Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff will be live on tonight’s KVNU’s For the People to respond to last nights interview with Rep. Steve Urquhart. Rep. Urquhart argued that AG Shurtleff and Gov. Huntsman should pressure presidential candidate Senator John McCain to release Chad Workman from their campaign staff. A recent Boston Globe article alleged that Workman made allegations that Mormonism was akin to the Taliban and the LDS Church funded hamas at a Republican gathering in April. Senator McCain apologized for the incident, but his campaign decided not to fire Workman.
The interview will be live at 5:35 PM. KVNU’s signal can normally be heard well past Provo in the south and all the way to Yellowstone NP in the north, but the engineers are doing some work on the transmitter today. KVNU is not on in Salt Lake or Provo right now, but should provide a city grade signal to at least Bountiful. For those of you in Provo and Salt Lake or elsewhere in the state, check back on the blog tonight at about 7:15 for the .mp3 downloads.
My question would be:
This is the 3rd time a prominent member of the McCain campaign has disparaged Mormonism without the person in question having any consequences. Apologies, yes. Consequences, no. Will the AG’s support remain with McCain after the 4th incident, the 5th, the 6th? At what point do we conclude that the man in charge of the campaign likes that Mitt is being painted weird by his religion being painted weird?
Mark, you’re a good man to respond to what I believe is an important issue.
Mark’s question to Steve made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I have no doubt that Mark would deny it, but it was one of those ‘do you still beat your kids?’ questions. The implication is that if you are LDS and support Romney, you are doing it because you and he are Mormon. That and that alone. Almost akin to some ignorant bigotry. What do you say-’I don’t support Mitt because of his religion’? Does that remove the implication? Do I have to deny my religion in order to support Romney? Mark, your a good attorney but leave this approach in the courtroom. I really resent it.
I haven’t chosen. But McCain has supported some very weak causes–McCain-Feingold comes to mind. And McCain is a westerner? John wasn’t much in our corner pre-olympics. If Mitt wanted to move his Utah republican support up yet another notch, just play a few of those quotes.
In my opinion, Romney has extra-ordinary support in Utah for the following reasons:
1. He lived here. He went to school here. He lived here when he was running the Olympics. And he maintains a residence here.
2. He is a republican. Did you forget that part Mark?
3. He is LDS. Yes, people have a natural propensity to like people who they share commonalities with. Note, this is number 3 on the list. Does Harry Reid enjoy the same level of support that Mitt Romney does? If you look carefully at that comparison, you would be ashamed of your question.
The questions that should have been asked:
You have repeatedly said that your support for McCain is based on who you think understands “western” issues.
Are we to imply that you think McCain may not be the best for the nation, just the best for the state?
Is your support based on what you perceive your job is a AG? (to be an advocate for the state) as opposed to advocate for the nation?
You mentioned that it would be great for the LDS church if Romney was President? Are we to imply that what’s best for the church is not best for the state or nation?
Would you support McCain if you were not an advocate for the state?
Finally the conspiracy theorist in me wonders if you have considered that not supporting Romney might be the best thing for Romney, because then Mormons can’t be accused as taking orders from the church?
I think Mark Shurtleff, rather than continuing to support the wrong race horse, should find a better candidate. There are about 8 of them.
Who cares what a bloviating bozo says about the LDS Church?
I am still waiting for Mark’s response. He said in the interview that he would get on the blog last night.
I am also fascinated by the personal ambition argument. If Romney is elected, he will feel a need to purposely avoid appointing members of the LDS church to any high position because of ‘Mormon mafia’ accusations. Therefore, LDS folks with national political ambition for appointed positions hope Romney is not elected–if he is, their chances are dashed. In the spirit of Mr Shurtleff’s challenge to Steve, perhaps Mr Shurtleff can deny any support for McCain based on personal ambition.
David,
I’m going on record, right here, right now, on For The People, to state that I will jump to any candidate who will promise me the cabinet position of Secretary of Bloggoriffic Communications. My first task would be to hire someone to help me spell Bloggoriffic.