Who’s attacking Mitt Romney’s religion? The left. Lowell Brown at the Article VI blog calls the evidence to our attention..

In the Politico yesterday, Democratic political operative Garry South innocently asked, “Does Romney's brand of faith and membership in the Church of Latter-day Saints require that he question or dismiss the validity of the Christian tradition, and the efficacy of baptism into their faith, of every non-Mormon adherent of Christianity who has ever lived since the end of the apostolic era? And does he?”

As Lowell points out, this is the rough equivalent of asking in 2000, “Orthodox Jews believe they are truly God's chosen people, and that He wants them to teach the rest of the world about God. Will that inform a President Lieberman's actions in office? He needs to explain that to the American people. Oh, and how will the Muslim world feel about a Jewish president?” Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I don’t recall any Democratic operative making any such innocent inquiries back then.

Anyway, South was just getting warmed up. He went on to predict, “I wager that this exclusionary Mormon theology, once widely revealed, will come as a shock to most U.S. Christians, regardless of their particular denominational preference or worship style... I believe that Mormon doctrine on this point, once made plain, will prove equally offensive to modern-day, ecumenical-minded Christians” Of course, one would be way out of line if one questioned South’s motives. In his own words, “Now, I want to make clear that I give no quarter to religious bigotry.” What a relief!

IN 2000 WHEN LIEBERMAN WAS RUNNING, such rubbish would thankfully have been beyond the pale. But obviously, the same does not hold true today. One of the most dismal aspects of my self-assigned job of monitoring the liberal blogs was seeing how their denizens grew increasingly comfortable with anti-Semitism over the past few years. I even wrote a story on the subject for the Weekly Standard. During the Hezbollah-Israel war, you could find diaries on the Daily Kos that said things like, “Israel is showing the entire world why the Iranian President was absolutely right to suggest that Israel cease being a sovereign state as is.” Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs has of course done yeoman’s work in calling attention to similarly virulent commentaries. The ranking pashas of the liberal blogosphere and the mainstream politicians who patronize them accepted and continue to accept these outrages silently.

I’m wary of slippery slope arguments, but this is the kind of pathology that once a party or an ideology begins indulging, it continues indulging in increasingly bold and ugly ways. In other words, it’s no surprise that the notion that no Mormon should be president should achieve currency and respectability on the left.

Garry South is a political operative, and one would expect his type to go ugly on a consistent basis. Alan Wolfe, on the other hand, is one of the left’s leading thinkers (which is a bit like being one of Wyoming’s leading Kosher delis), so his thoughts are perhaps more indicative of where the left’s intellectual giants currently reside. In USA Today, Wolfe suggested, “We tend to use elections as a way to hold national seminars on religion. This is our seminar moment for Mormonism.” Right. And committed non-bigots like the oh-so-fair-minded Garry South will conduct the seminar.

Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I don’t recall Wolfe making a similar observation when Keith Ellison was running for Congress. Maybe Islam isn’t ready for its “seminar moment.” Whatever that is.

Ironically, Wolfe may be on to something. The Romney campaign won’t spur a “seminar moment” on Mormonism. Americans reject religious bigotry, and judge individuals as exactly that – individuals. Any effort to tar a candidate because of his religious or ethnic affiliation, regardless of how elegantly that effort is couched in the language of the professoriate, will be sniffed out by the public and rejected.

Contra Wolfe, the true “seminar moment” will come regarding the American left and just how low it has sunk.

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