January 7, 2008 | 5:14 pm

Publicist: Romney about to get ‘swift-boated’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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I’m been receiving e-mails from Daryl Toor since last week promoting a new book, at first ambiguously, that he says will do to presidential candidate Mitt Romney what the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did to Sen. John Kerry in his unsuccessful 2004 run for the Executive Office.

This exciting new book—Mitt, Set Our People Free!—published by Revelation Press, reveals just how Mitt Romney’s sacred oath to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, known as the Mormons or the LDS—including a vow of obedience to the “Living Prophet,” the President of the LDS Church—will impact his ability to govern as President of the United States.

Jesus said that man cannot serve two masters—but if Romney is elected President, he will have to serve two conflicting oaths.  American Presidents swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.  However, this Presidential Oath is in direct conflict with Romney’s sacred oath to his Mormon Church—a blood oath which puts Romney’s life, fortune and obedience at the unrestricted service of his Church. This obedience is defined by the Church’s Living Prophet, the President of the Mormon Church and—as they believe—the literal Voice of God on earth.

According to author Mike Moody, “One of the LDS Church’s basic tenets is a prophecy from founder and First Prophet Joseph Smith that in the latter days, the U.S. Constitution will ‘hang by a thread as fine as silk fiber’ until a Mormon leader rides in on his White Horse to save the U.S. and the Constitution—then use his control of the United States to set up a world-wide theocracy, one based on the clearly unorthodox beliefs of the Church of Latter Day Saints.”

Author Mike Moody, himself a 7th Generation Mormon from a family of Church-founding patriarchs - men who served Joseph Smith and Brigham Young as they created this remarkable “church”—uses his both insider knowledge of the LDS Church and his long-time personal ties to his one-time college fraternity brother, Mitt Romney, to point out the essential conflict between Romney’s sacred Oath to the Church and the oath he seeks to take as President.

Moody also details—chapter and verse—the many compromises and less-than-candid and frequently inconsistent positions Romney has taken to bring himself from successful venture capitalist to one of the leading contenders for the Republican nomination for Presidency.

The entire press release, via Reuters. After reading the release, I was immediately suspicious of author’s intentions and current religious affiliation. The Sleuth picks up the scent:

For all the talk about dirty tricks this season, one of the more questionable (and curious) came at a news conference Monday far from the campaign trail. At a news conference at the sleepy National Press Club in Washington, a no-name college classmate of Mitt Romney hawked his “open letter” to Romney titled “Mitt, Set Our People Free!”

A lapsed Mormon, Michael Moody mocked his former religion (in very nasty terms) and declared Romney unfit for the presidency because of what he sees as the Mormon former Massachusetts governor’s biggest conflict: his “blood oath” to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

And then came the “C” word: “The great American cult,” Moody said, characterizing the religion founded by Joseph Smith, a prophet to Mormons.

“Many of you are from the East Coast and you don’t know a lot about Mormonism,” Moody said to the roomful of about a dozen reporters and four photographers who clearly had nothing better to do, what with 75 percent of their colleagues from the Fourth Estate (truly a “C” word organization) in New Hampshire to cover Tuesday’s primary.

So, even as he went on and on (and on) trampling the tenets of Mormonism, Moody omitted references (too obscure for his East Coast audience) to the angel Moroni, who led Smith, the prophet, to a set of golden plates in 1827 written in an unknown language—and then to the seer-stones Urim and Thummim, which translated the ancient language to the epic Book of Mormon.

Instead, Moody spoke in more dumbed-down terms of how Mormons are beholden to living prophets, such as Gordon Hinckley, who can tip them off to the Second Coming. “The Mormon prophet—he is the man,” Moody said, adding that “they”—the Mormons—are “waiting for Hinckley to tell ‘em: ‘Let’s go to Missouri and knock it off with an Osmond concert and build the new Jerusalem.”

The seemingly embittered former Mormon claims he and Romney were members of the Cougar Club together at Brigham Young University, where he saw Romney give the valedictorian speech at their 1971 graduation ceremony. There was “great buzz” on campus about young Mitt one day running for president, he said. Romney’s view, he claims, was “If not me, then who?”

One of his main problems with Romney becoming president is that Romney, if he follows the teachings of his faith, “believes he’s going to become a God some day.”

Don’t worry about this book making much of an impact. I can’t find it online. And who’s ever heard of Revelation Press?