Comments on Pro Libertate: The Romney Candidacy, or Will The Saints Go Marching In? (part 2)

Very nice! I like it. i mate smartphone

2006-10-31T15:36:00.000-07:00

One quick additional comment about Benson and Clar...

2006-10-23T17:02:00.000-06:00

One quick additional comment about Benson and Clark:

J. Reuben Clark was ETB's political mentor. During the debate over the League of Nations Covenant, Clark was very much on the side of the "Irreconcilables" who opposed the pact, even though the Mormon leadership, from President Heber J. Grant on down, supported the League of Nations as God's "plan for peace." (It was actually described as such over the pulpit in LDS General Conference.)

Utah Senator Reed Smoot was also numbered among the "Irreconcilables," largely because of Clark's influence.

Had Clark and Smoot deferred to the Brethren, as Mormon teachings require, they would have supported the League.

JT -- President Benson was a solid statesman, wide...

2006-10-23T16:24:00.000-06:00

JT -- President Benson was a solid statesman, widely and unfairly maligned within and without the Mormon Church for his principles. Among his many admirable traits was his preternatural self-control when dealing with incredibly vicious critics. He also -- to his credit -- talked his nephew Steve (the Pulitzer-winning cartoonist) out of a military career, for the right reasons.

The other Mormon statesman for whom I have great respect is J. Reuben Clark, although his record is not unblemished (he did author a conscription statute, if memory serves). Ah, well ... everyone has a Persian flaw.

At least Ezra Taft Benson was a genuine political ...

2006-10-23T10:41:00.000-06:00

At least Ezra Taft Benson was a genuine political conservative. He was a Robert Taft man in '52 and endorsed NDCC twenty years later. With Romney, you get neither good theology nor good ideology (from my perspective).

Romney is proof positive of the adage in big gover...

2006-10-23T05:11:00.000-06:00

Romney is proof positive of the adage in big government politics that "Democrats propose, Republicans enact." In Massachusetts, Democrats suggested tax increases, but only Romney raised them (though he called his hundreds of millions of dollars of tax increases "fee" increases). Conservatives screamed bloody murder when Hillary Clinton proposed universal health care coverage in the mid-90s, but somehow these same conservatives are silent when Mitt Romney accomplished Hillary-care in Massachusetts last year.

As a Massachusetts resident and native, I can tell you that Romney is to the left of most of the national Democrats on most issues. When he ran for the U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy, he flanked Kennedy to the left on the abortion issue.

What self-described "conservatives" say about Romney is a sheep and goat issue in our body politic. Watch out for anyone who calls him a true conservative!

May I just add that Greogory Johnson is a mormon a...

2006-10-22T23:16:00.000-06:00

May I just add that Greogory Johnson is a mormon apologist and does not deserve the title "Evangelical Christian" any more than the Pope. The ecumenalist faction has grown to include another false religion . Part and parcel of the UN's plan for a one-world religion, this movement has included some well-known "evangelicals" like J.I. Packer and R.C. Sproul Jr. among others. This gives the movement legitimacy in the eyes of the gullable goats, who know nothing of history and even less about the Bible, whose appalling lack of Faith and character is epitomized by their desperate hand-wringing in the voting booth. Even at that I think I render them excess credit; most are either unabashedley mindless or repugnantly pragmatic when it comes to politics.

It appears that the "neocons" have, unlike most Am...

2006-10-22T23:00:00.000-06:00

It appears that the "neocons" have, unlike most Americans, learned from history and have successfully tweaked the template of Smith's despotic totalitarian regime and grafted it onto modern society. The hydra is complete, awaiting only the anti-Christ.
One another note, I find it rather disturbing that the pivital icon representing both the time when God caused all men to speak different languages and the present day involves towers. History has repeated itself, albeit the fact that we're much closer to His return this time.

Jeff -- welcome aboard! Thanks for posting the ter...

2006-10-22T22:54:00.000-06:00

Jeff -- welcome aboard! Thanks for posting the terrific picture of you and your kid. BTW, Monsters, Inc. is one of my favorite movies as well; our daughter Katrina, when she was younger, was a ringer for Boo.

Assuming that you're correct in your assessment that there is no "there" there regarding MVP, Governor Romney's cagily evasive remarks to the Globe are somewhat puzzling. His response wasn't to deny the gravamen of the Globe account, but rather to minimize it as just another example of what could be called faith-based campaign networking.

As to calling into question the provenance and authenticity of the e-mails -- that puts off the same musk of spin-doctor desperation that's been wafting our way from the likes of Denny Hastert since the Foley scandal broke. If we're dealing with something as trivial and innocent as you insist, then there's no reason to believe that the e-mails are bogus. If this is something more substantive than mere tabloid sensationalism, then it's likely the e-mails were made public by a whistleblower as an act of conscience -- something you, as a fan of "A Man for All Seasons," should appreciate, n'cest pas?

Globe REALLY Digs in Now--Sinks to publishing priv...

2006-10-22T18:38:00.000-06:00

Globe REALLY Digs in Now--Sinks to publishing private email communications
Trying to "save face" from their poorly reported stories . . . the Boston Globe writers have now come forth with their "Documents" that they were claiming showed the link between Romney operatives and the LDS church. They've even stooped to the level of publishing personal e-mails (how they were obtained is not mentioned, but I bet that is more scandalous than the "expose" that they are trying to push).

Obviously, Romney, personally is 100% clean on this one. In fact, the dubious nature of the documents makes it hard to pin anything on anyone.

However, assuming the "documents" are real, lets put this in a little perspective:

Don Stirling is NOT a staff member of Romney's PAC; he's just a consultant. His email was to Sherri Dew . . . a prominent woman in the LDS community and CEO of Desert Book (and has been on the record before as being VERY pro-Romney). In trying to tie this to President Hinckley there are just too many "degrees of seperation." The e-mail says that Don Sterling said he heard Kem Gardner say he heard that Elder Holland said that he heard that Elder Faust and Pres. Hinckley (get the picture) "voiced no objections" to the MVP program and use of the BYU Management Society to promote it. Kem Gardner is a long-time friend to Romney (and major donor) and he (or Stirling himself) may have either 1) misunderstood, 2) exaggerated, or 3) took out of context Holland's meaning. This is all assuming that the emails are legit.

I'm sorry, but this kind of poorly founded journalism is what I expect from Hollywood tabloids, not from the Boston Globe.

I'm interested in seeing the Church's response on this one.

Jeff

Addendum:

Another point that crossed my mind is that all of these people are well known to eachoter. Dew, Stirling, Gardner, Holland etc . . . they're all among the "elite" of the Salt Lake City crowd. It's not a huge city and being a member/leader in the church makes that that much smaller. What I'm getting at is that this is not some targeted scheme by Romney's people to "get in good" with the church heirarchy. More likely this could just be some in the "Salt Lake Elite" excited about one of "their own" becoming POTUS (Romney's stint as SLOC chair made him an adopted member of that crowd.) Again, Romney and his PAC are 100% clean on this one. This episode just sends up a warning flare to people who personally support Romney but happen to hold positions of power in the Church/Utah/BYU to be more careful in their personal communications--you never know who may break into your system.

Jeff
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