Romney troubled but not surprised by anti-LDS talk

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who spent just over 24 hours in Utah on a fund-raising stop, said Saturday he's not surprised that "troubling" comments have been made by other campaigns about his Mormon beliefs.

"Clearly, any derogatory comments about anyone's faith, those comments are troubling, and the fact that they keep on coming up is even more troubling," Romney told reporters before attending the first of three fund-raising events scheduled throughout the state.

But the former leader of Salt Lake City's 2002 Winter Olympics also said he expected his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to attract negative comments during the race for the White House.

"When you get in the kitchen, you expect it to be warm," said Romney, who served a term as governor of his longtime home state, Massachusetts, following the Olympics. "And I'm not surprised."

He did, however, suggest that one of the campaigns where such comments have surfaced hasn't made enough of an effort to apologize — that of Sen. John McCain, one of the top three GOP contenders.

McCain trails Romney among Utah voters but has the backing of several prominent politicians in the state, including Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who is scheduled to campaign for McCain on Monday in Reno and Las Vegas.

Romney said he has not heard personally from McCain about the latest incident, involving an Iowa campaign chairman for McCain who, according to the Boston Globe, told a GOP gathering in April about allegations the LDS Church helped fund a terrorist organization and compared the church's treatment of women to the Taliban's.

Asked if the senator from Arizona should apologize to him, Romney said, "Absolutely, he can do whatever he feels is the right thing. There's no need for me to suggest how people respond to things that go on in their campaigns."

A spokeswoman for McCain, Brooke Buchanan, said in an e-mail Saturday that "the campaign has apologized." She also referred to statements McCain made after an earlier incident involving critical comments linked to his campaign about Mormons.

McCain said during his fund-raising efforts in Utah in March that he "would immediately condemn" anyone associated with his campaign engaging in what he called "disgraceful and dishonorable" behavior.

Romney said two other Republicans in the race, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, did apologize to him personally after their staffers circulated what was seen as negative information about the LDS Church.