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Monday, December 08, 2003
However, people in white hoods make us feel right at home....
Rep Cass Ballenger (R-Bigot) has discovered WMD's in Washington, only, in this case, they're Weapons of Marriage Destruction:
U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-North Carolina) blames the breakup of his 50-year marriage partly on the stress of living near a leading American Muslim advocacy group. He told The Charlotte Observer that he and his wife worried that the group was so close to the U.S. Capitol that "they could blow the place up."
Another stress on their marriage was the 1995 decision by "holier-than-thou Republicans" in the House to ban gifts from lobbyists, said Ballenger, a Hickory Republican. He said the meals and theater tickets from lobbyists once meant "a social life for [Congressional] wives."
Ballenger, a nine-term lawmaker, called the Council on American-Islamic Relations — which has headquarters across the street from his Capitol Hill home — a "fund-raising arm" for terrorist groups and said he reported the group to the FBI and CIA.
He told The Associated Press Saturday that he has no problem with Muslims generally but that he objects to what he believes are the group's ties with terrorists.
His wife, Donna, said Saturday that the couple kept a close eye on the group since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and worried that the group's activities might jeopardize security on Capitol Hill.
"This gang across the street is questionable," she said Saturday.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the group, which looks out for Muslims' civil rights and sponsors interfaith gatherings, said Friday that Ballenger's unsubstantiated remarks were bigoted.
"It's unworthy of an elected official at the national level," Hooper said. "You wonder what he's been doing in Congress if this is the kind of analysis he does: 'You're a Muslim, so you're guilty.' "
Ballenger first made the comments Wednesday during a phone interview with the Observer, in which he discussed his separation from his wife in November.
In December, Ballenger said then-Rep. Cynthia McKinney, an African-American from Georgia known for her abrasive style, had stirred in him "a little bit of a segregationist feeling."
He later apologized for what he called "pretty stupid remarks."
Ballenger said that in the post 9/11 environment in Washington, his wife was anxious about all the activity at the group, including people unloading boxes late at night and women "wearing hoods," or headscarves, going in and out of the office building .
That "little bit of a segregationist feeling" could cost him:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a $2 million lawsuit on Tuesday in U.S. District Court against Rep. Cass Ballenger, North Carolina Republican, for remarks the lawmaker made last month about the organization to the Charlotte Observer.
Mr. Ballenger called the group "the fund-raising arm of Hezbollah" and said it had caused the breakup of his marriage because he lived near CAIR headquarters on Capitol Hill.
The congressman said proximity to CAIR had annoyed his wife and that she had objected to women "wearing hoods" — comments CAIR characterizes as "Islamophobic hysteria."
The lawsuit maintains that Mr. Ballenger's statements harmed the group's reputation and were not "protected speech" because he did not make them as a member of the House of Representatives.
The newly single Ballenger is quite a catch, I must say, if you're the type who enjoys long walks on the beach, Early Bird specials at Dennys, and peeking through the blinds at swarthy foreigners.
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