Jack Cafferty -- religious bigot

Of all the guys on CNN, Jack Cafferty's the worst. Not only is he a complete dim bulb, but based on this video that Hugh and Duane found yesterday he's a religious bigot as well.

"The Mormon church is shrouded in a certain amount of mystery and secrecy -- if you're not a Mormon you can't go in the temples. If he doesn't address the Mormon aspect in this speech, then he might as well not give it. We've got a poll that shows about one-fifth of prospective voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate who's Mormon than they would be for a candidate who isn't. It's the Mormon in Mitt Romney that matters to America's voters, and if he's not going to lift some of the veil and explain away some of the mystery that surrounds his religion, which as Gloria points out, is a small percentage of the population of this country. It's not like he's a Catholic, or a Protestant, or a Lutheran, or a Methodist, or a Baptist. There aren't that many Mormons, and there's a lot of questions surrounding that church. And he needs to address that or this speech is a waste."

Let me address a couple of things here. While I'm not "infinitely qualified" to speak about the Mormon church, I do know a good deal about it from research and study. First off, once a temple has been consecrated, no non-Mormon is allowed inside. You can go into the visitor's center, and you can walk through one before it's consecrated. But once that's done, you can only go inside a temple if your are a temple-worthy Mormon.

Secondly, we need to state right now that we'd rather Mitt Romney not give this speech. It's not that we don't think it's the right thing to do, but because he won't address the theology questions, the media will continue to savage him. Just like Jack Cafferty did above, the media will become increasingly more biased in their scrutiny. It will open the door for more garbage like what we've witnessed coming out of Caffery's mouth.

For Marcie and I, we could care less what Mitt Romney's religion is. This isn't an issue. And by Cafferty's own admission, four out of five Americans agree with us -- religion isn't a factor in this election. It's not a factor in ANY election. Article VI of the Constitution is plainly explicit. And for those that use the "that applies to the government" argument, you're fools. The Fourteenth Amendment has extended that very same rule to us, as well. WE, the people, don't give religious litmus tests for those seeking office. It's wrong. It's bigoted. And it opens up a Pandora's Box that no one wants to seriously deal with. Marcie and I made this case back in April in our regular column.

He's going to give the speech tomorrow, but he's not going to give into Cafferty's demands. He's not doing a Mormon 101 lesson for idiots like him. He's going to talk about faith in America.

Furthermore, Jack Cafferty owes CNN viewers an apology for this comment. If he doesn't issue one, we want to see him fired from the network. There is no room for this sort of attitude, no matter who your are, especially when it is as hostile and prejudicial as he was.

Lastly, I'd like to add something to this. Mike Huckabee has been asked several times, and several different ways, to comment on Mitt Romney's religion. While he has refused to say anything about it other than "let the voters decide," it should be pointed out that this is another reason why Huckabee's a loser int his election. He shouldn't say anything about it at all, and he should be excoriating the media people when the question's even raised. He should tell them that he finds the questions offensive, and that the interviewer should be ashamed of themselves for even positing the question. Because he doesn't say that, because he doesn't take the question as a slight, he is leaving it in the back of the voter's mind that something might be wrong with Mitt Romney's faith.

There's nothing wrong with his faith. Sure, we Catholics don't believe exactly what Mormons believe. But we do agree that the Bible is the Word of God. Do Mormons have any sort of religious practices that could be called "weird" or "strange?" Of course they do, just as much as we Catholics do to any outsiders that aren't Catholic. You can't take Holy Communion unless you're Catholic. You'll never grasp the concept of reverence for the Holy Mother. You'll never understand why we pray rosaries, or dwell on Christ's passion.

We're proud of our faith, as is Mitt Romney. And like Mitt Romney, we're happy to talk about our faith. But there are certain details that he simply won't address. We believe that's his right, and it's protected by the Constitution. Jack Cafferty might want to take that into consideration the next time he opens up his yap, and makes a complete bigoted ass out of himself.

Publius II