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Your #400...excellent and concise post.

What a nice thing to say. I'm so rarely accused of being concise. LOL.

Before I proceed to prove why that is so, I'll state that, as a Calvinistic Southern Baptist, I consider my Mormon-bashing and Catholic-bashing credentials second to none. Theologically, not politically.

For all the talk about anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon political prejudice, I think it should be pointed out that the very Protestant/Baptist/evangelical GOP has put five Catholics on the Court. And that is no accident. And it is just a coincidence (or maybe not) that that Court is disproportionately Italian in ethnic makeup. Conceivably, those five Catholic justices are potentially more powerful than any president we can elect to serve, at most, eight years. And li'l ol' Catholic-bashing Baptist me is just fine with that. In fact, I think it's downright brilliant and I was certainly one of those here at FR who demanded that evangelical Aunt Harriet be thrown under the bus so we could get the brilliant Catholic jurist, Alito, instead. Funny, my Catholic-bashing tendencies just seemed to fail me there.

Now, let's look at the Mormon thing more. Not long ago, in conservative circles the most notably conservative state legislature and the real bellwether of GOP state politics was reliably conservative New Hampshire (honorable mention for Montana). However, with the invasion of New Hampshire by liberals fleeing the results of their own voting habits in other neighboring liberal states, New Hampshire is no longer the state legislature we once so admired.

So who is? Utah. They have distinguished themselves repeatedly at resisting federal intrusion in education and other matters. It's a very impressive conservative record. Their reliance on their churches for relief and general rejection of federal welfare programs is pretty unique and is certainly no vice in the GOP. If only we had a half-dozen more legislatures that conservative!

The Mormon standard for clean living and work ethic is admirable. And they are the single largest force in Scouting, an interest Romney certainly shares (and will drone on about endlessly if allowed to as he did one night on CSPAN). Part of what we defend when we defend Scouting from molesters is the safety of Mormon children who are in Scouting. Not that we should ever need to be thanked for it either. This is all part of the Mormon/GOP connection and it is a Good Thing for both.

In addition, Utah and other states with large Mormon populations are among the Reddest. They will vote GOP come hell or high water and they have done so for generations. This is true of Mormons in any state.

Ann Coulter made the point well at CPAC (before her other rather ill-considered remark). When asked who she currently favored, she mentioned she was leaning toward Romney. She explained that she likes Mormons and offered that a state like Utah in which, during the 1992 election, Clinton came in third tells you something about just how reliably Republican the Mormons have been. Mormons are remarkably Republican with a few like Harry Reid being the exception that proves the rule.

Now, for all the real anti-Mormon bigots out there, it's time for all of you to understand that we cannot elect a president without Mormon votes. And I don't know why we'd even want to. We can elect a president without RINO votes in places like New York but we can't without the Mormon vote. They are absolutely vital in any close election.

We need to embrace our Mormon allies. They are our longtime and loyal political partners. They are not second-class citizens in the GOP. If they can field an attractive candidate (and Romney is), then the standard we should apply is whether that candidate is conservative and will adhere to our party goals as spelled out in the party platform. Period.

Given that FR exists in part to expose libmedia's hidden agenda, I'd also point out that the libmedia attacks on Romney's Mormon background and even the marriage records of his ancestors is a blatant attempt to split off a faction of the GOP from the Party Of Reagan. Just as they are trying to use Giuliani to drive wedges into the party, they are also trying to fan the flames of anti-Mormon bigotry in order to split the party base and create a situation where Hitlery can win.

If we fall for it, perhaps allowing Giuliani to become our nominee merely because he might be the only credible alternative to Romney, if we allow anti-Mormon bigotry to rule our choices of nominee, we will lose. And we will deserve to lose. This is the only hope the Dims have to win, the only chance the Wife Of Clinton has to reach the White House. And we have to avoid falling into their trap.

Questions remain about the extent to which Romney represents the values of our party base, particularly the pro-gun and pro-life factions. Personally, I'm willing to wait for the pro-life/pro-family and pro-gun organizations to tell us whether we can trust Romney on those issues. That is their job in our coalition and they've done pretty darned well at it.

We are the Party Of Reagan. We share power with all those who share the goals of our party platform and adhere to them. They are our partners and that includes Mormons. It is somewhat distasteful that it should even need to be discussed.

Threads about Romney should not be Mormon threads, bashing and defending Mormon theology and history. It is a profound mistake to allow this to happen. Theology threads belong in the Backroom with all the other theology debates.

When you start bashing Romney over Mormonism, just remember that it's not you who is winning or losing a debate. It's Keith Obertroll who is winning. It's Dan Rather who is winning. It's the New York Times and the Washington Post who is winning. It is, in short, all our libmedia enemies who will rejoice at having sown such discord and fanned the flames of intra-party warfare here at FreeRepublic, the bastion of online conservative discussion.

Don't fall for it. Don't let libmedia (and a few hotheads) split the party and elect the Wife Of Clinton.

[JimRob, I hope you'll read this and consider it. I think I'm right about libmedia's intent to split the Party Of Reagan with a multi-pronged RINO-Giuliani and anti-Mormon strategy.]