I wonder why Damocles didn't seem to give equal credence to multimillionaire Mittzie's former professor?
In an interview with an Iowa radio station five years ago, the former Massachusetts governoracknowledged the influence ofa controversial figure from his own schoolboy past—W. Cleon Skousen, the late Mormon historian and
tea party hero who taught Romney at Brigham Young University.
Romney's embrace of Skousen came in an August 2007 with Iowa talk radio host Jan Mickelson, a conservative talker
Politico's Jonathan Martin calls "the Rush Limbaugh of Des Moines."
A former FBI agent, Salt Lake City police chief, and professional conspiracy theorist, Skousen fashioned
a narrative of American history that held a unique appeal to religious conservatives—all based on the notion that the Founding Fathers were members of a lost tribe of Israel.
His work also sparked a fierce backlash over racist passages and baseless, bordering on conspiratorial, assertions that prompted the Mormon church to take steps to quash his influence.
"Cleon Skousen has a book called
The Thousand Years" Romney said.
The Thousand Years is actually a trilogy that details the 4,000 years that elapsed between the creation of the earth and the birth of Christ.
The book, Romney said, could set Mickelson straight on what he actually believes.
After his heyday in the 1980s, Skousen faded into irrelevance, only to be resurrected at the dawn of the tea party era.
Glenn Beck, who called Skousen's Five Thousand Year Leap "years ahead of its time," made its ideas the centerpiece of his 9/12 movement and wrote the foreword to a new edition of the book.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that Skousen "shares his views" on the founding of the country and touted him in speeches to evangelical audiences.
Constitutional seminars based on Skousen's theories of an Anglo-Saxon chosen people popped up across the country.
Conservatives have attempted to turn Obama's undergraduate and law school record into a wedge issue.
FOX News touted Obama's
public embrace of a respected civil rights attorney and law school professor as evidence of unspoken extremist views; Romney surrogate Donald Trump
publicly questioned whether Obama was a beneficiary of affirmative action; Romney, owner of two Harvard degrees,
hammers the president for holding one.
Even the candidate's son, Tagg, got in on the action, joking last fall that his dad would release his tax returns
when Obama released his transcript from Columbia University (and his birth certificate).
Democrats have thus far been reluctant to return the favor with Romney—but Skousen is a reminder that two can play that game.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/mitt-romney-cleon-skousen-nutty-professor
