So, It's The Muslims Fault His Marriage Went To Hell

[moe.ron]

Legislator faults Muslim group for marital ills
Congressman blames stress of living near office

Associated Press
Originally published October 5, 2003

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - North Carolina Rep. Cass Ballenger blames the breakup of his 50-year marriage partly on the stress of living near a leading American Muslim advocacy group that he and his wife worried was so close to the U.S. Capitol that "they could blow the place up."

The nine-term Republican lawmaker, in an interview with The Charlotte Observer published yesterday, called the Council on American-Islamic Relations - whose headquarters are across the street from his Capitol Hill home - a "fund-raising arm" for terrorist groups and said he reported CAIR to the FBI and the CIA.

Ballenger, 76, did not return calls to his home in Hickory, N.C., yesterday. His wife, Donna, told the Associated Press that the couple kept a close eye on CAIR since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and worried that the group's activities might jeopardize security on Capitol Hill.

"This gang across the street is questionable," she said yesterday.

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for CAIR, which promotes Muslims' civil rights and sponsors interfaith gatherings, told the Observer 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 made the comments during a telephone interview Wednesday with the Observer in which he discussed his legal separation from his wife, the newspaper said.

In addition to CAIR, he told the newspaper that another stress on the marriage was the 1995 decision by "holier-than-thou Republicans" in the House to ban gifts from lobbyists. The meals and theater tickets from lobbyists once meant "a social life for [congressional] wives," Ballenger said.

Ballenger's wife also said the move by "do-goody Republicans" to restrict the money spent on members of Congress and their spouses had helped turn Washington into a less desirable place to live. "Just a dinner now and then" would do no harm, she said.

In December, Ballenger also drew criticism when he said then-Rep. Cynthia A. 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.

Ballenger said in the latest interview that after the Sept. 11 attacks, his wife was anxious about all the activity at CAIR, including people unloading boxes late at night and women "wearing hoods," or headscarves, going in and out of the office building. "That's 2 1/2 blocks from the Capitol," he said, "and they could blow it up."