The Nation gives a little lesson in how the MSM — assuming anyone considers The Nation part of the MSM — can offer informed reporting on the Wild West of the political blogosphere.
With onetime Republican presidential frontrunner Senator John McCain in meltdown, Mitt Romney suddenly finds himself under fire from some of the Christian right’s most influential activists. Romney’s evangelical critics claim the former Massachusetts governor and devout Mormon was complicit in the Marriott hotel chain’s sale of pay-per-view porn on its in-room television sets when he served on the corporation’s board of directors from 1992 to 2001. Two Christian-right operatives involved in orchestrating the charges have enlisted as Internet organizers for former Senator Fred Thompson, who is preparing to enter the race formally. The tactics of these religious-right players, targeted below the radar against Romney, are calculated to alter decisively the outcome of the Republican primary contest.
The assault was launched on July 5 with an opening shot in the form of a breathless press release issued through the mega-ministry Focus on the Family. In it, veteran antiporn crusader Phil Burress called Romney’s failure to take action against pay-per-view hotel porn during his tenure on Marriott’s board “extremely disturbing.” That same day, a Focus on the Family spokesman took to the radio airwaves to ask whether Romney would “turn a blind eye” to pornography if elected President. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which functions as Focus’s Washington lobbying arm, immediately joined the pile-on. He briefed the Associated Press on the record, explaining that Romney must “take some responsibility” for his supposed connection to Marriott’s porn profiteering. The AP report on the accusation against Romney was subsequently reprinted in the pages of major outlets from the Boston Globe to the Washington Post. It only took a full six years after Romney resigned from Marriott’s board for the Christian right’s leading lights to profess their outrage–and only hours for the press to echo it.
The small mention in The Globe is here. Any possibility that Willard might flip back toward the center, now that he is feeling heat from the right wing extremists?
anti-Mormonism.
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Are you telling me that Mitt is the first and only Republican candidate to be associated with shady stuff like this? Is this worse (from FOF’s perspective) than his, or Thompson’s, or Giuliani’s pro-choice past, for instance?
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And yeah, what about FOF’s failure to notice until now? Don’t they have to “take some responsibility”? Hah.
that FOF is an organization of quasi-moralistic opportunists? Gosh!
will flip whatever way seems best for His Expediency.
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What’s new about that?
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The question is, is FOTF trying after something Romney can actually provide–shameless public groveling, for instance–or are they wedded to Fred Thompson and simply want Romney out of the way?
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Eiher way, Willard still looks good for veep.
Is the religious right going to shift its bets to Thompson? That would be bad news for Romney. Porcupine?