Brian Schweitzer continues to be awesome

[Bandit3 the Worker]

There is probably not one human being alive today who did not descend from polygamists. If The Media is going to attack Obama, they must attack everybody.

[Odysseus]

I am not alleging by any stretch that Romney is a polygamist and approves of [the] polygamy lifestyle, but his father was born into [a] polygamy commune in Mexico.

What does this have to do with anything? Also, how is Brian Schweitzer so "awesome" for insinuating Mitt Romney is a polygamist? 

[ajb]

Mitt Romney's religion thinks that polygamy is wrong. I don't see how what Schweitzer said is an attack on Mitt Romney's religion.

[Invisible Obama]

A lot of people think what Schweitzer said, they just don't say it. I don't think it should be made an issue on the campaign trail, but Schweitzer's opinion is very representative of many. He didn't even attack Romney, just made an observation about church background and such.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

This is kind of like the time The Media went after John Kerry because he mentioned during a debate something about gay marriage and Dick Cheney's daughter. Anyone remember that?

The Media just went ballistic on Kerry, even though he didn't say anything negative about gays or the Cheneys.

[redcommander]

Dem hypocrisy at it's finest. How about Schweitzer defends the crap bigots threw at JFK for being a Catholic in the 60's?

[Cory]

What goes around comes around. Maybe you righities should've thought of this when you were suggesting Obama was a secret Muslim communist Nazi from Kenya.

"And God had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God; I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities." (2 Nephi 5:21)

I know they've "changed their stance" since then, but that just proves Mormonism isn't taken seriously by it's own followers.

[Senator Napoleon]

I look forward to the day you lose votes for saying you believe in nonsensical myths

Oh, that's already the case, depending on how loudly its said.

[FloridaRepublican]

With the Democrats, apparently two wrongs DO make a right.

[Cory]

With the Democrats, apparently two wrongs DO make a right.

This is politics, it's not about decency, it's about winning. You can have all the good ideas in the world but it doesn't mean sh**t unless you win. Every serious person involved in politics knows this.

[Communists For McCain]

Usually I wouldn't approve of such attacks, but considering it's Brian Schweitzer, the greatest man that ever lined, I will agree with this.

[You kip if you want to...]

LOL, but this part struck me:

his team has declared Romney's religion off limits

I wonder if Mitt Romney'll promise the same to the President.

[ag]

Entirely inappropriate. There was a perfect response: Romney's dad was from an isolated anglophone community, culturally entirely unconnected w/ the rest of Mexico and, thus, is not at all Hispanic for any real purpose. This is, in fact, true: no Hispanic Mexican would recognize Romney as one, nor would be more likely to vote for him based on his father's place of birth, so bringing that up is pure demagogy.

The marriage customs of his ancestors, though, are no more relevant here than the marriage customs of Old Testament are for the Jewish politicians - or else we'd have to worry about Abraham's relationship w/ Hagar.

[Californian Tony]

The party of Al Smith shouldn't be doing that.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Even though I recognize that Schweitzer's insinuations here are abhorrent, I can't bring myself to care because Mormonism is truly a vile cult that isn't worthy of my defense.

[Yelnoc]

That was a stupid thing of Schweitzer to say.  Romney can't control where his father was born.  

The Governor of Montana has gone down a point or two in my book.

[Zioneer]

Entirely inappropriate. There was a perfect response: Romney's dad was from an isolated anglophone community, culturally entirely unconnected w/ the rest of Mexico and, thus, is not at all Hispanic for any real purpose. This is, in fact, true: no Hispanic Mexican would recognize Romney as one, nor would be more likely to vote for him based on his father's place of birth, so bringing that up is pure demagogy.

The marriage customs of his ancestors, though, are no more relevant here than the marriage customs of Old Testament are for the Jewish politicians - or else we'd have to worry about Abraham's relationship w/ Hagar.

This, basically. I still support Schweitzer, but his comment was incredibly inappropriate and really stupid, also offensive to me and my faith. I understand why he made it, but he could have worded it better.

And honestly, whatever my fellow liberals/moderates/etc say about my faith can never be as vicious as the religious right, since not only do the religious right say the same thing, but their theological ancestors (i.e, the fundamentalist preachers in the mid 1800s) are the ones who drove Mormons out to Utah in the first place. So it's not that offensive to me, as a Mormon progressive.

[crypto-fascist superhero]

And honestly, whatever my fellow liberals/moderates/etc say about my faith can never be as vicious as the religious right, since not only do the religious right say the same thing, but their theological ancestors (i.e, the fundamentalist preachers in the mid 1800s) are the ones who drove Mormons out to Utah in the first place. So it's not that offensive to me, as a Mormon progressive.

Uh, no, it's the Brian Schweitzers of the world whose actual biological ancestors did that, and Methodists and Baptists are not the same thing.

[shua]

Isn't this a bit like if a Republican Governor of Florida insulted Jews?

[True Federalist]

That was a stupid thing of Schweitzer to say.  Romney can't control where his father was born.  

The Governor of Montana has gone down a point or two in my book.

In the context of the question Schweitzer was asked, what if Romney starts to pretend he is a Hispanic on the basis of his ancestors sojourn in Mexico, then pointing out why they were there would be fair game.  Not that there is any evidence that the Romney camp will be so dense as to make such a foolish claim.

However, Schwitzer could and should have been more subtle.  Here's a better way to answer that absurd hypothetical.

"Governor Romney isn't really a Hispanic.  His great-grandfather had decided he didn't love the United States any more, so he left it for Mexico.  His grandfather then brought his family back to the United States because he didn't love Mexico any more."

[Zioneer]

And honestly, whatever my fellow liberals/moderates/etc say about my faith can never be as vicious as the religious right, since not only do the religious right say the same thing, but their theological ancestors (i.e, the fundamentalist preachers in the mid 1800s) are the ones who drove Mormons out to Utah in the first place. So it's not that offensive to me, as a Mormon progressive.

Uh, no, it's the Brian Schweitzers of the world whose actual biological ancestors did that, and Methodists and Baptists are not the same thing.

Oh, what I meant was that those who murdered, attacked, and ranted against Mormons in the 1800s were in effect, the religious ancestors of the religious right today, by virtue of both being intolerant towards towards non-their-specific-brand-of-Protestantism. I wasn't saying anything about anybody's literal ancestors, just the kinds of people they indirectly draw their bigotry from.

I wasn't saying anything about any specific religion, just that the anti-Mormon preachers in Missouri and Illinois (the Missouri ones especially, since they literally pillaged and raped the Mormon settlement of Far West) draw upon similar kinds of bigotry to the rhetoric that the ultra-zealous fringe religious right does today. The ones today are non-violent, but they have the same attitude towards Mormonism; they think it's a dangerous cult that must be stopped.

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

I see nothing wrong with it - he was just giving some true political analysis.

[Ebowed]

The really interesting thing about this, to me at least, is that a simple comment about Romney's ancestry is immediately described by both sides as an 'attack on faith', which popularizes a link between Mormonism and polygamy when the LDS church is surely still attempting to distance itself from this aspect of its past.  I mean, if merely pointing out that Romney's father was born into a polygamist commune is an attack on the Mormonism of today, how easy is it going to be for the average, uninformed voter to shake the association?

[Chaddyr23]

I still can't get over the fact that in 68 Romney's dad ran for President but he was born in a polygamous commune in Mexico and no one made a deal. lol

[ShadowOfTheWave]

What a slime. What does Romney's fathers place of birth have to with him or his beliefs? Or even his father's beliefs? And if Brian seriously thinks this will be an issue with swing voters he is obviously not intelligent enough to be in public office.