A political sin or just stupid?

A lot of things are whispered during political campaigns, the point being to get out certain words about  your opponents without them being traced back to the speaker. Email, which carries the sender's name right on top, may not be the way to do this.

Emma Nemecek now knows this. She's the southeastern Iowa field director for Sen. Sam Brownback's campaign. Last week she sent out an email raising a lot of questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She said she was just asking for fact-checking help, but, of course, the result could be getting more whispers going about Mormons.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney happens to be Mormon. He also happens to be leading in Iowa polls, after months of advertising and campaigning, and seems a shoo-in to win the symbolic Ames straw poll in August against Brownback, among other Republicans.

A campaign spokesman for Brownback, who launched a four-day, 27-stop tour of Iowa communities yesterday, issued a statement saying, "Sen. Brownback completely disavows himself of this and any personal attacks on religion." He said the campaign had reprimanded Nemecek, called to apologize to the Romney campaign and it would not happen again. Brownback himself phoned Romney to apologize.

A Romney spokesman in Iowa said they accepted the apology, adding, "It's unfortunate that these attacks of religious bigotry were taking place."

As Romney and Brownback compete for the conservative vote, the Kansas senator has accused Romney of flip-flopping on his abortion stand and only lately become pro-life.

Brownback, by the way, is a Methodist who flip-flopped to become Roman Catholic. Spread that word. (But not by email!)

--Andrew Malcolm

Photo: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.); Credit: Orlin Wagner/AP