Rick Santorum's attack of JFK's great speech about the separation of church and state in 1960 caused a stir around pundit-land. It was so off the wall it led to Billo's opening segment on Monday night called JFK, Ronald Reagan and Rick Santorum. When in a pickle Conservatives always turn to Ronnie. Billo tried to find a way to soften the blow against Rick as much as possible since Rick loves the Catholic church as much as he does. After the Talking Points Memo, Brit Hume comes on to do his usual pundit duties. But as Brit Hume was offering up analysis on the two candidates and their religious beliefs, Billo shut down Hume's commentary of Romney's Mormon faith very, very quickly. It was quite a revealing moment if you didn't miss it.
Hume: (Romney) ...as far as we know hews very much to his own fate. He ties a huge amount of money to his church, there's been no indication that he's not a man who lives his faith. And yet, he's not discussing that all the time.
O'Reilly: Well, he can't. Mormonism is so controversial that he just couldn't, but Santorum...
Hume: I understand that, I understand that but remember there used to be...
O'Reilly: Let's look at Santorum from another light. Santorum's big challenge to Romney is now on the backs of the evangelical..
Frank Bruni of the NY Times asked why Rommey never mentions his Mormon faith and got attacked for it. Well, O'Reilly reveals what many of his viewers believe: Mormonism is a problem for Mitt to openly discuss because of some of its controversial practices and many from the religious right are not fans so he avoids it at all times and Bill wouldn't even let Brit Hume broach the topic on his show. It explains in part why Santorum has been rising in the national polls for the GOP.
