Romney Slams Huckabee's Ungodly Jabs

Scribes talk McCain's conservative problem, the Romney slight, and Huckabee as VP

(NEWSER) - With the big day behind us, four writers look to where Super Tuesday results leave the GOP:

• John McCain “had an impressive night,” says Jim Hood in National Review, but still lost in many states among Republicans—and had terrible conservatives stats. He’s no good for November unless he can “motivate disgruntled and distrustful Republican activists.”

Father was 'born on a polygamy commune in Mexico,' Schweitzer says

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney's family history could count big time against him this fall, according to Montana's Democratic governor. The candidate could be hurt politically "because his father was born on a polygamy commune in Mexico," Brian Schweitzer tells the Daily Beast . Women are "not great fans of polygamy, 86% were not great fans of polygamy," Schweitzer says, adding: "I am not alleging by any stretch that Romney is a polygamist." More»

Conservatives prepare 'manufactured umbrage': Alex Pareene

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney is set to be the first Mormon to become a major presidential nominee—so it's inevitable that we'll be hearing a lot about his religion. And as conservatives coalesce around his candidacy, they'll want to make his Mormonism off-limits for attacks. That means that soon, "everyone who has ever made a 'magic underwear' joke will be declared an intolerant liberal bigot," writes Alex Pareene at Salon . So steel yourself: The general election will be filled with "a lot of manufactured umbrage over nothing, because that is what modern campaigns are largely built on." More»

Mitt's cousin, former high priest, has left their religion

(NEWSER) - Not all Romneys are as enamored of Mormonism as Mitt. Take Park Romney, Mitt's cousin. He used to be a Mormon high priest, but finally left the religion. "I became convinced that it's a fraud," he tells the BBC . He doubts many aspects of the religion, such as founder Joseph Smith's prophecies, including those based on Smith's translation of an Egyptian scroll he said he purchased from a traveling mummy exhibit. The translation, which became part of the Mormon book of Abraham , has been discredited by Egyptologists. "There's compelling evidence that the Mormon Church leaders knowingly and willfully misrepresent the historical truth of their origins and of the church for the purpose of deceiving their members into a state of mind that renders them exploitable," says Park Romney, 56. More»

When he was a kid; but revelation could complicate shot at VP nom

(NEWSER) - Marco Rubio is seen by many as the GOP's frontrunner for the 2012 vice presidential nod—but that could change for the faction of the GOP that's ill at ease with the Mormon church. BuzzFeed reveals that the Florida senator was once a Mormon, having been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around age eight, though he had returned to the Catholic Church by age 13. Rubio's cousins told the story to BuzzFeed, and a Rubio spokesman confirms it, but the site notes that aides appear to see the story as potentially detrimental and have gone into damage-control mode. More»