these seemingly disparate arguments have in common is that they flow not from a position of principle, but one of rhetorical expediency. In one case it suits Olbermann and his liberal brethren to invoke the hallowed liberties enshrined in our constitution, in the other it suits them to ignore them.

What is it about leftists that prevents them from recognizing their own hypocrisy? In a word, arrogance.

Related: Warner Todd Huston, a Texas for Sarah Palin contributor, weighs in at Gateway Pundit.

- JP