Republican Pol Warns of Playing 'Political Football' With 'Ground Zero Mosque'

Aug. 17, 2010— -- The Republican governor of New Jersey chastised Democrats and Republicans for using the proposed Islamic center near the site of the 9/11 terror attack as a "political football," in a sharp departure from members of his own party who are intent on making the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" an issue in fall election campaigns.

Gov. Chris Christie's comments contrast those of prominent national Republicans, including Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin who kept up their attack on the proposed project two blocks from where the World Trade Center was destroyed by Islamic militants.

Palin, who previously criticized the planned mosque, took to the airwaves Monday to attack President Obama for saying the Muslims had a right to build there.

"He just doesn't get it, that this is an insensitive move on the part of those Muslims who want to build that mosque in this location. It feels like a stab in the heart to, collectively, Americans who still have that lingering pain from 9/11," the former Republican governor of Alaska said on Fox News.

Her comments echoed those of New Gingrich who compared the Islamic Center's backers to Nazis.

But Christie warned against politicians "overreacting," and he spoke as someone with a closer connection to the tragedy.

Christie served as New Jersey's attorney general following the attacks, and many of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the collapse of the Twin Towers were from New Jersey. New Jersey was also a co-owner of the World Trade Center.

"Given my last position, that I was the first U.S attorney post 9/11 in New Jersey, I understand acutely the pain and sorrow and upset of the family members who lost loved ones that day at the hands of radical Muslim extremists," said Christie at a bill-signing ceremony. "And their sensitivities and concerns have to be taken into account. Just because it's nearly nine years later, those sensitivities cannot and should not be ignored."

He included Obama as among the politicians who he scolded for playing politics with the emotional issue and called for tolerance for Muslims.

"We cannot paint all of Islam with that brush. ...We have to bring people together. And what offends me the most about all this is that it's being used as a political football by both parties. And what disturbs me about the president's remarks is that he is now using it as a political football as well. I think the president of the United States should rise above that."

The govenor said he would not take a public stance on the Islamic center because "I don't believe that it would be responsible of me to get involved and comment on this any further because it just put me in the same political arena as all of them," he said.