In case you missed it, last week the Prescott (AZ) Daily Courier ran a full-page ad in the form of a letter from 26 social conservatives urging John McCain not to pick Mitt Romney as his vice presidential candidate. The signatories include old foes of Romney from Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee supporters, but the big name belongs to Paul Weyrich, who once upon a time endorsed Romney for president but then expressed his unhappiness with him for endorsing Sen. McCain. The gravamen of the letter is that Romney has been, ah, less than consistent in his embrace of social conservative positions. There’s a website where you can add your name to the list. The sponsor of the ad is a PAC called “God is Not Government.” Other newspaper ads are planned for McCain campaign stops.
The manifest point is that these guys do not think Romney can be trusted to carry their water inside an administration less than fully committed to them. The latent point (as suggested by Jonathan Martin in Politico) is that whatever happens, McCain’s choice will have a leg up for the GOP nomination in 2012 (or maybe 2016). This is, to be sure, far from a round-up of the Religious Right’s heaviest hitters. But their willingness to stick in the shiv is one more sign of the error of Romney’s original decision to run as the rightest candidate of them all.