WASHINGTON - U.S. 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."
Another stress on their marriage: the decision by "we
holier-than-thou Republicans" in the House, Ballenger said, to ban
gifts -- including meals and theater tickets from lobbyists -- that
once meant "a social life for (congressional) wives."
Ballenger, a Republican from Hickory, 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 CIA.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the group, which looks out for
Muslims' civil rights and sponsors interfaith gatherings, said Friday
that Ballenger's unsubstantiated remarks were bigoted.
The nine-term Republican made the comments during a Wednesday
evening phone interview with The Observer, in which he discussed his
legal separation from his wife, Donna.
It was the couple's proximity to CAIR after Sept. 11, 2001,"bugged
the hell" out of his wife, he said.
"Diagonally across from my house, up goes a sign -- CAIR ... the
fund-raising arm for Hezbollah," said Ballenger, 76, referring to a
Lebanese militia group the United States has labeled a terrorist
organization. "I reported them to the FBI and CIA."
Ballenger said in the post 9-11 environment in Washington, his
wife, a homemaker, was anxious about all the activity at CAIR,
including people unloading boxes and women "wearing hoods," or
headscarves, going in and out of the office building on New Jersey
Avenue. "That's 2 1/2 blocks from the Capitol," he added, "and they
could blow it up."
"This is out-and-out bigotry," Hooper said. "It's unworthy of an
elected official at the national level. ... 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.' "
This isn't the first time Ballenger has been criticized for
comments some consider insensitive. Last December, in another
interview with The Observer, he said that then-Rep. Cynthia McKinney,
an African American from Georgia known for her abrasive style, had
stirred in him "a little bit of a segregationist feeling. I mean, she
was such a bitch." He later apologized for what he called "pretty
stupid remarks" even as an aide was painting white the black lawn
jockey -- a symbol of racial insensitivity to many -- in Ballenger's
front yard.
CAIR, founded in 1994, has denied suggestions by some conservatives
that it has ties to Hezbollah or Hamas or other groups linked to
terrorist acts.
CAIR took out a full-page ad in The New York Times condemning the
Sept. 11 attacks and sponsored an interfaith "Day of National Unity"
in Washington on the anniversaries of Sept. 11.
"We meet with the FBI quite often," said Hooper. "Our chapters have
town hall meetings with the FBI to discuss discrimination and hate
crimes (against Muslims)." The group also prints guides for companies
that want to better understand Muslim employees.
Unloading boxes is no crime, CAIR's spokesman said about
Ballenger's suspicions. "Our phone works," Hooper said. "He could call
if there's a problem."
When asked by The Observer what the FBI and CIA told him when he
reported CAIR, Ballenger said, `They said, `Oh, we're watching them.'
"
But Donna Davis Ballenger, his wife, said the FBI first told
Ballenger "it was nothing," then that CAIR "was a religious
group."
Otherwise, she echoed Ballenger's comments on CAIR and on her
feelings about living across the street from the group's headquarters.
"It's a very good location if you really wanted to raise trouble," she
said.
FBI agent John Iannarelli said all reports made to the FBI -- by
private citizens or members of Congress -- are kept confidential
unless an arrest occurs.
"When a congressman calls, we're going to take that as seriously --
or more so -- because of his standing in the community," said
Iannarelli. "Some of it turns out to be legitimate. But many times,
it's speculative and it turns out that there's nothing there."
Ballenger's wife also agreed with him that the GOP-controlled
House's 1995 decision to restrict the money spent on members of
Congress and their spouses had helped turn Washington into "a lousy
place to live. ...It used to be you'd get invitations to the symphony
or the theater ... I don't think you should get $1,000 trips to the
Bahamas (from lobbyists). But I don't see where a dinner or a theater
ticket is that bad. We had friends who are lobbyists."
Ballenger said he and his wife got an amicable legal separation in
November. "We always argued a lot," he said. "After 50 years, we
decided we could get along more happily separated." They have decided
not to get a divorce, he said.
In Hickory, they live apart, Donna Ballenger said, though "he eats
a lot of meals here."
The couple continue to work together on the family business,
Plastic Packing Inc., and on the Ballenger Foundation, where they pool
their Social Security checks to furnish hospitals and schools in Latin
America. They have three grown
daughters.
