Liberal Talk Radio

After a few dribbles, the floodgates open:

Gathering for their April meeting at the county courthouse, Republican activists from Warren County, Iowa, planned for this summer’s county fair and vented about illegal immigration.

And then the county chairman for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, Chad Workman, made an unexpected digression: He took direct aim at Mitt Romney’s religion, according to four people at the meeting.

Workman questioned whether Mormons were Christians, discussed an article alleging that the Mormon Church helps fund Hamas, and likened the Mormons’ treatment of women to the Taliban’s, said participants, who requested anonymity to discuss the meeting freely.

One participant summed up Workman’s argument this way: “The fundamental flaw of Mitt Romney . . . was that he was Mormon, not because he thinks this way or that way on one issue.”

Workman did not return calls seeking comment.

In a presidential race in which Romney’s candidacy is testing the country’s attitudes toward Mormonism, the comments by a McCain representative in Iowa are the latest of several instances of rival campaign operatives trying to bring Romney’s faith onto the campaign playing field. Over the past year, staff or volunteers from at least three opposing campaigns have, at times subtly and at times not, spread negative information about Mormons in an apparent effort to damage Romney’s bid for the presidency.

. . .

Romney has faced repeated slights against his religion from other quarters as well. A Florida televangelist, Bill Keller, told followers recently that a vote for Romney is a vote for Satan. And a small group of worship ers from the Faith Christian Outreach Church in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, has been going door-to-door distributing a DVD that takes a critical look at the Mormon Church.

“Our concern was simply that Mormonism has continued to try and pass itself off as a Christian religion, which it is not,” said Monte Knudsen, senior pastor at the church, who insisted the effort was not aimed at hurting Romney’s candidacy.

There have been numerous anonymous attacks, too, such as an unsigned, eight-page screed that arrived last month in the mailboxes of influential South Carolina Republicans charging that Mormonism was a “politically dangerous” religion founded on a hoax. Sent from Providence, the mailing alleged that church members believe in multiple gods, likened its founder, Joseph Smith, to the Islamic prophet Mohammed, and raised alarm about future directives Mormons may be required to follow.

Romney’s detractors have also used e-mail to stir suspicions about his faith. One note sent to South Carolina voters warned of the “dark suspicions” about Mormonism, telling recipients to “trust your instincts” because “Mitt Romney has a family secret he doesn’t want you to know,” Salon, the online magazine, reported recently. The “secret” was the long-acknowledged fact that Romney has polygamous ancestors, Salon reported.

“In some ways, [Romney's candidacy] is the best test of whether Americans have really put some of the old religious differences aside,” said Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. “And my guess is that they haven’t.”

Incidentally, as we idly speculated a while back and at least partially confirmed by, er, “independent” sources, this Mormon thing is part of what might set in motion a viable independent party candidacy. In fact, newly independent New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been making a great deal of movement on that front.

The only caveat to this third party fantasy is that you need an equally troubling Democratic candidate. Short of maybe Dennis Kucinich, I don’t see many truly divisive Democratic candidates . . . except for Hillary, who, the more I think about it, probably isn’t all that offputting to people in this decade. And if the candidate does turn out to be Hillary, Bloomberg was reported in the Times piece above telling people that he wouldn’t want to get in her way, both being from New York (or at least residing in New York).

I do think that Romney’s religion is a problem, and in a two-way race, I think there are enough people who would not vote for him based on that fact alone. (In fact, we basically know this already.) So now you’re stuck with Fred Thompson. [Soundman: Please cue Law & Order "Donk Donk!"]