Let me finish tonight with this: Glenn Beck is a nincompoop.
I talked the other night about the Catholic as well as the Mormon religion being viewed as "cults" in the South. I talked about the fact that many who hold this view are voting for Mitt Romney because they view President Obama as a Muslim. Beck, either out of stupidity, hardness of hearing, or malice, said that I was calling my religion and the Mormon religion a "cult."
I make Beck's dishonesty a matter of record because sometimes people hear something from even someone like Beck and take it as having an element of truth.
Everyone who watches me knows I have never said a word critical of the LDS religion or my own. I have taken on members of our religions and will continue to do so. Beck is out there saying something absurd: that I don't believe in my own religion. He is saying something about me that I resent more: that I've ever said anything against the Mormon faith. The fact is, I owe my start in politics to a couple of wonderful people of that faith.
When I first got back from the Peace Corps in Africa, I went knocking on doors looking for a job on Capitol Hill. I wanted to work for a Senator or Congressman and get started in my career as a speechwriter and legislative assistant.
The young guy who hired me and really changed my life was Wayne Owens, the top aide to Utah Senator Frank Moss. Wayne had been a top campaign worker for Bobby Kennedy in his campaign for president. He later became Senator Ted Kennedy's top floor assistant when Kennedy was a member of the Senate leadership.
Later Senator Moss got me a job on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee when it was first created. He made the call that got me on the job. We stayed friends for the rest of his life.
Why would Glenn Beck go out on the radio and try to say something about me that is so patently untrue? Good question. I hope he corrects it. If he listens to my words at least one more time, he should discern that I was not knocking his religion. I was knocking the bigotry against both his religion and mine. I assume the people watching knew that because they know me.
I go by the voting patterns which I see right there in the polls. The sad fact is, there are a lot of voters out there, especially in the South, with views about the candidates' religions which is just as I described it.