Romney Fights Iowa Push Poll On His Faith

Real Clear Politics is following the Republican presidential race push poll controversy and columnist Lawrence Kudlow posts this exchange with Mitt Romney after such a poll about his Mormon faith surfaced in Iowa:

I asked Romney what he thought of a push-poll that emphasizes the positives of his Republican presidential rival, John McCain. I also asked him what he thought of Sen. McCain's 95-year-old mother blaming Mormons for the problems surrounding the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. Is there a pattern? Is this a McCain-organized assault?

Romney said he didn't think he knew the true origin of these attacks. But he went on to thoroughly trash McCain as the author of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance bill, which opened the door to these push-poll assaults. "He's the Dr. Frankenstein for a bill I consider a monster." Essentially, Romney asserted that the creation of the 527 organizations in the wake of this bill allowed people to contribute massive amounts of money to candidates without disclosure.

But does Romney or his staffers have any evidence that McCain himself is behind these push-polls? The answer was no. Nor does Romney have any confirmation of just who is organizing the various mail and e-mail campaigns that are attacking him and his faith.

Is Romney ready to give a speech on his religious beliefs, such as John F. Kennedy did back in 1960? Again Romney's answer was no, not at this point. Although he added, "We'll see what happens down the road."

Read all of Kudlow's column at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/11/romney_has_the_right_stuff.html

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