Hugh Hewitt's ability to stay on message is really something to behold. As Dave Weigel notices while reviewing Hewitt's slobbering hagiography of Mitt Romney, he's even managed to turn the evangelical movement's discomfort with Mormonism into a leftwing plot against theism. Behold a master at work:
As [Hewitt] tells it, the rottenest attacks on Romney's religion are coming from "the Left" -- and by "the Left" he means "a couple of columnists." Slate's Jacob Weisberg and Christopher Hitchens are cited for their contrarian columns arguing that Romney's Mormonism is a legitimate issue, as is Damon Linker for his New Republic cover story on Romney.
Hewitt fires back: "The Left will relish the assault on Romney's faith, treating it as the soft underbelly of a more generalized assault on the idea of religious belief leading, they hope, to the routine dismissal from the public's consideration as leaders any man or woman who believes in revelation as well as reason."
Of course, the public's view on Mormons is much closer to its attitude towards atheists than evangelicals, so I don't think many leftists have been particularly excited to see yet another non-Christian minority potentially disqualified from the presidency. Nevertheless, Hewitt's approach seems smart to me, and I'm going to put it on the agenda for the next Vast Left Wing Conspiracy meeting (I have to bring the punch! Again!). We've finally found theism's thermal exhaust port: Mitt Romney.
