Associated Press
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R), still trying to shore up the support of Utah Republicans, made a curious allegation this week.
In remarks to a group of GOP delegates, the senator insisted that President Obama's re-election team will "throw the Mormon church at [Mitt Romney] like you can't believe." Hatch added that Obama advisers David Axelrod and David Plouffe had already gone after the likely Republican nominee's faith, though the senator could offer no proof.
It's unfortunate that Hatch would be so careless about throwing around accusations like these -- decency requires that charges like these have some foundation in reality -- but it's also rather ironic. Michael B. Keegan explained that Mormons have come under political fire of late, but the attacks haven't been coming from Democrats or the left.
The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, like others on the Religious Right, has continually attacked Mormons, even going so far as to say their faith shouldn't be protected by the First Amendment and claiming that a Mormon president would threaten the "spiritual health" of the nation. But Fischer warned in a column yesterday that the "the out-of-the-mainstream media" will attack "every unusual thing Mormons have ever believed or done" - helpfully listing a litany of things he deems "unusual" about Mormonism.
The Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land has likewise claimed that progressives will make Romney's faith a campaign issue - while he himself insists that Mormonism is "technically...a cult."
The Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody used the same tactic this week when he posted a video of a Ron Paul supporter grilling Romney on quotes from Mormon scripture - and then claiming that Democrats and liberals will be the ones to attack Romney's faith.
The Values Voter Summit, the Religious Right's marquee event, fell apart last year after the pastor who introduced Gov. Rick Perry repeated his claims that Mormonism is a "cult" that worships a "false god."
Perhaps Hatch confused Democrats and Republicans?
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Well, of course a party that puts a guy like Harry Reid in a leadership role would attack Romney on the basis of his Mormon faith!
(Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate Democrats, is a Mormon. Maybe Orrin Hatch has forgotten this.)
Orrin Booby Hatchery doesn't strike me as someone who thinks very much.
When someone has a proverbial face full of warts, who'd want to mention the freckle?
There are so many silly aspects to Mittens that his silly religious beliefs are actually way, way down on the list.
Maybe it's time to hang 'em up, Orrin...
"...Hatch would be so careless about throwing around accusations like these -- decency requires that charges like these have some foundation in reality --..."
And when you are desperately trying to save your (political) life clinging to and espousing mendacity & obfuscation is a "life preserver" as far as the GOP are concerned.
I have no trouble with historical evidence that the founder of the LDS was a convicted con-man before his greatest hoax was born into making. I wonder if Mr. Hatch is aware of that? I wonder if Mitt Rmoney is aware of that? Maybe some astute investigative journalist will as the Kenyan Muslim-Nazi Socialist in Chief if he knows that?
Joseph Smith was only accused of being a glass-looker. By all appearances, he was allowed to take "leg bail" (as it was called) before the case actually came to trial (the preliminary hearing, aka 'examination', held on 26 March 1826 notwithstanding). Of course, Smith really was a fraud and could not really see buried treasure by looking at a stone placed in his hat, but he was never convicted of such in a court of law.
Hatch is just another Republican who forgets that video lives on long after the lies.
and the excuse for Mitt's loss to Obama--and it can't be failed conservative ideas...
If you look at the fact that there are very few Mormons in higher public offices outside of "greater Utah" (i.e., western Wyoming, Idaho, eastern Washington and Oregon, eastern Nevada, northern Arizona and New Mexico, western Colorado) I think it quite likely that no one will have to say anything about discomfort with one of these people in the top job of the planet. It's just not going to happen. Mormonism is something that is "off-putting" to most people whether they say so or not.
They're all cults. Magic underwear... talking snakes. What's the difference?
Bingo!!!!
I consider religion a synonym of cult.
What's wrong with Mormonism, Orrin? Don't they believe that marriage is between one man and
onewomaen?I don't think he got confused at all. It's more of that "rubber/glue" nonsense, trying to defuse the massive problem of how evangelical Christians are sure that the Mormons are going to hell. I'll be happy to see them eat their own.
This is what the Republicans do. All of my Republican friends tell me how Obama has been trying to take our guns away just to name one example.
Here's another great one. Obama is a fascist when I can think of an actual Republican Governor (Rick Snyder of Michigan) who has been busy removing democratically elected leaders from their positions and replacing them with his own appointed cronies. So whose the actual belligerent dictator suppressing and replacing all criticism and opposition to his authority?
What's frightening is the Republican Party loves to use "models" and then impose them across multiple states. Since their base are not exactly critical thinkers I see this as a real threat to our democratic system.
Maybe The Obomination's campaign will not go after Mittens 'Magic Underwear' 'Mormon Elder' RMoney this fall, but I will!
I will tell and retell every Fundamentalist Christian that I know all about Mitt's position within the Mormon cult. That Mormonism is a cult is about the only damn thing that I agree with the Fundies on. It is a cult. It is a dangerous cult. Having had 'business' done to companies I have worked for by Mormons, I totally dispise Mormons. They cannot be trusted.
If I can convince 20 fundies that Mittens is dangerous because of his religion and each of them convinces another 20 and those 20 convince another 20, that is 8000 votes that could be taken from Mittens.
As many issues as I have with The Obomination, it is critical that he retain office. Any tricks and any tools used to defeat RMoney should and must be used.
If they told the truth the GOP wouldn't stand a chance. Confusing lies and allegations although slim is their only hope.
At this point it doesn't look like it will help much. Attacking Obama for such things continuously is getting wearisome. So many lies always catches up with the perpetrators eventually. ie: having to walk back or double down often.
Thanks to the internet it is harder to hide the past when changing positions. Some don't seem to have grasp this yet.
They appear to be chasing their tails.
But still don't get complacent. Not voting is how these clowns get elected.
Senator Orrin Hatch reminds me of the pyrotech who discreetly starts the fire, then joins the fire brigade to gallantly fight the conflagration, and ultimately becomes the media darling in villifying the destructive, deadly, blaze.
Excellent analogy!!!!
Yea, that would make a lot of sense. President Obama will always be the Grown-Up in the room. I fully expect that the President will outclass this Bozo, like no other. It'll be like watching Martin Luther King and Jethro Clampitt in a debate.
Jethro's last name was Bodine.
An analogy that I would use is Martin Luther King and any character from "Idiocracy".
We can safely assume that Hatch's braindead supporters will believe every bit of this.
The evangelicals hate every other religion. They consider Catholics and Mormons equally with disdain.
Michael Keegan's statement that "The Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land...insists that Mormonism is 'technically...a cult'" is nowhere near true.
The link provided doesn't support that contention at all. It talks about how Texas pastor Robert Jeffries had labeled Mormonism a cult or claimed that the Southern Baptist Convention had done so and that Land had tried to support Jeffries by arguing that he had been misunderstood.
Land's own views of Mormonism are nowhere near Mormonism is "technically...a cult." On ChristianPost.com, of which Land is the Executive Editor, Land clearly states that he believes that Mormonism is "a new religion – perhaps best described as the Fourth Abrahamic religion – the first three being Judaism, Christianity, and Islam." (Emphasis mine.) See http://www.christianpost.com/news/editorial-mormons-christianity-and-presidential-elections-58423/.
This is actually an extremely inflammatory statement in right wing evangelical circles. One such family member of mine has insisted that "The god of Islam is not the God of the Bible!" on numerous occasions. That Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission since 1988, believes that not only Mormons but also Muslims worship the same God of Abraham that Jews and Christians worship would blow the freaking mind of most Southern Baptists if they were aware of it. Indeed, when I showed Land's statement to the family member I mentioned, all he could say was "I thought Richard Land was a better man than that."
Richard Land does not believe that Mormonism is "technically...a cult." He believes it is a new, Abrahamic faith, the fourth such faith.