With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

Life sometimes got chaotic in semi-rural Corrales, NM, when I was a kid. Fences were fewer in those days, and animals roamed more.

I remember when the neighbors' dog went into 'heat' when I was about eight years old, and all sorts of aggressive male dogs started appearing in the immediate neighborhood.

One morning, all three of the Mapstone's dogs appeared next door: two Doberman Pinschers, and their little yippee dog sidekick. They were chasing the female dog, but suddenly the two Dobermans decided their little sidekick cohabitant was a competitive nuisance. So, they turned on him. In a horrifying five-second spectacle of rage, they butchered him right in front of us kids.

When I read about Republicans inflaming the mosque controversy in New York, I'm reminded of the Dobermans. Imam Rauf worked closely with the Bush State Department. In many ways, he was one of the Bush Administration's most-effective go-to guys regarding the Muslim world.

But now, Republicans are pretending they don't even know the guy. And he was their guy too! Just like the little yippee dog, the Imam is now in the way. So, they butcher him.

At least the Dobermans had an excuse:

As you may have heard, former Bush senior adviser Karen Hughes came out against Cordoba House over the weekend. Hughes called on Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to move the project in order to "provide a path toward the peaceful relationships that he and his fellow Muslims strive to achieve."

What was mystifying about her opposition, as TPM noted, was that she did not mention that Rauf had a long-term relationship with the Bush administration. Nor did she mention that as the Bush State Department's chief of outreach to Muslims she participated with him in multiple bridge-building efforts to the Muslim world.
Here's her explanation: Hughes claimed in a statement to me that she doesn't remember any of the work she did with him.

As it happens, when people first started pointing out the connections betweeen Hughes and Rauf, I asked Ms. Hughes' office to comment. She sent me a statement, which I didn't get around to posting. Here it is:

"As Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, President Bush asked me to focus on interfaith dialogue to try to encourage greater understanding and respect between leaders of different faiths, and to encourage leaders of all faiths to speak out against all acts of terror and violence. As a result, I met with many Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders and attended numerous events and conferences across the world and it's entirely possible he was at some of those, but I don't have specific recollections of that.