I’m beginning to feel like I’ve stumbled through an inter-dimensional portal into a Bizarro version of America, in which every single right wing politician, pundit, and blogger has been taken over by ranting, raving, illogical hyper-partisan doppelgangers, twisting and spinning themselves into weird pretzel shapes trying to find ways to rationalize prejudice, failing miserably, then congratulating themselves on their fabulous performances.

Today Charles Krauthammer joins the right wingers who are enabling the chorus of populist bigotry around the Cordoba House project, with an absurdly over the top op-ed titled: Sacrilege at Ground Zero.

Even when I’ve disagreed with him, I’ve always considered Krauthammer to be one of the more centrist right wing commentators; he’s pretty fair on science for a right winger— doesn’t deny evolution or global warming — and has called out the kooks on his own side more than once. But like most of the right, his positions have gradually become more extreme since Barack Obama was elected.

In this logically distorted piece, Krauthammer actually seems to be arguing that the government should step in and stop construction of Cordoba House, although he never quite gets around to saying that. But his justification is completely spurious:

America is a free country where you can build whatever you want — but not anywhere. That’s why we have zoning laws. No liquor store near a school, no strip malls where they offend local sensibilities, and, if your house doesn’t meet community architectural codes, you cannot build at all.

I honestly thought Krauthammer was better than this; his argument ignores the simple fact that none of the activities he lists — strip malls, liquor stores, etc. — are protected by the US Constitution. And that’s what I mean by my opening paragraph. What happened to the world in which people like Krauthammer supported and upheld the Constitution, instead of arguing for carving out special exceptions for certain demonized groups?

And this trend of suggesting possible ways the government could block the project, but never actually advocating blocking the project, is disturbing and very weaselish. Krauthammer should just come out and say it if he thinks the government should try to stop Cordoba House from being built, instead of indulging in this creepy sideways populism.

At its base, opposition to the Cordoba House project is based on simple paranoia — the fear that it’s actually a triumphalist statement celebrating the 9/11 attacks, and that it will harbor extremists plotting more evil against the US. And sure enough, Krauthammer goes there:

Who is to say that the mosque won’t one day hire an Anwar al-Aulaqi — spiritual mentor to the Fort Hood shooter and the Christmas Day bomber, and onetime imam at the Virginia mosque attended by two of the 9/11 terrorists?

“Who is to say that one day” the mosque might hire an Al Qaeda terrorist? What kind of argument is this, except pure fear-mongering?

The lead spokesman of the project, Imam Feisal Rauf, has made it crystal clear, in statement after statement and article after article, that he’s diametrically opposed to violent jihad and Islamic extremism. Mr. Rauf even represented the US overseas in Islamic countries for the Bush administration. On what grounds can Krauthammer possibly argue that his mosque might be used to fuel terrorism?

Krauthammer goes on:

These restrictions are for reasons of aesthetics. Others are for more profound reasons of common decency and respect for the sacred. No commercial tower over Gettysburg, no convent at Auschwitz — and no mosque at Ground Zero.

At this point, people like Krauthammer have no excuse for continuing to parrot the “Ground Zero Mosque” nonsense. It will be more than two blocks away in an area that can now best be described as “urban blight” (about the same distance from Ground Zero as a strip club called “New York Dolls”), it will have no view of Ground Zero, and it won’t just be a mosque, it will be a community center open to everyone, with a swimming pool, auditorium, restaurants and more.

Krauthammer can’t possibly be ignorant of these facts. So why is he still repeating the falsehoods?