Mormon canary

[Hugh] Hewitt's message [in "A Mormon in the Whitehouse?"] is that Mitt Romney has become a political canary in the coalmine. If a man of Romney's intellectual and professional stature is taken down simply because of his religious beliefs, others will follow. Permission will have been granted to destroy political opponents across the religious spectrum for believing "weird" things -- or perhaps for being excessively moral in the eyes of a skeptical, secular press. -- Richard Kirk, spectator.org, 5/11/07