Having said all that, it is clear that there is a concerted effort to portray the Conservative base in the most extreme terms possible. It might be good to remember that this is just a continuation of the same tactic used by the Clintons duration their administration. That tells me just about all I need to know about anyone furthering this ploy.

The fact that the ONLY reason for Romney to stay true to Mormonism in the face of religious opposition was personal integrity, is not pointed out as a rebuttal to claims that his integrity was somehow suspect because he changed his position, years before, on whether government should regulate abortion.

Anyone who is familiar with Mormon teachings on abortion knows that the attitude of the CJCLDS church to abortion by a member of that church is highly opposed, except under very narrow circumstances (threat of serious physical harm to the mother, rape or incest), and that Romney, even when he was not trying to use government to restrict abortion, was counseling other Mormons under his leadership that they should avoid them in almost all circumstances. So when Romney decided that government should also take a stance to restrict abortion for ALL citizens (not just those who subscribe to Mormon beliefs), he was not changing his own personal and religious opposition to abortion, but only his position on how much of a role government should play in regulating it. Indeed, he specifically advocated that the issue be taken out of the courts and returned to the states, where democratic processes could give expression to the moral judgment of citizens, a return to the pre-Roe V. Wade status quo ante.

Ronald Reagan “flipped” from allowing abortion to opposing it. Was his integrity on the issue somehow suspect because he changed it to match what his supposed critics WANTED? If you beat up someone because they decide to AGREE with you, you are never going to make converts of additional politicians and voters to your cause!

In sum, anyone who criticizes Romney for his allegiance to Mormonism has to give him credit for basic integrity in the face of immense pressure to distance himself from his church (in the way that John F. Kennedy did in 1960), and they should also admit that Romney’s alleged “flip” (without a “flop”) from limiting government regulation of abortion to allowing is was ONLY about public policy, and NOT about his fundamental beliefs opposing abortion in most circumstances. But that would require critics to have both knowledge and integrity themselves, and not “think” through reciting contradictory mantras.

Frankly, the “flip flop” accusation was just a way of masking the “Mormons lie” view that many opponents of Romney held, both secular and religious. The “Mormons lie” or “Mormons are stupid” theme was constantly repeated by secular left wingers and bigoted right wingers, ironically with supporting “evidence” that demonstrated only the ignorance and lack of integrity of the accusers, like Lawrence O’Donnell. Regardless of how widespread direct bigotry toward Mormons is among conservative Republicans, and liberal Democrats, the fact that the rest of America allowed those speakers to make those claims without penalty and universal condemnation, in the way they would have reacted to “lying Jews” and “ignorant Catholics” epithets, means that America’s arguing classes–politicians, academia and the news media–are complicit in allowing Mormons to be used as a public scapegoat.

So the reason I am disappointed in Michael Steele is that he has failed to demonstrate leadership to Republicans, failed to demonstrate intelligence and failed to indict religious bigotry. Ironically for an African American, rather than tell the bigots to get out of the Republican Party, he is telling the rest of us that the bigots are “the base” of the Party, that they own it, and that we have to put up or shut up. That is a formula for continued factionalism and weakness that will never build a unified Party that can ever challenge Democratic hegemony even as Obama, Reid and Pelosi commit national suicide by degrees on the body politic.

One wonders whether Mr. Steele has somehow bought into the notion that Mormons harbor some kind of residual racism toward blacks, even though tens of thousands of white Mormons have labored to persuade over a quarter million blacks, many in Africa, to become Mormon in the last 30 years, and a black man from Kenya is called as one of the general leaders for the entire church. The Salt Lake Tribune (pointedly the non-Mormon newspaper in Utah) noted that Haitian Mormons in the Boston area loved to seek help from Mitt Romney when he was a local church leader, because he is fluent in the French language Haitians speak.

Steel’s first 100 days were way to lackluster to possibly rebuild the GOP in time for 2010.