Faith Under Fire In IA & NH

The Politico has broken a story on a phone calls to Iowa and New Hampshire voters masquerading as being pro-McCain while slamming ex-Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) for his Mormon faith -- equating his beliefs to a cult. According to news reports, the campaign of U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) vehemently denies involvement or sanction of such phone calls.

Apparently the calls have been traced back to a Utah-based phone vendor called Western Watts.

The calls asks a series of questions, asking if the respondent would be more or less likely to favor Romney if they knew XYZ about him. The litany included the topics of his faith, Mormonism and Vietnam-era military deferments due to his missionary service in France. The calls allegedly note the Mormon faith holds its text is superior to the Christian Bible and that Mormon bishops would not accept African-Americans into their church up to the 1970's.
According to the Associated Press, one call recipient described their experience this way: ""It started out like all the other calls. ... Then all of the sudden it got very unsettling and very negative,"

The company behind the calls won't comment on the specifics of their work and only say they don't do "push polls." Western Watts has done work for a variety of state GOP political parties, Dole's 1996 Presidential campaign and a variety of other campaigns.

A Romney campaign spokesman, Matt Rhoades responded:

"Whatever campaign is engaging in this type of awful religious bigotry as a line of political attack, it is repulsive and, to put it bluntly, un-American. There is no excuse for these attacks. Governor Romney is campaigning as an optimist who wants to lead the nation. These attacks are just the opposite. It's ugly and divisive."

Romney has noted that his campaign advisors have warned him not to give a speech specifically focused on the issue of his faith. This may be cause for his campaign to reverse course. The thinking to date has been, don't let Romney's faith be a distraction. Pundits have been waiting for a JFK-like speech addressing faith. Of course the problem is, it is virtually impossible to fulfill the historical recollection and impression of a JFK speech.

Everyone expects campaigns to get tense. Especially with 49 days to go before the vote in Iowa. So who does this help or hurt? In short, it hurts all the GOP candidates. It brings to the conversation an issue that is not relevant to winning the General Election. Who does it help? All the candidates running against Romney (Huckabee is his closet rival in Iowa) and the entire Democratic field.

What can voters do to stop this nonsense? Simple. Turn on your voice-mail or other devices! Record and share any encounter with what you believe is dirty politics. Given our common First Amendment value, its nearly impossible to outlaw low-blows, but we can all shed sunlight on bad behavior! Shame is still a leading motivation for good behavior.