“I hate it,” said Abraham Lincoln, “because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world – enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites – causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty – criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.”

Listen in as the In the Public Square team discusses two recent subjects in the news cycle.  First, Mr. Curmudgeon notes the transparent media bias in the reporting of the murder in Toulouse, France of several French soldiers and a Jewish family by a “lone wolf” Muslim terrorist.  Authorities and news agencies first speculated that the murderer was probably a “right wing” neo Nazi.  Conservatives, of course are outraged.

“Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign,” said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstorm to CNN. Romney’s front-man was explaining how his boss, the man who believes in everything and nothing, will move away from conservatism (?) so as to appeal to the nation’s soft, gooey center. “Everything changes,” continued Fehrnstorm, “It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again. But I will say, if you look at the exit polling data in Illinois, you'll see that Mitt Romney is broadly acceptable to most of the factions in the party. You have to do that in order to become the nominee …”

This is Part III in a continuing series on Romney and Mormonism. Part I, Part II

In the disposition of our character, we are either moving closer to truth or we are moving away from it.  The mind holds no static relationship to the verities.  Men are either pulling closer to the eternal, good, true and beautiful or they are flying deeper into absurdity, like planets wandering out of orbit into a void.  

Armies of GOP establishment-friendly commentators tell us the Republican primary process is ugly and self-destructive. Further, they insist should Romney prove incapable of gathering the necessary delegates to secure a first-ballot nomination, horror of horrors, it will result in a tumultuous brokered convention.

“The big change in American politics over the past two decades has been the decline of followership,” writes David Frum, the voice of the Republican establishment at CNN.com. “Party members expect the party to serve them – one major reason that both parties have drifted to the ideological extremes since the 1970s.