ThursdayâÂ?Â?s Religion Roundup: Perry out, Religious Right dead—or alive? Candidates’ wives

Rick Perry, once the Great Evangelical Hope, is dropping out. Was he ever in it? Perry reportedly will throw his support – and both his supporters – behind Newt Gingrich. That should ice it. Tough day all around for Mitt Romney: Turns out Rick Santorum actually won the Iowa caucuses, so he can claim he […]

Rick Perry, once the Great Evangelical Hope, is dropping out. Was he ever in it?

Perry reportedly will throw his support – and both his supporters – behind Newt Gingrich. That should ice it.


Tough day all around for Mitt Romney: Turns out Rick Santorum actually won the Iowa caucuses, so he can claim he is doing as well as Mitt – until Saturday, at least.

The churn brings us to our Existential Question-of-the-Day: Is the Religious Right dead or alive?

On life support? Or just kidding themselves?

If the Christian right is dying as a political force, it is not going gentle into that good night. To wit:

Romney’s four (now three) challengers ripped into him last night at a pro-life forum in South Carolina last night. Romney, perhaps wisely, was not there.

But that was nothing compared to the “war” on the candidates’ wives.

So far, the prize – if that’s the right word – for the ugliest piece of campaign literature targeting a spouse is the pamphlet attacking Rick Santorum’s wife for her six-year pre-marital relationship with an abortionist who was 30 years her senior and in fact delivered her.

Kinda weird, yes. But Karen Santorum has always said that was then, but since her marriage to Rick she’s been a pro-life, faithful wife and mom who has home-schooled their large brood of Catholic kids.

Rick, for his part, says he never even sat on a couch with a woman other than his wife. That may have been a dig at Newt Gingrich, who famously sat on a couch with another former House Speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, bane of Republicans like Newt, to address climate change.


But Nancy Pelosi isn’t the woman Newt needs to worry about. ABC News is apparently set to air an interview with Gingrich’s second wife tonight, two days ahead of voting in the South Carolina primary, which could make or break Gingrich’s campaign.

NB: Best read of the campaign so far: Dan Gilgoff’s profile at CNN.com of evangelical powerbroker and Friend of Mitt, Cindy Costa.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called The New York Times and the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz the country’s “main enemies” – ahead of Iran or Hamas.

Netanyahu says this isn’t true.

As they used to say in the newsroom, “If your mother tells you she loves you, get a second source.”

How can President Obama‘s new chief of staff, Jack Lew, perform a 24/7 job as a 24/6 Orthodox Jew? Rabbi Ethan Tucker explains.

Italian Captain Francesco Schettino, who abandoned (er, tripped) the foundering cruise ship Costa Concordia and its 4,000 passengers instead of remaining at his post is everyone’s favorite punching bag these days, including Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler:


“Chicken of the Sea,” is how Mohler titled his post on Schettino: “It is a portrait of moral collapse and the forfeiture of manhood.”

Almost makes politics look like a picnic.

— David Gibson

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