What's Better For Romney-- People Talking About Bainism or About Mormonism?

Romney is absolutely desperate to change the topic to anything and away from what he's hiding in those 23 years of tax returns he showed McCain before being rejected as a suitable running mate. He's now dangling the promise of announcing which stale white bread Republican he'll name as his own running mate. Pawlenty, Thune, Portman... is there any difference? But at least he can take some solace in the fact that most people aren't still talking about him being a tool for a Mormon takeover of the U.S. government. Or are they? A couple weeks ago, there was talk of Mitt's Mormon army mobilizing and earlier this week the NY Times brought up the "M" word again. The Mormon aristocracy-- the ones who call the shots for the entire enterprise-- are, according to the Times, "are joining together in a new effort: delivering the White House to Mitt Romney... These families-- Marriotts, Rollinses, Gardners and others-- have formed a financial bulwark and support network for Mr. Romney at every important point in his political career."

Mr. Romney’s candidacy has produced great pride among many Mormons, known officially as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But for this core group of the religion’s most prominent families, the ties to Mr. Romney go deeper. They share with him not only a faith, but also a dramatic history in which they have scaled the ladder of American society, starting as vilified outsiders and, after helping to settle the American West, rising to the heights of wealth and success within four generations.

To take one concrete measure of their support, records show that roughly two dozen members of Mormon families provided nearly $8 million of the financing for the “super PAC” working to elect Mr. Romney, Restore Our Future, putting them in league with its Wall Street, real estate and energy donors. Prominent Mormons including the JetBlue founder David G. Neeleman and the Credit Suisse chief executive Eric Varvel are on his finance team.

Many of Mr. Romney’s major Mormon backers are tied to businesses with robust agendas in Washington-- lobbying on tax, aviation and tourism policy, according to federal filings-- and have something to gain by having a friend in the White House.

But several of these donors say that their giving has nothing to do with their business interests. And while that is a common refrain among major financial supporters of both parties, in this case the candidacy they are backing represents something bigger as it draws new attention to their religion.

“I think for Mormons, particularly for prominent ones who already feel widely accepted and admired individually, this feels like a chance to also see their church, which they love, accepted and admired institutionally,” said Richard Eyre, a Mormon and a best-selling author who lives in Utah and is a friend of the Romneys.

These Mormon bigwigs want revenge for perceived past injustices... and they want to take over. "[W]e want the world to know about our religion," says the boss of the Marriott chain, one of Romney's biggest financiers after organized crime in China. He thinks Mormons are in "obscurity" and need to come out and Romney taking over the White House will give them a leg up. Another Mormon big shot and multimillionaire, shady Bain corporate raider Kevin Rollins, excuses Mormon clannishness by insisting they've been "beaten up and pushed and kicked around, and through that process they really stuck together." Another one of the sleaziest of Romney's Mormon cronies, Don Stirling helps run the Romney Death Star, the Restore Our Future SuperPAC, which is funded by Mormons, the Macau Triads, and class warfare billionaires and multimillionaires.

The irony in all this Mormon talk, is that the actual founders of the religion would be aghast at Romney's lack of ethics at his obscene greed and deceit and the way he's lived his hypocritical life at odds with their teaching. Ryan Combe is also from a respected and admired Utah Mormon family, but he's a progressive-- and one who takes ethical teaching very seriously. "[I]f Joseph Smith or Brigham Young were preaching today," he told me last month, "I think they would be considered very liberal." Joseph Smith ran for president on a progressive program-- a program very much at odds with today's Republican Party-- and with Mitt Romney. Smith was aggressively devoted to Separation of Church and State and very much against slavery. And when it came to the GOP's and Mitt Romney's adherence to the economics of selfishness and greed...

"The course pursued by men of business in the world has a tendency to make a few rich, and to sink the masses of the people in poverty and degradation. Too many of the elders of Israel take this course. No matter what comes they are for gain-- for gathering around them riches..." (Brigham Young, An Approach to Zion, Hugh Nibley). The economic policies pursued by the GOP of today and advocated by Mitt Romney, are without a doubt the single most blatant conflict between GOP and the teachings of the LDS Church and its leaders... Joseph Smith and Brigham Young spoke often about the idea of economic justice and one need only to look at the expansive welfare system of the LDS Church to realize the importance they place on protecting the poor and underprivileged. "Here are those who begin to spread out, buying up all the land they are able to do, to the exclusion of the poorer ones who are not so much blessed with this world's goods, thinking to lay foundations for themselves only, looking to their own individual families, and those who are to follow them (Joseph Smith, Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, by Hugh Nibley). Joseph Smith felt so strongly that this was not the way to "build Zion" that he went as far as to say that, "if there is not repentance... you will be broken up and scattered from this promised land."

You Want To Know Why Romney Isn't Releasing His Tax Returns? It's Not What You Think-- Take A Peek Behind The Mormon Curtain

A Mormon friend of mine here in L.A. told me that Buck McKeon was so freaked out about being exposed for taking gargantuan bribes from Countrywide-- hundreds of thousands of dollars-- but not because he's afraid of the toothless and pathetic House Ethics Committee, which he knows will do nothing. Instead, he's afraid of the Mormon Mafia. Turns out, he hasn't been giving them their cut of the action.

Mormons are required by Commandment of God to pay 10% of all their GROSS income to the LDS church. This includes all income-- including: employment, unemployment insurance, student loans, Pell grant checks, Social Security income, Medicare, foodstamps, trust funds and any other form of income, even including finding money on the ground.

So... what about Willard? The big news yesterday was that the hereditary multimillionaire is gaming the system so that he's only paying a 15% rate, far less than normal Americans pay. The King of Bain is also the king of tax loopholes. 15% is pretty outrageous in itself.

Romney’s 15 percent rate is likely to draw fire from opponents because it highlights the tax advantages enjoyed by wealthy Americans who make most of their money from investments rather than labor-- a disparity that has been criticized by billionaire Warren Buffett and many Occupy Wall Street protesters.

A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service recently showed that investment income, of the kind Romney is citing, was the biggest contributor to an increase in income inequality between 1996 and 2006.

Most Americans earn their income from wages and salaries, paying higher tax rates-- up to 35 percent-- the more they earn. The tax on capital gains, which include profits from the sale of stocks, bonds and real estate, is 15 percent.

The wealthy take advantage of this lower rate far more than other Americans. In the last 20 years, about half of all capital gains income realized have gone to the wealthiest 0.1 percent.

Romney’s tax returns could also reignite a debate over how to count income earned by partners at private equity firms. When private equity firms sell long-run investments, those profits are treated as long-term capital gains, which means they’re taxed at no more than 15 percent. Critics say those earnings should be taxed as ordinary income because the partners are mostly managing other people’s money, not their own.

So what about the Mormon connection? What if he's not paying his full tithe? Would that get him in trouble with the LDS Church? More significantly, how would that go over with Mormons who make a modest income yet still do their full 10%? Trying to get inside someone's head isn't very accurate, but how would a guy struggling to get by on a $45,000 income and tithing $4500 (with god knows how many kids) feel to find out that Mitt's doing only 7%, or 5%?

And what if he 's paying his full tithe, which would be a huge number? How would average Americans take to him getting a tax benefit for contributions at that level to a freaking church? ABC News reported today that he even cut the Mormon Church in on many of the shady deals he did at Bain, bankrupting companies and sending thousands of workers to the unemployment lines with his toxic business model. Romney, they report, "carved his church a slice of several of its most lucrative business deals, securities records show, providing it with millions of dollars worth of stock in some of Bain Capital's most well-known holdings." It looks to me though, that he's leaking all kinds of information to try to persuade the Mormon Mafia he's been giving his full tithe, when he was probably cheating them the same way he cheated everyone else.

Tithing always comes first in Mormonism. Any member who is struggling in any way (job loss, broken down car, depression, etc) will always be counseled to pay tithing in order to receive blessings. All blessings, privileges and callings in the LDS Church are centered around tithing. Without paying a full tithe, a member cannot be a "member in good standing."

...The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints brings in an estimated 6.5 to 7.0 billion dollars a year in annual tithing revenues. The Church refuses to disclose to the public or its members how much money it receives annually and what those funds are used for. Because the LDS Church is a tax-exempt organization, it does not have to publicly disclose financial books.

In 2005 the LDS Church purchased two shopping malls in Downtown Salt Lake City for $500 million dollars. The Church plans to spend $1 to $3.5 billion dollars renovating them. In official statements from LDS Church, the Church claims that not one dollar of member tithing funds went into the deal.

Mormons are required to attend a Tithing Settlement with the Bishop each year. [Remember, Romney is a Mormon Bishop.] A member is questioned in a one-on-one interview with the Bishop to ensure the member is paying a full 10%. Those members who are not paying a full 10% loose their temple recommends and are prevented from entering the Temple.

Mormons who loose their temple recommends are in serious jeopardy of loosing their Celestial blessings. A Mormon who does not pay tithing cannot enter the temple. If a member cannot get into the temple, the member cannot learn the secret handshake, secret password, secret "new name" and special “sealings.” Without these, the member will be unable to pass Joseph Smith and the angels who guard the entrance to the Celestial Kingdom.

Mormons are commanded that tithing must come first before anything else. Utah has the highest rate of bankruptcies in the United States. Mormons often are told "I cannot pay my bills until I've paid my tithing." Mormons will even pay their tithing rather than give the money to a relative who is on the verge of eviction. Mormon published magazines (Ensign, New Era) constantly stress that tithing must always be paid.

Recently, Mormon Senator Orrin Hatch passed legislation that allowed members to pay a full tithe even while they were in bankruptcy court.

Mormons are told: "if a destitute family is faced with the decision of paying their tithing or eating, they should pay their tithing." (Lynn Robbins, General Conference, April 2005).

Mormons who have not paid tithing will be denied a temple recommend and will be considered "unworthy." However; Mormons who pay "back-tithing" (some as much as $5000 or more) are instantly found to be worthy and can receive their temple recommends back once the money has been paid. The Mormon Church uses this as an extortion method when it comes to temple marriages. Parents or family members who have not paid tithing are required to pay back tithing-- sometimes in the thousands of dollars-- which must be paid before a temple recommend can be issued in order to see their own children married.

Mormons are further threatened that if they do not pay a full tithe, they will be burned with fire when Jesus Christ comes again. Mormons see Tithing as "fire insurance".

Mormons who claim that tithing is purely "a personal choice" are deceiving themselves and outright lying.

Not A Single Member Of Congress Has Endorsed Either Bachmann Or Santorum

Most Republicans in Congress are staying out of the GOP "presidential" primary endorsement race, although with Romney clearly headed for the nomination, he's got the bulk of the endorsements (32). A few radical right-wingers like Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Steve Scalise (R-LA), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Sam Graves (R-MO) and a gaggle of reactionary Texans have thrown their lot in with the buffoonish Rick Perry, though all previous to him going off the rails in such a public way. His son and two libertarians have endorsed Ron Paul and Gingrich has managed to round up a tiny handful of his old cronies from when he was censured by the House and forced to resign as Speaker.

It makes sense that no one endorsed Herman Cain; no one knows who he is and no serious politician ever considered him anything more than a semi-competent sparring partner for Romney-- and a sometimes amusing minstrel show. But it is noteworthy that after all the years Michele Bachmann, head of the House Tea Party caucus, and Rick Santorum, once the Senate's most hysterical and fanatic homophobe, served in Congress neither has managed to corral even one friend or colleague to stand up for them. It's kind of sad, actually.

Romney starts off, of course, with an advantage-- all the Republican Mormons are united in their fervour for getting one of their own into the White House. He's been endorsed by Mormon congressmen Rob Bishop (R-UT), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Wally Herger (R-CA), Buck McKeon (R-CA), Mike Simpson (R-ID), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). His other big pool of endorsees comes from Members who are from moderate districts and don't want to be seen to be associated with right-wing extremists and sociopaths like... well, like the rest of the Republican field. Congressmembers facing tough reelection races in suburban swing districts-- Judy Biggert (R-IL), John Campbell (R-CA), Michael Grimm (R-NY), Nan Hayworth (R-NY), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), and Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)-- are desperate to tell their constituents that they're not "with" the Rick Perrys, Newt Gingrichs and Michele Bachmanns of the GOP.

Some of these non-Mormon Romney-endorsers are the same people who are going wobbly on the Grover Norquist pledge, which is proving to be a major embarrassment among independent swing voters this cycle. Norquist is bragging all over DC that GOP hints of overturning his crippling pledge are just a negotiating ploy and that the hard-right Republican leadership will never let it happen. Why else would Boehner have installed Michigan plutocrat-- and heir to the Whirlpool fortune-- Fred Upton to the SuperCommittee?

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative anti-tax group, said the GOP proposal is merely a negotiating position and that Republican leaders have assured him they won’t raise taxes.

“It’s not written down. It’s a negotiating position. It won’t pass the House or the Senate. I’ve talked to the House leadership and the Senate leadership. They’re not going to be passing any tax increases,” Norquist told The Hill on Monday.

WILLARD! WILLARD! WILLARD! THE WINNER IN NEVADA

Nevada's large Mormon population won the GOP caucus in that state for Willard today. No one was seriously contesting the state except him; the rest of the pygmies are putting all their energy into South Carolina's primary.

While Romney's Mormon faith hurts him strong evangelical Christian states like South Carolina-- he finished second in Iowa to Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist preacher-- his religion could give him an edge in Nevada, which Mormons settled in the early 1850s.

About 170,000 people in Nevada, or 6.8 percent of its population, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the formal name of the religion headquartered in neighboring Utah.

"That voting bloc has turned out strong traditionally for Mormon candidates," said Zachary Moyle, executive director of Nevada's Republican Party.

Boyd Peterson, director of the Mormon studies program at Utah State University, said many Mormons see Nevada's contest as a historic opportunity. "There's a sense of 'he's our boy.' There's a chance to finally be accepted and part of the mainstream, part of the national debate," he said.

It turned out that 25% of the Republican caucus-goers were Mormons-- 94% of whom voted for their co-religionist-- which is what put Willard over the top. And in South Carolina, where all the other pygmies are scrambling desperately to stay alive, CNN reports pitifully low turn-out. Polls opened at 7am for the GOP primary and the state's Election Commission says not many people are showing up to vote for their favorite pygmy-- not anywhere. They say it's because it's a Saturday and people prefer voting on a work day-- except Thompson's campaign which seems to claim people prefer voting in snow storms. A low turn out will favor Huckabee. A victory for him in one of the 2 or 3 most backward and reactionary states in the Union will keep his campaign alive-- and would devastate McCain, the pygmy frontrunner (for now; Romney could be headed for the cat-bird's seat, which is exactly what Democrats are praying for; the GOP cyborg would be the easiest Republican to slaughter come November).


UPDATE: IS RON PAUL COMING IN SECOND IN NEVADA?

GOP-TV and CBS, as well as Chris Cillizza confirm that Willard won and the Post is showing Ron Paul in second place, edging McCain from neighboring Arizona. "Just when he looked like his high priced campaign was about to implode," writes the always superficial Cillizza, "Romney scored an impressive victory in Michigan earlier this week, followed by his apparent first-place showing in Nevada today." Romney's narrow victory in his native Michigan was anything but "impressive." He and Paul are the only Republicans who bothered campaigning in Nevada. And while McCain and Ron Paul battle it out for a distant second place finish, Romney has already given a victory speech. Giuliani is coming in last. What a strategist!

AREN'T MORMONS JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE? GEE-- YOU'D HAVE TO ASK ONE-- OR ONE WHO ESCAPED FROM THE CULT... AND LIVED TO TELL

The first Mormon I ever heard of when I was a kid was Ezra Taft Benson (1899-1994), a far right lunatic who was Eisenhower's Secretary of Agriculture and later head of the "strange" Utah-based Mormon cult. Like most Americans, I didn't think too much about Benson or Mormons at the time. Yesterday, Benson's grandson, cartoonist Steve Benson, an ex-Mormon, warned America about a real Mormon threat to America-- that's right, Willard.

Benson claims Willard is, as everyone who has been paying attention already knows, a liar and specifically a liar when it comes to Mormonism. Willard Romney has learned how to suavely never tell the truth about anything. (He's as big a liar as the notorious and shameless hypocrite John McCain.)

Benson explained to Editor and Publisher why Romney's recent speech on his faith (his pale imitation of the "Kennedy speech") "should not be trusted by media people and other Americans."

In his talk, Romney said "I believe in my Mormon faith" while also noting that the church's "teachings" would not influence his decisions if elected president.

"Yeah, right," responded Benson, adding that "Romney also believes in misrepresenting what his Mormon Church actually espouses."

He told E&P that, in his view, a Mormon believer is required by church doctrine (as dictated by the church's "living prophet") to "obey God's commands" over anything else. He said "Romney, like all 'temple Mormons,' made his secret vows using Masonic-derived handshakes, passwords, and symbolic death oaths that he promised in the temple never to reveal to the outside world"-- and that Romney also secretly vowed to devote his "time, talents" and more "to the building of the Mormon religion on earth."

So, said Benson, the only way Romney could be truly independent of the church as U.S. president would be to disavow Mormon doctrine. "He hasn't done that," said the Creators Syndicate-distributed cartoonist.

"When Mitt says he belongs to a church that doesn't tell him what to do, that's false; it's a 24/7, do-what-you're-told-to-do church," asserted Benson, who won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1993.

That was the year Benson left what he calls the "Mormon cult." One reason for his decision was disgust with the way Mormon officials tried to fool church members and the general public into believing that Ezra Taft Benson-- Steve's then-94-year-old grandfather and church president-- was still capable of leading the church. "He was not mentally or physically in a place where he could make any meaningful decisions," recalled Benson. "I know it because I saw his condition with my own eyes."

Benson-- who was contacted by E&P for this story-- said journalists have basically given Romney a free pass on the "fundamental contradiction" between being an observant Mormon and a U.S. president. "Most journalists don't know about actual Mormon teachings and practices," noted the cartoonist, adding that they instead see the religion as perhaps "strange" but "rather benign."

Romney "needs to face an informed member of the media with 'cojones' who has a working and perhaps personal experience with Mormonism," said Benson. "It would be harder for Romney to do his well-practiced duck and dodge."...

Another reason Benson distrusts the words in Romney's speech is because the candidate has changed his public positions on issues such as abortion and gay rights to woo conservative GOP voters in states like Iowa rather than the more liberal voters he once courted to become governor of Massachusetts. "He flips and flops like Jesus is coming tomorrow," said the cartoonist. "It's like Romney is reading from the Mormon Church playbook."

Benson explained his last comment by noting that the Mormon Church has also "publicly flipped 180 degrees when it feels it's necessary for its image, for its financial solvency, and for political expediency."

He mentioned, by way of example, that black Mormons weren't allowed into the priesthood until 1978. And while polygamy has been publicly disavowed by the Mormon Church, Benson said "the church still holds that it will be practiced as a matter of eternal doctrine in heaven. The church also currently performs polygamist marriage 'sealings' in its temples around the world."

Benson predicted that Romney will not win the Republican presidential nomination. If Romney is nominated, added the cartoonist, he will not defeat his Democratic opponent.

Voters, said Benson, "are not ready for someone in the Oval Office who has committed to absolute obedience to a religion they feel is extremely odd and not in the American mainstream. I trust the rational U.S. electorate, not the weird Mormon God."

As ugly as it is, maybe Huckabee's anti-Mormon rhetoric is based on something besides pure bigotry after all. Although to me all these religionist fanatics, whether a crazy greed-and-power-obsessed Mormon cultist like Willard or fundamentalist nutcases like Huckabee or Lieberman, who justify their politics with the "God is on my side" bullshit, and all religionist fanaticism, should be kept out of politics-- way out.

YOUNG REPUBLICANS LEARNING HOW TO BE OLD REPUBLICANS-- WITH MITT ROMNEY'S MORMON MONEY

Lobbyist/actor Freddy Thompson knew how to use his well-honed dramatic skills to wow the desperate audience of Young Republicans. After all, as one of his own supporters told a reporter, "Whatever choice do we have?" Sure Thompson took money from whatever interest groups paid him and his sons/funnels and then shilled for them-- even for pro-choice groups that were pushing the kinds of abortion positions he now declares he opposes. "Mitt Romney," whines the Freddy supporter, "has been on both sides of the issue. Rudy Giuliani is 100 percent pro-choice. John McCain, at least for the first four years of the Bush term, was against whatever the president was for. Everybody has their flaws." Thompson's speech was heavy on emotive and sugary little treats for the yapping GOP pups-- but there was no substance at all. He's tired of apologizing for America. Hillary Clinton is evil and so is the New York Times. The Democrats are the "party of despair." Fred Thompson is, clearly a low grade hack. And the delegates ate it up. But it doesn't matter. Romney already bought the convention management.

The little boys like to play just like the big boys and in Republican Party politics that means more than follow the money... it means kiss its ass and lick its boots. Tonight is the Young Republican annual straw poll. Romney will be the winner. How do I know? He bought and paid for it and the Young Republican junior fuehrers will deliver what was promised. Romney is like the Republican Putin. Romney's the keynote speaker at the dinner tonight and Romney's the sponsor of the event. Mormon millions have been poured into the campaign and, as far right blog Red State points out, Romney doesn't need grassroots-- he has none outside of Utah-- if he can purchase astroturf. And that he's doing. But first he purchased the Young Republicans' Executive Committee and rules committee. In fact, the Executive Director of the Young Republicans, Jon Woodard-- and I'm sure this is just a coincidence-- just happens to be the Chairman of Romney's campaign in St John's County, Florida.

Gone is the rule that said only accredited delegates get to vote. Now anyone who shows up-- anyone any rich candidate can bus in-- is allowed to vote. I guess that's the right-wing's version of opening things up. But it's Willard Romney who's hired the phone bankers tasked with filling up tonight's dinner/straw poll. And Romney, caught in the ultimate battle of the empty suits, has a goal: hold down the vote for a surging Freddy Thompson.

And with the approach of the release of September Dawn, a movie expected to help Americans understand the threat of the secretive Mormon cult, Republicans like Thompson and his allies are getting the word out about Romney's ties to the cult. Last week, Republican Andrew Sullivan gave us a glimpse into how Republicans talk among themselves about Mormonism.

The question is not whether, as president, Mr. Romney would take orders from Salt Lake City. I doubt whether many people think he would. The questions are: Would a Mormon as president of the United States give greater credibility and prestige to Mormonism? The answer is almost certainly yes. Would it therefore help advance the missionary goals of what many view as a false religion? The answer is almost certainly yes. Is it legitimate for those Americans to take these questions into account in voting for a presidential nominee or candidate? The answer is certainly yes.

FLIP FLOP MITT JUST WANTS EVERYBODY TO LOVE HIM-- SO HE'LL TELL CHRISTIANS JESUS IS COMIN' BACK IN JERUSALEM AND MORMONS THAT HE'S COMIN' TO MISSOURI

We all know that most politicians will say anything to get elected. And among the lot running for president... OMG! They include some of the biggest liars in the history of contemporary politics: Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden. Be real, whatever your political persuasion is. Could you ever believe any of these people said to you when they wanted something-- like a vote or a buck? OK, maybe Hillary... but those other 4? It would be really, really hard to go lower. And-- you knew this was comin'-- the Republicans have managed to dig something lower up. Meet Mitt Romney. Even Mormons cringe when he opens his yap.

Romney, who wasn't born with the nickname "Flip Flop Mitt," but earned it the old fashioned way, is widely considered a man who will say whatever it takes to please the audience in front of him. He has absolutely no moral backbone and is generally considered a political opportunist who stands for absolutely nothing beyond a lust for office-- not that unlike Giuliani as a matter of fact. But Romney's campaign has been largely fueled by members of his cult or "church," the Mormons. His campaign contributions come from Mormons as though it were a tithe which allowed a 4th rate candidate with virtually no following to rake in more money than front runners Giuliani and McCain.

But Mormons, as eager as they are to see one of their own grab the levers of power, have been aghast at Romney's inability to be straightforward. John Dehlin a 37 year old from Utah who produces a Mormon podcast, is disappointed. "I had the hope that Romney would be steadfast, be up front and have integrity and consistency, but I’ve been disillusioned. It makes me a lot less proud than I otherwise would have been.”

While many Mormons hope Romney's image as "clean cut" will help dispel widesspread belief among Christians that Mormonism is a satanic cult, others worry that whenever Romney screws up, it will be a bad reflection on Mormonism and they wish he'd just leave well enough alone and go back to making more billions of dollars as a financial speculator.

Some Mormons have watched with concern how Mr. Romney has responded to grilling by interviewers about his church’s distinctive doctrines.

Mr. Romney has been questioned about the Mormon definition of God, polygamy, the location of Jesus’s arrival when he returns to earth, and even a mysterious saying attributed to Joseph Smith Jr. called the “White Horse Prophecy,” which some interpret as a prediction that when the American Constitution is hanging “by a thread,” a Mormon will rescue the nation.

Mr. Romney’s tendency to gloss over Mormonism’s history and distinctive tenets has upset some fellow Mormons. Some said they cringed when Mr. Romney said on “60 Minutes,” “I can’t imagine anything more awful than polygamy.”

Tom Grover, 26, a Mormon who is the host of a weekday talk show on politics on radio station KVNU here, said that while he thinks Mr. Romney has handled the scrutiny admirably, some of his callers were incensed about Mr. Romney’s repudiation of his own ancestors’ polygamy. The church outlawed the practice a century ago, but members are taught to understand that polygamy had a theological and historical context in the church, which Mr. Romney’s remark ignored.

“That really left a bad taste in people’s mouths,” Mr. Grover said. “That’s a tough thing for people to hear when their ancestors sacrificed a lot to live that life. They probably wouldn’t bring polygamy back, but they honor the place of it in church history.”

Audrey M. Godfrey, a historian who has written books with her husband, Kenneth, said of Mr. Romney, “If I were one of his relatives, I would be upset with him.”

Another case arose when George Stephanopoulos of ABC News asked Mr. Romney about a Mormon teaching that Jesus will come to the United States when he returns to reign on earth. Mr. Romney responded that the Messiah will return to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, “the same as the other Christian tradition.”

Mr. Grover said some of his radio listeners were astounded.

“They were just in disbelief, saying that’s not true, Jesus is coming back to Missouri,” Mr. Grover said. “It’s the L.D.S. Church’s 10th article of faith that Zion will be built upon the American continent.”

Romney's September 11 may be coming in August when the film September Dawn is released and will show the Mormons in a light that is said to reflect savagely on their insular and secretive culture. Even staunch Republicans who have seen advances say it could hurt Romney's campaign.



Something tells me Romney can write off Arkansas.

AND IF MEAN JEAN HAD BAD NEWS-- THAT'S NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO JOHN DOOLITTLE (R-CA)

One of the most crooked congressmen still unindicted and still holding onto his seat-- though just barely in this case-- is northern California Culture of Corruption kingpin John Doolittle. Doolittle, who will again be facing a relentless Charlie Brown when he's next in front of voters, has had some bad fundraising news lately-- Brown with around $125,000 cash-on-hand while Doolittle with a negative balance of $80,000 in his campaign account (much of that having been skimmed off the top by Doolittle himself via his "consultant" wife). But that bad news was just how he started today. It got worse.

Abramoff had a bagman whose primary job was to handle criminal activities between Abramoff's GOP operations and Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle. That man is Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle staffer who went to work for Abramoff's crime syndicate and refused to answer questions put to him by John McCain's Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2005 on the grounds that his answers might incriminate him. The feds who are investigating Doolittle are more interested in Ring incriminating him And that looks exactly what is happening.

Like a top aide for former Republican Congressman Bob Ney (currently serving time in the federal pen in Morgantown, WV), Neil Volz, Ring abruptly resigned from a very shady Republican law firm, Barnes & Thornburg. The next step is likely to be Ring turning state's evidence on Doolittle who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Abramoff in return for assistance to Abramoff's clients. Like Doolittle, part of DC's powerful and ultra corrupt "Mormon Mafia," Ring is a far right extremist with an extraordinarily shallow understanding of morality.

Before going to work for Barnes & Thornburg, Ring was fired by Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's former front company. Previously-- at the height of the Tom DeLay Republican Culture of Corruption Regime-- Ring had been named "Top Rainmaker" by The Hill. He also wrote an embarrassingly ass-kissing book on Antonin Scalia published, of course, by the far right vanity press, Regnery.

Unless Doolittle winds up in prison before the election-- which is not far-fetched-- Charlie Brown is going to have a tough and expensive campaign. Blue America is channeling donations directly into his campaign. Even a $5.00 donation is helpful. And here's the place.

MORMONS ARE OUT TO BUY THE PRESIDENCY-- WHERE DO YOU THINK FLIP FLOP MITT GOT ALL THAT DOUGH?

The same day his campaign pre-announced that he had hauled in the biggest bundle of cash of any of the Republicans running for the presidency, Mitt Romney was yucking it up about his membership in the shadowy Church of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon cult). Last weekend at the annual Gridiron dinner in Washington, Romney made a joke at Giuliani's and his own expense. Referring to Giuliani's promise to have his puppy-killing wife attend Cabinet meetings if he's elected, Romney said that "If I'd adopt the same policy, we're going to need a heck of a lot more chairs in the Cabinet room." Ho ho. Two of his standard lines are that he's the only Republican running who's only had one wife, referring to the scandalous multiple divorces and adulterous affairs by "family values" hypocrites like Newt Gingrich, crossdresser Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain; and the coyly self-deprecating "I have to admit that as a Mormon, I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman... and a woman... and a woman."

While he's got 'em rolling in the aisles-- and while Rove's Mormon Mafia has been subverting the U.S. government-- Romney, the least well-known of all the top GOP candidates, managed to collect the most money of any of them. He brought in $20.6 million (although almost $2.5 came from himself) with the crossdresser in second place with $15 million and old John McCain with $12.5 million; the also-rans, Brownback, Tancredo and Huckabee averaged around a million each and are not considered viable candidates). So where did all that loot come from?

The Mormon's are more like a fraternal self-help organization than a Christian religion and they are constantly pushing each other forward, favoring other members of the sect at all times. Now they see the White House in their sites and they are going all-out to make sure Romney wins the big prize. I've met die-hard Christian-right Republicans who said they would vote for Hillary before they would ever support Romney but among Mormons... some critics think this is what they've been waiting for. And Mormons gave to Romney in gigantically disproportionate numbers. There are many extremely highly placed members of the Mormon cult in very high places-- with a lot of money to throw around. Utah's immensely rich Marriott family, for example-- the ones who started and run the hotel chain-- have been big Romney contributors, as is billionaire Utah Governor Jon Huntsman whose family made its fortune manufacturing plastics. The Marriotts give to mostly to Republicans and to Mormons; ditto for Huntsman.

Mormons give overwhelmingly to Republicans but they also give to Democrats who are Mormon. Take Nolan Archibald, a good example. The CEO of Black & Decker, his political contributions have included the NRSC, Gordon Smith (OR), Orrin Hatch (UT), Harry Reid (NV), and, of course, Romney. All but Reid are Republicans, but all are Mormons. M. Anthony Burns, ex-CEO of Ryder gives big money to right wingers and to the GOP institutionally. And to Mormons. David Neeleman, the CEO of JetBlue, gives to politicians, like Joe Lieberman, in a position to help his company-- and to Mormons. He has a diverse list of candidates that he and his wife support but the names that come up again and again are, regardless of party, Mormons-- from Orrin Hatch to Harry Reid to Gordon Smith. Kevin Rollins, former CEO of Dell gives to Republicans and reactionary Democrats (like the Blue Dog PAC, Jim Cooper and Chet Edwards)-- and to Mormons, including, of course, Romney. And so it goes.

There are an awful lot of Mormons in office, even outside of Utah, and they tend to be very right wing and very supportive of each other, such as Mike Crapo (R-ID), John Doolittle (R-CA), Jim Gibbons (R-NV), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Waller Herger (R-CA), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Buck McKeon (R-CA), Mike Simpson (R-ID). Almost everyone one of them is either up to his eyeballs in corruption or extremist politics-- or both. But one thing that unites almost all Mormons is a willingness to do whatever they can to get Romney into the White House. Now, don't get me wrong; there are also normal people who are Mormons, from Arthur Kane of the New York Dolls and Brenaden Steineckert of Rancid to Gladys Knight, Butch Cassidy and Bowie's legendary guitar player Mick Ronson.

Today's Deseret Morning News, in a rather understated way, calls Utah a "very important" source of cash for Romney's campaign-- among the top 10 states. If it were the #1 or #2 state, that could also be called "among the top 10." Needless to say, Utah is not among the top 10 top 20 of any other campaign's sources of contributions. Romney not only collects big campaign contributions from the wealthy Mormons who have risen to the top of the heap, but he's out on the hustings wherever there is a significant population of Mormons, in places where few other candidates have bothered to visit.


UPDATE: THE TROUBLE

While I've been looking into Rove's Mormom Mafia story and then my theory about a Mormon "plot" to buy the White House, I've had counselling for several of my blogging colleagues, not the least of whom was a very understated Taylor Marsh. Her national Security blog has been having its own serious Mormon problems and until today she was unable to speak out. Today she did. If you want to know about the insidious and very dangerous nature of the Mormons, click that link and sick back and enjoy.


MORE DATA IS IN-- WEALTHY MORMONS ARE TRYING TO BUY THE WHITE HOUSE FOR ROMNEY

Tomorrow's NY Times has been looking through the emerging story and the picture that is emerging is of a concerted effort for Romney and other stinking rich Mormons to buy the presidency for one of their own. "Mr. Romney turned in part to connections in the tight-knit world of wealthy fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Of the roughly 450 people who have given the $5,000 maximum allowed annually to his federal political action committee, about a quarter are from Utah, the center of the Mormon church. And of his top eight donors, four-- J. Willard Marriott Jr. and his brother, Richard Marriott, the hotel executives; Jon M. Huntsman Sr., the plastics mogul; and L. E. Simmons, the software chief executive--are Mormons who each gave more than $100,000, according to data compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics."

KYLE SAMPSON GETS HIS FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME-- MORMON MAFIOSO SHUN THE SPOTLIGHT BUT HE DIDN'T HAVE MUCH CHOICE

I have to ask my friend Jimmy how to spell the Yiddish word hegdish, since my grandma passed away and he's the only person I know who's fluent in Yiddish. And it's the perfect description for what the whole U.S. Attorneys scandal has degenerated into-- between kilograms of contradictory e-mails, lies from every direction-- well, actually all the lies are from one direction-- to Bush scheduling a snap press conference to get the media's attention off Sampson's testimony, and the wingnuts demanding the Senate hearings stop for no reason that even they were able to communicate... A hegdish Jimmy has confirmed is "a disorganized mess."

So let's see what I can make out of this whole... hegdish today. Fox "News" had a cute quote from Kyle Sampson (one of the Rove-controlled Mormon Mafia guys who used to be Gonzo's chief of staff and is the designated fall guy for this and was testifying today): "The decision makers in this case were the attorney general and the president." Ummpphh... that must've hurt but, did you notice, no Rove?

Roll Call says Sampson's testimony, when it wasn't being systematically interrupted by Republicans, is "likely to ratchet up the pressure" on Abu Gonzo to resign. "His former top aide, directly contradicted his old boss in testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee." Questioned by Schumer about Gonzo's assertions that he wasn't involved in any of the discussions about the firings, Sampson said "I don't think it's entirely accurate what he said... I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign." Schumer nailed him and John Cornyn's (R-TX) pathetic attempts at a whitewash were laughable and sounded rehearsed.

Oops! Dana Bash on CNN's American Morning thinks those... um.. Inaccuracies are at the root of all the fuss the senators are making. "That is really what is making Democrats and even many Republicans very upset here... the fact that they feel that they got misleading, even flat-out wrong information from top Justice officials about what went on." Well, everyone is supposed to tell the truth to make a democracy work right, right? Especially like the chief law enforcement officer.

CNN had David Igelsias, the fired U.S. Attorney from New Mexico on the air doing commentary. He was excellent and didn't agree at all with Sampson's assertion that "the distinction between 'political' and 'performance-related' reasons for removing a U.S. Attorney is, in my view, largely artificial. A U.S. Attorney who is unsuccessful from a political perspective, either because he or she has alienated the leadership of the Department in Washington or cannot work constructively with law enforcement or other governmental constituencies in the district important to effective leadership of the office, is unsuccessful." Iglesias pointed out that he's never been a U.S. Attorney and that, basically, he didn't have any idea what he was talking about."

I don't think Sampson wanted to come on and say that "the decision makers in this case were the attorney general and the president." He wanted to say-- and this was what was in his prepared remarks distributed to the press in advance: "The decision to ask [the U.S. attys to resign] was the result of an internal process that aggregated the considered, collective judgment of a number of senior Justice Department officials [groupthink]. I would be the first to concede that this process was not scientific, nor was it extensively documented. ... But neither was the process random or arbitrary. Instead, it was a consensus-based process based on input from senior Justice Department officials who were in the best position to develop informed opinions about U.S. Attorney performance."

Republican Senator George Voinovich told the Columbus Dispatch that Gonzales should resign "if politics had a role" in any of this. "This is a serious issue. We need to get to the bottom of it. If what some people say is true, then Gonzales should go." The Regime seems to have two related goals here-- making believe politics wasn't at play and shielding Rove (which is really just one thing, actually). So why, exactly, did Sampson want to fire Patrick Fitzgerald? He says he doesn't know why and that when he suggested it he may have been playing a joke on Harriet Miers. Ha Ha Ha.

WHY ISN'T BRETT TOLMAN IN PRISON YET?

There may be legitimate reasons why Brett Tolman isn't in prison; I'm not sure. But there are certainly none that would explain why he is still the U.S. Attorney for Utah. Yes, another U.S. Attorney-- but one, unlike crimebusters Carol Lam, David Iglesias, John McKay, etc-- that wasn't fired. In fact, if not for Mr. Tolman none of them would have been fired. But that goes back to his old job when he was a staffer for Arlen Specter at the time when Specter was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Tolman was a counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee when they were reauthorizing the so-called "Patriot Act" in 2005-06. He reported to Snarlin' Arlen-- or at least that is what Specter believed. Specter was unaware of the Bush Regime's tight-knit "Mormon Mafia" operated by Karl Rove at the heart of the U.S. government. He learned the hard way.

One night, before passage of the bill, Tolman surreptitiously inserted a paragraph into the legislation that basically removed Senate oversight and approval of replacements for U.S. Attorneys. Tolman didn't ask Specter and didn't tell Specter or, as far as we know, any other senators. He just snuck it into the bill and none of them knew they were voting for that provision. Is that embarrassing, or what? I think so. And I think it plays a role in why the senators have been pretty mum on this episode. And what made it worse is that the Senate unanimously approved Bush's nomination of Tolman, soon after... as U.S. Attorney for Utah!

When Specter finally did discover he had been duped by Tolman and tried to get to the bottom of it, all he was told was that Tolman had acted on behalf of the Justice Department! No names. The question remains, did Rove tell Tolman to do it directly or did he use Gonzales as his messenger boy?


Today it was revealed that the Saudis have turned their backs on BushCo. That leaves one base of support, the Mormons, right? Well... not so fast. Utah may be the reddest of the red states-- and the lowest information state anywhere-- but even there things are turning around a bit. A poll in the Salt Lake City Tribune has some bad news for the Bush Regime. Like the Saudis, the Mormons have about had it with Bush's disastrous war and catastrophic occupation of Iraq.

In the survey, just 44 percent of those identifying themselves as Mormon said they backed Bush's war management. That's a level considerably higher than Bush gets from Utah's non-Mormon population and the nation at large, but it's also a 21 percentage point drop from just five months earlier.... Such abrupt moves in group opinion are uncommon. Pollsters say numbers generally move gradually, unless "spooked" by something.

Rove, who went to high school and college in Utah and first got into political campaigning working for Senator Wallace Bennett (R-UT), operates a virtual "Mormon Mafia" out of his White House office, recently uncovered by our own Karen Allen while she was investigating Kyle Sampson, another in Rove's web, for Down With Tyranny.

Oddly, after Tolman had rendered his little service to Rove at the Judiciary Committee, it appeared that Rove was backing Sampson for the U.S. Attorney gig-- although with Rove, appearances are almost always deceptive. It was Utah Senator Orrin Hatch who was behind Tolman, a protege of his, and Hatch seems to have come to terms with Rove.

A few weeks ago Karen Tumulty flagged this in Time as a potential problem for Gonzales and the Bush Regime-- twice. No one seems to have bitten. It's difficult for me to understand-- beyond their own embarrassment-- why senators, particularly those on the Judiciary Committee, have failed to haul Brett Tolman's ass in and find out who exactly gave him the order to insert the secret paragraph into the Patriot Act in the dead of night. Once that is cleared up, I believe the rest of Purge-Gate will fall into place.


ANOTHER DoJ DOCUMENT DUMP SHOWS MORMON MAFIA MEMBERS UNDERMINING OUR ENTIRE SYSTEM OF JUSTICE

Kyle Sampson, another of Rove's pet Morman Mafioso, was the one who misled Congress about the role Rove played in the firing and replacing of 8 (or more) U.S. Attorneys and thoroughly politicizing the U.S. justice system. The DoJ is calling Sampson's willful and premeditated deception a case where officials "may have provided inaccurate and incomplete information."