Anti-Mormon Calls Causing Infighting, Trouble Within GOP Field

Days after anti-Mormon phone calls were first reported in New Hampshire and Iowa, the source behind the calls remains a mystery, causing speculation and infighting between the campaigns.

Even with evidence suggesting that, in a bit of political schadenfreude, Romney's people may have undertaken the endeavor - in hopes of casting his Mormonism in a sympathetic light - focus has shifted to the other GOP candidates.

One name increasingly thrown around among Republican insiders is the guy nipping at Romney's heels in the Iowa polls: former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

"Who has the most to gain by this," one operative told the Huffington Post. "It's Huckabee. If Romney were to fall he would be the conservative option to Rudy Giuliani."

A source with another Republican presidential campaign added fuel to the fire by pointing out that the Huckabee's statement on the matter - "The Huckabee campaign does not condone this type of activity" - isn't exactly an "outright" denial.

"Of course it is a denial," Huckabee's spokesperson, Alice Stewart, told the Huffington Post. Moreover, it's worth noting that few if any political connections have surfaced linking the former governor and Western Wats, the company that made the calls.

Other candidates have been equally adamant in insisting their non-involvement. Romney's campaign, for its part, has come out forcefully against speculation that the Mormon candidate could behind the anti-Mormon calls.

"That's preposterous," Romney's spokesman, Kevin Madden, told The Politico. "Emphatically, I reject any insinuation that we would support phone calls attacking our own campaign," he added to the Salt Lake Tribune.

And so, general confusion over who's to blame persists. Still, there is one consensus emerging: that the guilty party would be better served getting it out into the open now rather than as the primary approaches.

"If it was Huckabee or someone else like Romney, they would be better off cutting their losses and saying they were sorry the day before Thanksgiving rather than Christmas eve," a Republican pollster told the Huffington Post. "Because if the Attorney General in New Hampshire does investigate this, and they don't need to do a lot to investigate - it could get messy."

Comments

[scrzbill]

9/11, 9/11, 9/11, Gays, Illegals. The three issues of the repukes. The economy is going down faster than Marilyan Chambers. Why were we attacked? if the war is going better, why not bring troops home? Constitutional abuses. Torture. Blackface. Are there not more important issues for the left than how much of a christofascist the right wants its candidates to be? Let them wave their bible all over the place. I was taught that your belief was a personal thing, not for public consumption. Not if you are part of the moral majority/values voters. Remember the repukes don't believe in government. A poorly run government is a bad government. Any government is bad to the real conservative, why do we even consider them a party?

[Progress08]

Did you know that Mormons are secretly gay illegal space alien jews who eat aborted fetuses and hate NASCAR.

[Pete Ross]

Ahhhhh, intolerance for the religions of others so typical of the faithful of christianity!

Does anyone really expect better, especially from the party that owns the "culture of corruption"?

[Benthead]

I'm a leftist who was raised as a Mormon in Utah (now lapsed) and who had a few interactions with Romney in Massachusetts. Once he called for a "double Gitmo," in my book he lost forever any claim to respect. He's sold his soul to the Republican machine, so I have little sympathy for the anti-Mormon bashing he's taking. But there is no little irony in the fact that he's getting shunned by so many Republicans, and tarred by Salon types who count themselves tolerant but who are exposing an irrational phobia of Mormons. The irony is that Romney is the safest, sanest candidate in the Republican field. For better or for worse, this guy is driven almost solely by managerial traits of analysis, productivity, measurable results, planning, competence--all the things the Bushies flushed down the toilet. Outsiders don't know it, but Mormon culture is suffused with these managerial traits, too, despite the wackier beliefs and the strain of anti-intel­lectualism in the culture (which it shares with much of the Western US).

I'm made quite sick at the very idea that the Republican party might weasle its way back into the White House. But if it had to happen, y'all should know that Romney would be the least likely to do something insane or incompetent. I'd be in political mourning but I wouldn't be scared (quite as) shitless as if it were Guiliani or even McCain.

Mormons are just Americans--the problem is they are too "mainstream," NOT that they're too eccentric.

[Dave24]

the republicans scare me. they really do.

[Counterglow]

I think Mormonism is a wonderful example of how religions are born. As soon as some fraudulent whack job gets enough people to believe in his bullcrap, it isn't a cult anymore, it's a religion. Primary difference? Ridiculing it can get you charged with a hate crime.

[ProfessorDuh]

I'd like to hear Romney explain to the Bible thumpers about God being some guy who dwells on the planet Kolob. You're strangely silent, Mittens. Are you ashamed of your "faith?"

[FirstBlowupDollLaura]

http://www.postregister.com/scouts_honor/part1.php

Boy Scouts, Mormon scoutmaster, molestation, covered up by the church-run Scouts, buried by the courts, until a real journalist remembered what his job is.

[timregler]

I detect the distinct oder of Rudy.

[rh654]

Great to see that narrow-minds don't just belong to the Far Right Republican base - its alive and present on the Far Left also.

Congratulations on the continuing parity.

[paixa3]

Pro Wrestling Endorsement, that is a good one.

Just what everyone needs. It surely would be wonderful to see this administration BODY SLAMMED though....­.

[NotaBeliever]

Don't you just love it when Republicans refuse to play nice with each other? It's fun to sit back and watch, at least unless the winner of their giant mud fight stands up, scrapes a handful of filth off his anointed robes, and pitches it at the nearest Democrat. But right now, it's fun. Fire away, hypocrites! Mud balls aloft!

[helonias]

Someone should break out the seer stones and see what the hells going on.

[HurryUp1212009]

IF
YOU
FEAR
THE
IMPACT
OF
SOMEONE'S
RELIGION
ON
THEIR
PERFORMANCE
AS
PRESIDENT;
THEN
LOOK
AT
HUCKABEE'S
LUNACY,
NOT
ROMNEY'S
MORMONISM.
AND
READ
RICHARD
COHEN'S
COLUMN
IN
TODAY'S
WASHINGTON
POST
FOR THE DETAILS...

[HurryUp1212009]

Polygamy is like Bisexuality: It doubles your chances of getting a date on Saturday night!