Everyone's got something to say about Ahmadinejad's visit

I was going to stay away from discussing the controversy awakened by Ahmadinejad's visit to New York City, by Columbia's invitation to deliver a speech, and by his request to visit Ground Zero. While most presidential candidates had come out blasting Ahmadinejad, emphatically denying that he should be allowed anywhere near Ground Zero and contesting even that he should be allowed to travel to New York City, this all seems an obvious case of campaign trail pandering with no possible relationship to pandering. There is nothing the White House could do about foreign heads of states visiting the UN -- and it would provoke an international outcry if Washington started toying with which world leaders are allowed to travel to NYC.

But the presidential candidates do not seem to care. The Democrats have been mostly tame in their anti-Iran rhetoric. After denying Ahmadinejad a visit to Ground Zero, both Clinton and Obama criticized Columbia's decision to invite the Iranian leader, but both defended Columbia's right to invite whoever it chooses. But apparently worried that she might be portrayed as weak on national security issues, Clinton stepped up her rhetoric today in a statement denouncing Ahmadinejad:

As thousands gather today in New York to decry the hateful and inciteful actions of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I am proud to join them by adding my voice to their efforts. As we know too well, the President of Iran has made a series of incendiary, outrageous comments, questioning the Holocaust and calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. Israel's right to exist – and exist in safety – must never be put in question. To deny the Holocaust places the President of Iran in company with the most despicable bigots and historical revisionists. These hateful statements are beyond the pale of international discourse and acceptability. His request to visit to Ground Zero, the site of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in our nation's history — a request that was properly denied —was unacceptable as Iran continues to refuse to renounce and end its support of terrorism...

Republicans have been much more vocal on this issue, clearly wanting to portray the Democrats as weak and gain an advantage on other candidates by driving the point home. Romney in particular has been all over Ahmadinejad's visit. He was the first to blast Clinton's response to Columbia's invitation. He wrote in a statement, "Senator Clinton's refusal to denounce Columbia University for inviting Ahmadinejad to speak demonstrates weakness... Instead of being given a forum for his propaganda, Ahmadinejad should be indicted for incitement to genocide." Romney also took to writing to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, asking him to rescind the UN's invitation to Ahmadinejad and calling for the Iranian president's arrest! He also warns Ki-moon that the US will stop funding the UN if the international body fails to follow his demands... Here is the text of Romney's letter.

To make sure Republican voters know of his commitment to undermining the United Nations, Mitt Romney started running a 60-second radio ad today in Iowa and South Carolina telling voters that he has "led the opposition" to Ahmadinejad's visit. The ad starts with the story of how Romney had also led the opposition to the Harvard visit and speech of former Iranian president Khatami when Romney was Governor of Massachusetts (Romney has visibly no capacity to understand that Khatami was a reformist president intent on reforming his country and reducing the power of the clerics). From the ad:

On the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Harvard University invited former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to Boston. The same Mohammad Khatami who has supported the terrorist group Hezbollah, advocates destruction of Israel and stood by while Jews and Christians were persecuted. The Iranian wanted VIP treatment at taxpayer expense. But Governor Mitt Romney said, 'No.' Governor Romney called the invitation a 'disgrace' and refused to grant Khatami a police escort. Now another Iranian President is visiting America, coming to New York, and Governor Mitt Romney is leading the opposition.

It is very interesting that Rudy Giuliani is also trying to prove his strength on this issue by appealing to an old historical parallel: In 1995, Giuliani expelled Yasser Arafat from a Lincoln Center concert! Many people were appalled at the time and denounced Giuliani's "behavioral problem," but Giuliani is now using that event to bolster his campaign in the wake of the Ahmadinejad controversy.

But the most ridiculous pandering move of all comes today from the NY State Legislature, which may withdraw funding from Columbia to punish it for having invited Ahmadinejad. Democrat Sheldon Silver, speaker of the NY Assembly, blamed Columbia for "attempting to legitimize this individual." He acknowledged that, "We have an obligation because of the U.N. to allow him to come to this country" before adding, "It doesn't mean we have to make him welcome." Other Democrats took similar positions, with Rep. Weiner saying that Columbia's reputation was taking a "serious beating." And then came the warnings, both from city and state officials. From the City Assembly, Dov Hikind said "It's not going to go away just because this episode ends. Columbia University has to know … that they will be penalized." And Silver made a similarly worded threat from Albany:

There are issues that Columbia may have before us that obviously this cavalier attitude would be something that people would recall. Obviously, there's some degree of capital support that has been provided to Columbia in the past. These are things people might take a different view of … knowing that this is that kind of an institution.

The options outlined in the article would be reducing the state's contribution to Columbia's financial aid program (for who to better punish than the poorer students who need that money to attend an expensive school like Columbia?), or create obstacles to Columbia's desire to expand into a 17-acre swath of land in West Harlem, for which the school needs the authorization of city officials.