"The tears of a clown."
Posted on 12/16/2007 4:57:30 PM PST by jdm
THIS campaign season has been in desperate need of its own reincarnation of Howard Beale from “Network”: a TV talking head who would get mad as hell and not take it anymore. Last weekend that prayer was answered when Lawrence O’Donnell, an excitable Democratic analyst, seized a YouTube moment while appearing on one of the Beltway’s more repellent Sunday bloviathons, “The McLaughlin Group.”
Pushed over the edge by his peers’ polite chatter about Mitt Romney’s sermon on “Faith in America,” Mr. O’Donnell branded the speech “the worst” of his lifetime. Then he went on a rampage about Mr. Romney’s Mormon religion, shouting (among other things) that until 1978 it was “an officially racist faith.”
That claim just happens to be true. As the jaws of his scandalized co-stars dropped around him, Mr. O’Donnell then raised the rude question that almost no one in Washington asks aloud: Why didn’t Mr. Romney publicly renounce his church’s discriminatory practices before they were revoked? As the scion of one of America’s most prominent Mormon families, he might have made a difference. It’s not as if he was a toddler. By 1978 — the same year his contemporary, Bill Clinton, was elected governor in Arkansas — Mr. Romney had entered his 30s.
The answer is simple. Mr. Romney didn’t fight his church’s institutionalized apartheid, whatever his private misgivings, because that’s his character. Though he is trying to sell himself as a leader, he is actually a follower and a panderer, as confirmed by his flip-flops on nearly every issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Will Frank Rich challenge Ted Kennedy to renounce the Catholic Church’s “sexist” stance against ordaining women as priests? Hypocrite!
Looks like the NY Times is starting to fear Romney.
LOL
Will Frank Rich challenge Bill Clinton for working for the segregationist and, therefore, inescapably racist Fullbright while the rest of us were participating in the Movement?
I agree Rich is a hippokrit.
But doesn’t the Bible say religious leaders shall be men?
The NYT staff should just convert to the church of NAMBLA and make it public.
Frank Rich Hearts Huck.
I’m female and was raised Catholic. I agree that a church has the right to decide whoever they want as priests and members. Which is why I think the whole issue of zapping Romney about his church’s stance on blacks is BS. I want to see the same critics challenge the Catholic Dems (Pelosi, Kennedy) about their church’s un-PC stance on a few issues.
(And no, I’m not a Romney supporter.)
World class hypocrites.
There is no church on the face of the planet with a better record of treating Blacks equally and with dignity than the LDS Church. How many Blacks were lynched or bombed--as recently as the 1960s--by good Southern Baptists?
How many Blacks have been bombed or lynched by Mormons?
You folks are pathetic. Cozying up with Frank Rich to attack an honest and decent man you cannot find substantive fault with in his personal, family, or professional life.
Once again no one is playing the “victim” card, I dont care that he’s a mormon, I fault him for his liberalism (and that’s despite his WONDERFUL) home life!!!
According to the newest Corporate Equality Index of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, The New York Times has the industry’s most gay-friendly newsroom. The New York Times Co. scored a perfect 100 in the survey. Cox Communications came in a close second, scoring 95 points. Gannett Co. earned 65 points, and Dow Jones earned a meager 30. The ratings are based on criteria including diversity training ad domestic-partner benefits.
http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003643058
John Gibson played a number of O'Donnell clips on his radio show last week. Suffice it to say that O'Donnell was unprofessionally frothing at the mouth.
Wrong. He didn't publicly criticize his Church's official position because to do so would have meant that he would lose his Temple Recommend and would no longer be considered "worthy" to enter the temple.
Either that or he agreed with the Church's official position.
lots of rombotho’s here.
Harry Reid is a Mormon. I wonder when Frank Rich is going to go after him for not being a leader?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1978 wasn’t racist - the United States of America was racist. This church was the first major non-all-black-denomination church to have blacks in positions of authority in the church. The church made this radical move to let Blacks have positions of authority in opposition to many commonly held racial beliefs in America at that time. Why is there a finger being pointed at the church for this instead of praise? If this church hadn’t set the standard, would the other churches have followed suit so quickly?
This had nothing to do with a perceived racial church but instead has to do with the sad dark racism heritage of America.
And why is Mitt Romney being attacked for believing in a church a few don’t understand? This isn’t a Mormon political race. Are Mitt Romney contenders so desperate to find something to pin on this pristine candidate that they’re sinking to this new low?
If I have disagreements with a religion, should I petition against having members of that religion hold a public office? Should I pick up picket signs and march against those religions? I prefer more constructive approaches.
Mitt Romney is the best candidate I’ve seen in years and I’m excited about this race. As candidates have risen and fallen in the polls, Mitt’s numbers have stayed strong.
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