Posted on 07/23/2012 9:33:15 AM PDT by greyfoxx39
Next year could be a banner one for Mormons in the nation’s capital, with their numbers and influence likely to grow whether or not Mitt Romney is elected president.
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) could raise the number of Mormons in the upper chamber to seven, should he and Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) win in November.
Depending on who controls the Senate, it will have either have a Mormon Senate majority leader in Harry Reid (D-Nev.) or a Mormon president pro tempore and Finance Committee Chairman in Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
“I wouldn’t be surprised, especially in a Republican administration, to see members of my faith well represented,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a rising Tea Party star who is Mormon, told The Hill.
“I don’t think that Mormons will be necessarily any more or any less represented in a Romney administration than they would in others…. But sometimes people tend to hire other people that they know, that they’ve worked with in the past.”
There are currently 14 Mormons in Congress: Sens. Reid, Hatch, Heller, Lee, Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Reps. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), Wally Herger (R-Calif.), Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).
Those numbers are likely to grow some in the fall.
Flake, who traveled with Romney during the Iowa caucuses, is the frontrunner in both his primary and general election, though another Mormon, businessman Wil Cardon (R), is giving him headaches in the primary. Heller is locked in a tight race with Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.).
Flake’s old House seat will be filled by a Mormon, either former Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) or former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams (R). Chris Stewart, a Mormon Republican, is considered a lock for a newly-created House seat in Utah. Mia Love, the African-American mayor of a small Utah town and a highly touted recruit running against Matheson, is also Mormon.
On top of that, if Romney wins the presidency there are a number of Mormon Republicans who are in line to gain political power.
Chief among them is former Utah governor and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt (R), a close Romney ally who has been tapped to head Romney’s transition team. He has been mentioned as a possible White House chief of staff.
A number of prominent Mormons have been major Romney donors — the types of people who often wind up getting offered ambassadorships.
These include Bill Marriott, a longtime family friend of Romney’s, and Kevin Rollins, a former partner of Romney’s at Bain & Company. JetBlue founder David Neeleman and Credit Suisse banking division CEO Eric Varvel, both Mormons, are on Romney’s finance team.
“A lot of these folks are very dear friends of his — they’ve known each other for decades now,” Hatch said. “I know every one of them and I don’t know of one of them that wants anything from their donations.”
But Hatch, who was an early Romney backer in 2008 and received Romney’s support in his contested Senate primary this year, said there was a natural tendency for anyone to bring along people they know and trust.
“Let’s face it, you do tend to want to bring some people with you that you know very well, that’s just a natural thing. I don’t care who it is, people all feel the same way,” Sen. Hatch said.
“Should Romney win and bring some of his people into the government, there will be a lot of people who are devout Mormons in positions of power,” said Paul Hatch, a longtime Republican strategist who grew up Mormon in Utah.
“As far as ambassadorships, Romney really does have a very strong donor base among Mormons that he’s cultivated since he ran in 1994 against Ted Kennedy for Senate.”
President Obama has appointed Mormons to serve in his administration, including former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R), who served as his ambassador to China. He also tapped Larry Echo Hawk, a former assistant secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Sen. Mike Lee noted that President Reagan named a number of Mormons to top positions, including Lee’s father, Rex, who was Reagan’s first solicitor general.
“While he was there he happened to hire one or two people who happened to be members of the Mormon faith, but that was not a conscious decision of ‘I’ve got to get more Mormons here,’ ” he said.
One of them was Terry Crapo, the brother of Sen. Crapo, who Rex Lee picked to be his deputy but died of leukemia before he could take the job.
“They had gone to [Brigham Young University] together,” Sen. Lee said. “It wasn’t about Mormonism — he was just one of the people he knew, an exceptionally bright lawyer.”
Paul Hatch, who ran Leavitt’s gubernatorial campaign and is now a consultant for Love’s campaign, said that devout Mormons tended to spend more time involved in church activities than those in other religions. He cited the church’s policy of having lay clergymen rather than full-time ministers as a reason.
“For a lot of people the Mormon Church becomes the center of their life. It’s more than going to Temple on Saturday or Mass on Sunday for an hour. People’s social circles are centered on their religious experience, particularly in Utah,” Paul Hatch said.
While Romney had a highly active life outside the church, he had also been heavily involved in its operations in Massachusetts, he added.
“Mormons are often who Mormons know — that’s who they’ve worked with, who they’ve built trust with, and the natural result is they’d bring in some of those people as staffers and assistants.”
When addressing ‘all’ that should be jackasses, jackass is singular.
You can only hope.
I personally sat in the pew in mormon churches and heard leaders speak the same words "“What the world calls ‘Mormonism’ will rule every nation...God has decreed it, and his own right arm will accomplish it. This will make the heathen rage.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 53) as did other former mormon FReepers. The fact that the mormon church has been attempting to scrub its early history of the racist, anti-Christian rhetoric that was ongoing through the 1970s is well known.
I guess it's back to the "official" mormon propaganda sites for you, right?
You have a different point of view than I do - but I have prayed unceasingly for guidance about this & I am convinced that GOD does not want us to stand back and let Obama win(who I believe - if he is not the anti-christ - is a minion of the anti-christ and Satan himself).
Having differing points of view is what makes FR a great place to be, sometimes.
However, excoriating FReepers through the use of vile and demeaning language solely because they have a different pov should never be accepted or even supported on FR.
This is where I part ways with certain elements on FR. Civility should rule the day, yet more and more, FR is turning into a cage match where just about anything goes.
Perhaps you should CAIR to investigate the links between mormons and muslims.
The Muslim Mormon Connection
http://mormonism.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_muslim_mormon_connection Mormons, Muslims break the fast in Southern California "At the iftars, both Muslim and LDS leaders spoke at a brief service, after which the Muslims participated in evening prayers. Following the evening prayer, the groups met together for a meal, provided by the Muslims. There were members of other faiths at each of the dinners also, along with city officials. In keeping with Muslim tradition, the call to prayer occurred at the time that the sun set that evening. Participants then broke their fasts with dates, bread or other simple items, before proceeding to evening prayer. The LDS visitors were invited to observe the prayers. LDS women who attended wore head scarves, consistent with Muslim dress standards for women. After the evening prayer, the groups shared a large meal together. The dinners featured traditional Muslim foods such as lamb, couscous, rice and dates. About two dozen LDS members from each of the four stakes attended the events."
1 - A LDS perspective on Muhammed (LDS.org)
http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/08/a-latter-day-saint-perspective-on-muhammad?lang=eng
2 - U.S. Muslims share friendship, similar values with Mormons (LA Times, published in 2008)
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/02/local/me-morlims2
3 - Mormonism and Islam: Commonality and Cooperation Between Abrahamic Faiths (March 10 & 11, 2011 - Utah Valley University)
http://www.uvu.edu/religiousstudies/mormonismandislam/
4 - Ask a Mormon: What do Mormons think of Muslims (March 2010 - MormonWoman.org)
http://mormonwoman.org/2010/03/15/ask-a-mormon-woman-what-do-mormons-think-about-islam/
5 - Mormons and Muslims break fast together (Ramadan 2010 - Deseret News)
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705386347/Mormons-Muslims-break-the-fast-in-Southern-California.html
6 - Islamic Translation Service (Brigham Young University)
http://meti.byu.edu/islamic.php
7 - Muslims attending BYU focus on similarities between Islam, LDS tenets (Deseret News - Dec 2009)
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705353014/Muslims-attending-BYU-focus-on-similarities-between-Islam-LDS-tenets.html
I'm sure you CAIR about these as much as you CAIR about defending mormonism.
Sorry I don’t go to church.. I don’t like to hang around self righteous a*holes like you..
Would agree, if God where voting He would not obama, or Romney for that matter.
They feel it is a requirement as Christians to do this. And, to be honest with you, I respect that.
My problem is that recently the discussion has become something beyond witnessing. It used to be that a civil discussion could be had. But no longer. Some of the drive-by postings recently are becoming difficult to distinguish from posting-while-drunk. You can picture some of them having to wipe their mouths of the foam and spittle when they are done.
And in the end, it probably turns off more of their intended audience than they would like.
I trust that when Romney is done (one way or the other) they will continue to post about mormonism. Just as they were long before Romney was a national figure.
I just hope that the expose becomes a little quieter so that folks can actually hear and follow.
When I see Mormons hijacking planes and flying them into skyscrapers, killing thousands of people - AND - when I see videos of Mormons beheading people - AND - when I see videos of Mormons stoning a woman to death because she was raped..........then we’ll talk.
So, if Mitt could sing that would make him eligible for POTUS?
His record as an abortion-loving governor surely wouldn't stand if he could sing, right?
For you it must be impossible to get away from such...
Utah hasn't "established" mormonism as the official religion, but the religion rules the state all the same.
I'm quite sure you didn't even bother to follow any of the mormon-muslim links I posted. For example here is a little tidbit for you to chew on.
******************************************
Cooperation in Word and Deed
Muslims and Mormons who attend each other’s religious services or events often report feeling very much at ease. The two faiths often co-host social and educational programs. The Mormon-owned Brigham Young University operates a world-class research operation in translating ancient Arab religious texts, which many Muslims interpret as more than a token sign of interest. The Mormon Church has also donated land for the construction of Islamic mosques, and opened the doors of its meetinghouses to Muslims who feared retribution at their own places of worship after 9/11.
While the country was in mourning over the atrocity of 9/11, the mormons were "opening the doors of meetinghouses to Muslims".
Next, I suppose you will comment that was a wonderful charitable act.
Again it is not just politics and terror...
Four years of socialism vs. eight years of the squishy republicans refusing to hold Romney' socialism to account because he is "one of theirs".
Obama may very well not last for four years. He's already losing his base.
So you are so self religious you dont need to go to church, got it.
What a liar. Hatch and everyone else knows that breakaway LDS sect services are 3 hours long, and that doesn't include meetings for leadership positions. 10-12 hour days are common on Sunday for Bishopric members like I was used to be.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.