The Rauf Draft of History: And Thus, Phase One Begins

Linking to Pamela Geller’s clip of Feisal Rauf’s greatest hits last night, I asked, “Can We Speed This News Cycle Up a Bit?” And pointed to the three likely phases of the story:

So as with previous examples of darlings of the left being caught on the record saying incendiary things, we should soon see the following:

1. “But it’s taken out of context!!!!” rejoinders.
2. His defenders in the MSM telling his that this his best speech was “a home run” of religious tolerance and transcendence.
3. CNN and MSNBC declaring their networks a “Rauf-Free Zone,” once the imam of the hour is no longer useful for bashing conservatives, and/or too radioactive to the left.

How quickly can we not pass go, not build the mosque, and skip straight to phase three of this news cycle?

Phase one begins:

The State Department’s top spokesman cautioned reporters Tuesday not to take snippets of edited remarks on the Internet by the “Ground Zero mosque” imam and use them to brand him a radical, lest they repeat the mistakes made by the media in calling former USDA official Shirley Sherrod a racist based on edited clips of her promoted on conservative websites.

Say, who is this Shirley Sherrod you speak of? That story seems soooo July these days.