Ben Franklin, Deist and Person of Faith--->

Some people just sound intelligent. Its an attitude, a modicum of education and a talent for self-expression that often works far better than actually knowing what you're talking about. I know lots of guys that make a good living bluffing their way through life this way.

Andrew Sullivan is one of those guys.

As long as you don't know any better, Andy sounds like he knows what he is talking about.

Fortunately for me, I do know better which is why its been years since I've read his blog with any regularity.

If you can't be brilliant, be outrageous. Go to rehab, get a tattoo and shave your head for some attention--no wait, that's someone else. No matter--the point is still valid. Consider Andy's latest attempt to set his hair on fire.

An Evangelical chauvinist took exception to Romney's presence at a gathering in central Florida and asserted that Mitt doesn't have a friend in Jesus. Sullivan's take? Cast Romney as a bigot.

A Republican Christianist heckles a Mormon candidate in Florida. Romney responds as follows:

We need to have a person of faith lead the country.

How is that not a religious test for the presidency? The anti-Mormon bigotry displayed is ugly and wrong - but it will come up again. Bush and Rove have built a Republican party on a sectarian base - and Romnney (sic) is of the wrong sect. But instead of standing up to this sectarianism, and affirming the right of anyone of any faith or none to be president, Romney panders to religious bias. It seems to me that it is equally bigoted to say that a Mormon should not be president as it is to say that an atheist should not be president.

Wow! Sullivan often affirms his Catholic bona fides, but doesn't seem to grasp the idea that faith is a non-sectarian concept, not even necessarily a religious concept.

This country was founded on faith in crazy, untried but beautiful ideals. Its a country of optimism and vision--a country soaked in faith in itself and its destiny, manifest and otherwise. Romney is right--how can we have a president with no faith--no vision?

Proverbs 29:18

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” [
Proverbs 29:18]

Is nominating faith as a presidential virtue a matter of religious bias? I doubt Benjamin Franklin would accept that. Neither, I think, would Thomas Jefferson--both of them free-thinkers and each a person of faith.

If Democrats really believe in God, why is the Mormon, Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader? At least if one is to follow the logic of Al Sharpton who says:

"As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation," Sharpton said Monday during a debate with Hitchens at the New York Public Library's Beaux-Arts headquarters.

One knows Al Sharpton is saying something outlandish or outrageous when his lips are moving, so there is not much need for comment here. I would point out that once again, the attack against Mitt Romney’s faith comes from the left – not the right.

My point about Democrats and God, while mostly in jest is not far from the mark. The truth is the Republican primaries will be the challenge for the Mormon candidate, not the general election. Democrat’s just don’t have the religious credibility to mount an effective Jihad against a Mormon or any other candidate’s religion.

If the Reverend Sharpton wishes to marshal such a jihad of believers, he is going to have to rely on Republicans not Democrats. So far such Republicans would probably have more concern over the faith of Al Sharpton then the faith of Mitt Romney.

Younger people may think Lucca Brazzi is a rapper. Those of us slightly older who have seen the Godfather umpteen times will know that he was Don Corelone's enforcer--a man who did the Don's dirty work and allowed him to maintain the fiction that he was no involved with any nefarious activities.

It seems that every candidate has a squadron of Lucca Brazzis do engage in the knife work of the political campaign.

A case in point--Mitt Romney's religion. Romney is of course good-looking, well-spoken, unbelievably smart, well-funded and on message. So about all a rival can do is stir up the worst kinds of prejudices assumed to exist within the Republican bosom.

Psst. Romney's a Mormon.

The Globe recounts a series of incidents by campaign Lucca Brazzis hoping to incite and inflame hatred against Mormons.

County chairman for Senator John McCain's presidential campaign, Chad Workman:

One participant summed up Workman's argument this way: "The fundamental flaw of Mitt Romney . . . was that he was Mormon, not because he thinks this way or that way on one issue."

Chuck Larson, a former Iowa GOP chairman and now one of McCain's top Iowa advisers

One Republican Larson approached, who would talk only on condition of anonymity, said that Larson told him, "He's a Mormon for crying out loud -- that's essentially a cult."

Hey, when you are down in the polls the way McCain is, you do what you have to. Unfortunately, McCain's powerbase is in Arizona, where Mormons are numerous, organized and politicially influential. Mormons are actually pretty sensitive to these kinds of bigoted remarks and it will almost certainly come back to haunt McCain should he wish to retain his Senate seat a little longer.

Emma Nemecek, an Iowa field operative for Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas:

...recently forwarded an e-mail to Iowa Republicans containing a number of criticisms of Mormonism, including a charge that it is not a Christian faith. The e-mail closed with a quote from a Founding Father, John Jay: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."

I always find that particular knock on the Mormons fairly strange since the official name of the church is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". Sounds Christian to me. Of course what Ms. Nemecek is really saying is that Mormons don't accept her particular confession of faith.

Brownback, like McCain, quickly disavowed the actions of Lucca Brazzi

Katie Harbath, Giuliani's deputy e-campaign director

...forwarded to a blogger a story in The Salt Lake Tribune linking Romney to an unofficial Mormon prophecy that a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would one day save the Constitution. "Thought you'd find this interesting," Harbath wrote to the blogger

Harbath is referring to the "White Horse" prophecy. Ironically, the so-called prophecy has no standing among Mormons and has been officially condemned on at least a couple of occasions by general authorities of the church. Its provenance is highly dubious--unauthenticated transcriptions of accounts by two men who were recalling ten year old, uncorroborated events. Nevertheless, it gets trotted out every time a Mormon runs for president (which has happened four times since the prophecy was allegedly uttered in 1843). For the record, the prophecy makes no reference to a man on a white horse saving the constitution. Rather the white horse is a metaphor for the Mormon people. More than you want to know about the prophecy here.

Plenty of anonymous sh_tdisturbers have been working hard as well.

There have been numerous anonymous attacks, too, such as an unsigned, eight-page screed that arrived last month in the mailboxes of influential South Carolina Republicans charging that Mormonism was a "politically dangerous" religion founded on a hoax. Sent from Providence, the mailing alleged that church members believe in multiple gods, likened its founder, Joseph Smith, to the Islamic prophet Mohammed, and raised alarm about future directives Mormons may be required to follow.

Sounds like a North American version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion...

Normally I would just chalk this up to kooks, and undoubtedly some of it can be attributed to them, but the reality that so many campaign officials in all parties have made inflammatory comments about Mormons seems to be more than a coincidence, especially as it concerns the McCain campaign which seems to have more than its fair share.

I'm going to guess there weren't any black women editors at CNN who had a hand vetting this story:

Gender or race: Black women voters face tough choices in S.C.

Here is an afterthought, twenty-five paragraphs into the story:

While race and gender play a role, most women here say they plan to vote based on the issues.

It seems that CNN doesn't buy that issues thing. When the email pours in, however, they finally get a clue. It's too late to pull their old story so they run a "counterpoint" story. Readers (but apparently not CNN) are upset:

CNN readers respond angrily to 'race or gender' story

One response:

An e-mailer named Tiffany responded sarcastically: "Duh, I'm a black woman and here I am at the voting booth. Duh, since I'm illiterate I'll pull down the lever for someone. Hm... Well, he black so I may vote for him... oh wait she a woman I may vote for her... What Ise gon' do? Oh lordy!"

UPDATE:

The "Tough Choice" report was written by Randi Kaye. Can I assume that since she is a white women she doesn't get a choice?

A6: In 2008 whose candidacy will face the most opposition, Barack Obama ? Who do you think will face the most opposition or the most prejudice today?

Reverend Murray: The Mormon. Because America is still growing. The question, “Do we want a Mormon?” The ultra conservatives will start reaching into history and try to paint them as a radical sect, try to show that their belief system is alien to what perhaps a majority of Americans believe. Because that’s where we are now. Prayerfully, that’s not where we’ll be in 20, 30 or 40 years. We don’t know. I would say Barack would have the advantage. And anytime you say a black candidate would have an advantage running for President of the United States of America, great day in the morning! After four centuries of bad thinking about Blacks, then you know we still have LONG way to go.

This was from an interview back in November of Cecil "Chip" Murray, a Senior Fellow in the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California, and Senior Pastor of the 18,000 member Los Angeles First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Alarm bells went off in my head when I read this.

There is a huge difference between anti-Mormon bigotry and racism. One is the fear and distaste for the strange and different, while the other is the pernicious view that blacks are inferior. The Democrat party exudes racism from every pore with universal support for patronizing policy that emphasizes the inherent inferiority of blacks with the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Anti-Mormon bigotry is far more like anti-Jewish bigotry. The worry that the Mormons (or the Jews) are somehow secretly conspiring against you. Ironically, its sort of a compliment--a tacit recognition of Mormon or Jewish success. Effectively, this has always been the real source of anti-Mormon bigotry, first in Missouri, where Mormon communities threatened to out-compete their neighbors economically and politically, and then again in Illinois. The reaction was violent and deadly but perhaps predictable within this perspective.

I've been amazed at how closely so many Democrat arguments about race resemble those of of the historical segregated South and in some cases, even those of the KKK.

If you listen closely to Jeremiah Wright talk about African-American brains and Euro-American brains, you can almost imagine him in front of a burning cross. The soft-bigotry of low expectations as far as blacks are concerned, is nothing more than tacit acknowledgment of the idea that blacks are somehow inferior and unable to compete on level ground with Whites and Asians. I'm simply amazed and perplexed that so many in the black community seem willing to accept this view so passively. I'd be screaming bloody murder.