There is no place for Mike Huckabee in my GOP -- not after this move to play to and promote religious bigotry in order to undermine an opponent.

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks in an upcoming article, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

The article, to be published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, says Huckabee asked the question after saying he believes Mormonism is a religion but doesn't know much about it. His rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is a member of the Mormon church, which is known officially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The authoritative Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published in 1992, does not refer to Jesus and Satan as brothers. It speaks of Jesus as the son of God and of Satan as a fallen angel, which is a Biblical account.

A spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Huckabee's question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine.

Frankly, I'm disgusted by this move. By raising the question, Huckabee is proposing to do the exact opposite of what Mitt Romney argued for last week. Rather than promoting religious tolerance, Huckabee wants to impose a narrow religious test for any candidate for office -- and has shown that he cannot be president for all Americans. Indeed, I would expect a defeat on the order of that suffered by the GOP in 1964 when Barry Goldwater was thoroughly drubbed by Lyndon Johnson -- except without planting the seeds of future victory as Goldwater did.

And let's be quite clear -- the New York Times doesn't do favors for Republican candidates. It doesn't give them free rein to write a piece for publication unless there is something in it for the advancement of the New York Times' agenda. What Huckabee has done here is shown himself to be a narrow-minded little bigot, just like the Left wants to portray all religious Americans to be.

Let me say it -- Mike Huckabee will be the death of the GOP built by Ronald Reagan. And I will not vote for him for President, based upon this misguided action alone. Indeed, the prospect of "President Huckabee" will lead me to give serious consideration to voting for "President McKinney". After all, could she really be any more divisive?

Posted by: Greg at 11:35 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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