BIGOTRY IS BACK: Anti-religious bigotry serves a lot of agendas. The war on faith in America -- the effort to drive faith-based people from the public square and faith-based arguments from polite conversation -- has been underway for three decades, and is picking up steam. A Mormon is just a convenient target, and one that provides media pundits with a convenient cover. They voice their concern with [Mitt] Romney's faith by putting that concern into the mouths of unnamed evangelicals. ... Most of the published attacks on Mormons for being Mormons come in the mainstream, secular press. The legitimizing of this bigotry is far advanced. Excuses are offered for it, but it remains bigotry. ... Will Romney's religious faith hurt his candidacy? That remains to be seen, but if it does, it will have hurt the country much more than him. The bigotry that was thought to have been buried in 1960 will have been exhumed. It will be difficult to kill a second time. -- Hugh Hewitt, townhall.com, 2/19/07