Mitt Romney is Having a Worse Week Than You Are, Part II

In late August, Mitt Romney had a really bad week. Charges that Idaho senator (and head of Romney’s Idaho campaign) Larry Craig solicited sex in an airport bathroom came to light, and Romney proceeded to “shiv” his friend, according to Slate magazine. The Romney campaign has been able to deal with the assorted small controversies since then, but this week’s smorgasbord of scandal may rival late summer’s season of discontent.

You know that Rudy Giuliani’s campaign successfully associated the release of violent criminal Daniel Tavares Jr. to Romney judicial appointee Kathe Tuttman. Romney called on Tuttman to resign, but she seems to show no intention of doing so, especially now that she has the support of Chief Justice Barbara Rouse.

The murders at the hand of the ex-con served as a convenient way for Romney’s fellow candidates to frame his mixed record on crime during his governorship. Today’s news in the Herald that Tuttman’s office missed two deadlines that ultimately led to the release of a pedophile six months before Romney appointed her to the bench only adds fuel to an already impressive fire.

But it doesn’t stop there. In yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor, Mansoor Ijaz, chairman of a private equity firm, reports asking Romney whether he would “consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters. . .” How did Romney respond?

He answered, “…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration.”

Oh Mitt. That anti-Muslim sentiment might fly with the neo-cons you’re courting, but it sounds awfully close-minded to us, if not borderline racist. Ijaz takes the words right out of our mouth when he points out the hypocrisy of Romney’s point of view.

Romney, whose Mormon faith has become the subject of heated debate in Republican caucuses, wants America to be blind to his religious beliefs and judge him on merit instead. Yet he seems to accept excluding Muslims because of their religion, claiming they’re too much of a minority for a post in high-level policymaking.

Hey Mitt? It might be a good time to make that religion speech before this completely blows up on you. While it may not save you from the problems your judicial nominee have created, it could at least alleviate some of the fallout from your religious gaffe.