"My great-grandfather had slaves and I don't believe in slavery," Buchanan said.

"His religion believed in slavery. Did yours?" O'Donnell shot back.

Actually, members of mainstream Christian faiths ran the slave trade in America before the Civil War. As Buchanan pointed out, "Christianity condoned slavery for 1,500 years."

It was up to right-wing Buchanan and left-wing columnist Eleanor Clift to sound notes of sanity.

"Every religion has had its scandals, and I don't think we hold everybody who follows a religion responsible for all of the negative things that went on," Clift said. "I am not comfortable with dissing an entire religion."

Make no mistake about it, O'Donnell did not simply attack Romney, he attacked The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"His religion is based on the work of a lying, fraudulent criminal named Joseph Smith," O'Donnell said, "who was a racist. Who was pro-slavery." (Actually, Smith ran for president on an anti-slavery platform.)

And later, O'Donnell nearly shouted, "Romney comes from a religion that was founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery and a rapist!"

He didn't explain that one.

Again, imagine for a moment that O'Donnell had said this about members of other religions. He'd never be on TV again.

But he won't get fired this time.

---

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com