Politico Arena asks:
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz fired back yesterday at Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch’s prediction that Democrats will attack Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith in the election, calling the charge “nonsense.”
“For them to suggest that religion will be injected [into the election] by President Obama and the Democratic Party, I mean, I think they need to take a look inward at the accusations that their party and their supporters have hurled before they take that step,” Wasserman Schultz told MSNBC.
Is Romney likely to face more criticism from the Left over Mormonism as he did from conservatives during the primaries?
Hatch must be looking in his own party’s mirror and is frightened by the religious intolerance he sees. His unfounded charge that Democrats will attack Romney’s religion is either fabrication or hallucination.
Senator Hatch has a penchant for such flights of fancy. He once pinned me to the wall for half an hour outside a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, lecturing me on how he is the savior of women because as committee chair he had allowed Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s nomination to the Supreme Court to come to a vote. His speculation that the Democrats, who basically couldn’t care less about a candidate’s religion, will attack Romney for his faith is a similar fantasy.
http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Gloria_Feldt_9103FF47-DFA5-428D-9889-4EC4932EE0AB.html
Latest posts by Gloria Feldt (Posts)
- The Young Politica: Guns on Campus - April 26, 2013
- Women’s Campaign Fund Won’t Settle for Less Than Half - April 24, 2013
- Women’s History Month: Why Sally Jewell as Secretary of the Interior Could be a Historic Win - March 29, 2013
I wonder if Politico and Orrin Hatch have both lost sight of the profound gulf between the Democratic Party and the Left. Romney has already been criticized over his Mormonism by the Left, but the Democrats, at least at the highest levels, are not likely to bother with that line of attack.
This may be analogous to the sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in the last election. Obama was somewhat careful to avoid attacking them in blatantly sexist ways, but his supporters were another story. I do not agree that Orrin Hatch is totally off base in this prediction, but I do agree that Obama himself is not likely to make Mormonism an issue.
I suppose that once they get into the thick of the campaign, with all the independent expenditures and Super PACs,anything can happen.