ROMNEY'S DILEMMA-- WILL THE REPUBLICAN'S ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE BASE NOMINATE A MORMON?

Today's New York Times deals with a touchy subject: politics and religion. Specifically, Adam Nagourney has a story about Mitt Romney and the Utah-based cult he was born into. Romney's a Mormon and among the GOP base, that's a problem.

Nagourney interviewed a right-wing state Rep from one of the areas of the Buy Bull Belt most seriously shrouded in Darkness, Greenville, South Carolina. The nutcase who represents the ignorant, superstitious and backward inhabitants is Gloria Haskins-- a McCain supporter. (Obviously there are also normal people who live in Greenville, just not enough of them to prevent the election of people with both feet firmly planted in the 12th Century.) Anyway, Ms. Haskins isn't shy about explaining why Romney can't win in evangelical strongholds like Greenville (or South Carolina). And it isn't even because he's such a ridiculous flip-flopper. She says she's been discussing Romney and his Mormon faith (in tongues?) with her constituents and it's big thumbs down time for poor Mitt. "From what I hear in my district, it is very doubtful. This is South Carolina. We’re very mainstream, evangelical, Christian, conservative. It will come up. In this of all states, it will come up."

Whether or not it's possible to actually believe in the tenets of the religion and still maintain a grip on reality (or even sanity) is another question. Romney says polygamy is bizarre and, to be honest, he was just born into the crazy cult. (Unlike Harry Reid, he didn't chose it.) Still Romney has renounced everything that would stand in his way of winning over the far right base of the GOP-- from his once-vaunted tolerance and socially moderate policies to any kind of adherence beyond the pro forma for the whacky Mormon cult. And, more important, his head is up the asses of almost as many of the money-grubbing, power-mad evangelical televangelists as McCain's is.

He's certainly trying to deal with the Mormon problem. I had to laugh when I read the rationale that if he overcame it in (liberal, open-minded) Massachusetts, why couldn't he overcome it in (completely, utterly close-minded, conservative) South Carolina? And he's trying to compare himself and the cult to a mainstream leader like JFK overcoming distrust for a mainstream religion like Catholicism.

Mormons have a well-deserved reputation of helping each other out in politics and although the Mormon leaders swear up and down they'll have no sway over Romney, they are salivating at the prospect of getting a fellow cult member into the White House. Even the highest ranking member of the cult in the U.S. government, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid-- one of the few Democrats who embrace this silliness-- admits that Mormons are always pushing their crap at him. "The only aggravation I've had in politics as a member of the church has come from within the church," Reid told the Salt Lake Tribune in a 1998 interview. "Some people in the church write me letters about what a bad person I am; they've really tried to damage me."

I don't know if there is a tally of which of the Mormon wingnuts in the Congress are backing Romney, although I noticed a few weeks ago that right-wing extremist-- and Mormon-- Buck McKeon is Romney's whip-master for the West Coast. Overall, the Mormons in Congress are fanatically right-wing, way, way, way on the outer fringes of the GOP-- extremists like John Doolittle, Orrin Hatch, Wally Herger, Mike Crapo, Jeff Flake, Chris Cannon, Jim Hansen, Mike Simpson, and Wally Herger. Most of them haven't endorsed anyone yet, although Flake will probably back fellow Arizonan McCain

The funny thing about the Republican presidential race is that conventional wisdom is that the 3 most electable candidates, McCain, Hagel, Giuliani and Romney, are, for various reasons, unable to appeal to the base of narrow-minded, right-wing voters who decide Republican primaries. By default, the GOP may well wind up fielding a candidate who is either unknown to the American public-- like Huckabee-- or unacceptable to normal people-- like Gingrich-- or, maybe even an extremist on the verge of being indicted for corruption-- Hunter.


UPDATE: ANOTHER MORMON SIGNS ON THE HELP MITT

Utah Republican Senator Robert Bennett will be the liaison for Romney's efforts in the Senate (McCain's home turf). Mormonism, obviously, is thicker than water. Bennett's job will be to get other senators to endorse Romney and that won't be easy since almost all senators-- with the notable exceptions of toadies Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham-- are eager to see McCain leave their cozy little club. McCain is absolutely the most disliked senator among those who know him best.