A Stitch in Haste

To review: My long-standing thesis is that radical social conservatives will be very quick to brush aside former Massachusetts government Mitt Romney as a contender for the 2008 Republican nomination, because despite all their public "Judeo-Christian" blather, privately they scorn Jews, Mormons, Catholics and other "not quite Christians" and simply will not support Romney in large numbers. The presence of a far more "pure" bigot alternative, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (and, to a much lesser extent, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee) will make Romney's fall from grace all the more precipitous.

The latest data points:

Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday dismissed questions about whether his Mormon faith would be an impediment to his White House aspirations, echoing the argument that voters will be choosing a president not a pastor.
...
"I don't think that I could see someone who is a member of a faith so contrary to my faith having my support," said [South Carolina state representative Gloria] Haskins, a graduate of Bob Jones University, the Christian fundamentalist college. Haskins is backing Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

In September, Charleston County GOP chairwoman Cyndi Mosteller questioned Romney after a speech, asking him to explain his faith.

On Tuesday, Mosteller, who is a Baptist, said, "The question is: Does Gov. Romney support Joseph Smith's doctrines? We as evangelicals don't believe we can go in and change Paul's doctrine. I don't see how you move around this."

I don't see how either. And I'm enjoying every moment of the flip-flopping bigot politician's foundering.

Meanwhile, how can you not love that framing of the issue: "Joseph Smith's doctrines" versus "Paul's doctrine." Too bad none of these infighting bigots seem to care about "Jesus' doctrine."

Previous Romney posts here, here and here.

(Via Americans United.)