MORMON-BASHING, PLUS ANOTHER GENTLEMAN'S C FOR BUSH

Cyndi Mosteller, co-chair of Fred Thompson's South Carolina campaign, is upsetting Mitt Romney fans and some other Republicans with anti-Mormon remarks such as this, about Mormon doctrine:

So I think it's inconsistent with so many basic Christian doctrines and it's very unusual to the point that it's almost unbelievable. These concepts are things that are theologically beyond our orthodox imagination.

Ouch. That's nasty.

But surely the damage control has begun, right? Surely the Thompson campaign has begun to walk back her remarks.

Nope:

Asked if his candidate had any thoughts on this analysis, Thompson spokesman Todd Harris said: "We respect her opinion just as we respect the opinions of those who disagree with her."

Wow. Republicans have gotten so used to dealing out low blows, blatantly and in full public view, anytime they think they can get away with it that they can't even restrain themselves from doing it to one another.

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(By the way, according a new Pew poll -- see page 6 of the PDF -- claims that only 6% of Republican voters would absolutely not vote for Mitt Romney. That's a surprisingly low number, given the conventional wisdom that evangelicals won't vote for a Mormon and the poll results Tom posted last month showing that large numbers of voters wouldn't vote for Romney, or consider it unlikely that they would. I can't tell what's going on, but I still think that by the time November rolls around, GOP hatred of whoever the Democratic nominee is will be so great that nothing about the GOP nominee will be a dealbreaker. For now, though, I think the Pew number is very low.)

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Oh, and here's another remark from that Cyndi Hosteller interview:

I think particularly the [Mormon] Church's history, and almost theology, on the issue of race -- particularly the black race -- will be a very difficult issue to defend and to move forward with.... There are some issues there and I don't quite see how you resolve them and seek out and obtain anywhere near the same level of African American support that President Bush obtained both in 2000 and 2004.

Er, Bush got a whopping 9% of the black vote in 2000 and 11% in 2004.

I think even if Romney became the GOP nominee got exactly zero black votes, the words "anywhere near the same level of African American support that President Bush obtained" would apply to his total.