Pawlenty: Obama’s playing ‘law professor’ in backing religious freedom for Islamic center planners

President Obama’s comments on the Islamic center planned to be built a few blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York has again raised the hackles of an ever-rightward-veering Tim Pawlenty. On Fox’s Sean Hannity Show Monday, Pawlenty claimed Obama is playing the role of “law professor” in his opinion that the center’s organizers have rights under the law to practice their religion on private property: “Our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable,” the president said.

“Well, I think it’s another example of him playing the role of law professor,” said Pawlenty. “This isn’t about the technical, hyper-technical legal issues. This is about basic decency, judgment, respect, and appropriate recognition of the tragedy and crisis that was 9/11.”

“And to suggest this is somehow going to be lawyered up, and we’re gonna hide behind his legal arguments — we can have a great debate about the legal arguments — but it’s not about that. It’s about being sensitive, being respectful, and having good judgment about not putting a mosque within two blocks of Ground Zero. Anybody with common sense can see that.”

Pawlenty concluded by discussing his repeat trips to Iowa. Pawlenty says he’s trying to help 2010 candidates through his PAC. As for his own plans and whether they involve him gunning for Obama’s job, Pawlenty said, “We’ll decide that early next year.”

Pawlenty has consistently performed poorly in early presidential polls; the most recent, a survey of Iowa caucus goers, had him finishing in a tie with South Dakota’s John Thune, with 1 percent of the vote.

Pawlenty’s earlier comments about the Ground Zero-area Muslim center earned him rebukes from leaders of local and national religious groups and from Rep. Keith Ellison, who highlighted Pawlenty’s White House ambitions. “I know he wants to be president really bad,” he said on Friday, “and I know he’s trying to appeal to the most extreme elements of his party to do that, but I hope he doesn’t want to be president so bad that he’s willing to dishonor the First Amendment and our heritage of religious tolerance.”

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Via GOP12.