I didn’t think it was possible for somebody to publicly disagree with President Obama without being called a bigot and a racist and an evilmonger and the other handy epithets we’ve heard for the last 18 months. But somehow Senate Majority Leader and ambulatory cadaver Harry Reid has escaped that fate, after throwing in with the right-wing hatemongers who aren’t keen on building a supermosque on a spot that was hit on 9/11.

Reid said the developers have a right to build it there but he really wishes they wouldn’t, which puts him in agreement with a small 70% minority of the United States. And what is his punishment for this savage outburst of bigotry and intolerance? Politico reports:

President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have agreed to disagree on a Muslim group’s controversial plans to build an Islamic community center and mosque a couple of blocks from ground zero in lower Manhattan.

Obama “respects the right of anybody — Democrat, Republican, independent — to disagree with his opinion on this,” White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters Tuesday.

Yes, we’ve all seen how well Obama listens to people who disagree with him, and how highly he thinks of their motives. But hey, at least we have his explicit permission to dissent, even if he doesn’t really mean it. Will it stop all the gibbering about how exercising the First Amendment is a violation of the First Amendment, though? Doubt it.

In other Fearless Leaders News: Does Nancy Pelosi really believe nobody can disagree with a Democrat on principle, or is she just a prevaricating autocrat?

P.S. Now that Pelosi and Reid are in opposite corners on this, the match needs a good Don King-style title. I’m thinking “Mummy vs. Dummy,” but I can’t decide which one’s which.

P.P.S. Mosque supporters beg George W. Bush to come to Obama’s rescue. Yes, seriously.

P.P.P.S. Here’s what the bridge-building, tolerance-promoting Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf says when he thinks you can’t hear him: “The trend towards Islamic law and justice begins by religious movements like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance.”