It looks like Mitt is surging in Florida.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is making Florida a key part of his strategy to challenge front-runners John McCain and Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination for president.

To carry that off, Romney is appealing to the state's influential religious and social conservative community, and building on tacit support from former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Given the popularity of the former governor and First Brother, Romney is in a great position to get the delegates from this key Republican state. And while current governor Charlie Crist is said to lean towards McCain, that could change.

And Romney is certainly building on the Jeb Bush legacy.

Romney, who just left office as Massachusetts governor and announced formation of an exploratory presidential campaign committee, trails both McCain and Giuliani in national polls.

So far, however, he's well ahead of both in building a Florida organization.

His Florida organizing began attracting attention last year when his political action committee, Commonwealth PAC, hired two of Bush's top political operatives: longtime strategist Sally Bradshaw and fundraiser Ann Herberger, a key player in the phenomenal Bush gubernatorial campaign fundraising machine.

Romney has since announced that two other major Bush political backers, former state party Chairman Al Cardenas and former Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, have joined the PAC's Florida steering committee.

Bush is publicly neutral in the primary for now, but Bradshaw confirmed that he suggested she talk to Romney about the campaign.

Some GOP insiders say Romney has sought to recruit Bush as his running mate. Like the other candidates, Romney covets the fundraising machine built by the Bush family.

Bush has ruled out running for president himself in 2008, but hasn't ruled out a running mate slot. Romney backers wouldn't say whether he's broached the subject with Bush.

I'd certainly wait to see where the poll number of a certain OTHER Bush are before offering Jeb a spot on the ticket, but I think it s fair to say that the former governor is likely to find a Cabinet-level home in any Romney administration.

Unfortunately, there are still those nagging questions about religion. Take this example.

How, the South Carolina Republican activist asked presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, could he square Mormon doctrine with civil rights or monogamy?

Cyndi Mosteller understood that church founder and prophet Joseph Smith taught that black skin was a curse visited upon descendants of Cain. And that a man should be able to take multiple wives.

Romney told her Mormons no longer practice such beliefs. For almost 30 years African-Americans have been in the priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church renounced polygamy in 1890.

Mosteller, chairwoman of the Charleston County Republican Party, wasn’t satisfied.

“He’s going to have to defend these positions,” she said, “or reject his faith.”

Such is the dilemma for the former Massachusetts governor and one-time church leader. Even in explaining the modern Mormon church, Romney must persuade voters — particularly evangelicals — that his faith is no threat to theirs.

Frankly, Mosteller is an embarrassment to the GOP. Scratch that -- Mosteller is an embarrassment to the United States. I urge South Carolina (and national) Republicans to repudiate her. Indeed, I urge my readers to contact Cyndi Mosteller to let her know how out of step she is with Republican and American values.

And I say this as someone who has theological problems with the LDS church. I've studied their doctrines and their history, and don't see how anyone who does a critical analysis of either can be a member. And yet, I cannot think of a single Mormon I have ever known who has not been one of the finest, most decent people I've known. By all accounts, even those of his political opponents, I'd find that statement to be applicable to Mitt Romney as well were I to have the opportunity to meet him.

Ultimately, I feel it is important to urge my fellow Republicans -- and fellow Americans -- to give serious consideration to the words of Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention>

We are not electing a theologian-in-chief. We are electing a commander-in-chief."

Judge Romney on his record of achievement and his position on the crucial issues facing America -- not where he worships or does not worship.

UPDATE: I sent my own letter to Ms. Mosteller.

Ms. Mosteller;

I've long expected the ugliness of religious bigotry to come spewing from the American Left. I was therefore saddened to see such poison flowing from the lips of someone who is supposed to be a leader of the Republican Party.

How, the South Carolina Republican activist asked presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, could he square Mormon doctrine with civil rights or monogamy?

Cyndi Mosteller understood that church founder and prophet Joseph Smith taught that black skin was a curse visited upon descendants of Cain. And that a man should be able to take multiple wives.

Romney told her Mormons no longer practice such beliefs. For almost 30 years African-Americans have been in the priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church renounced polygamy in 1890.

Mosteller, chairwoman of the Charleston County Republican Party, wasn't satisfied.

"He's going to have to defend these positions," she said, "or reject his faith."

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/news/politics/16401012.htm

Frankly, Ms. Mosteller, there is no room in the GOP for folks who espouse a position like yours, that the race for the nomination must be an Inquisition into the religious views of a candidate or his church, or that a candidate must renounce his or her faith in order to hold public office. Indeed, that position is unAmerican. I urge you to consider these words, found on page 24 of the 2004 Republican Party Platform.

America is a working example of religious liberty, home to millions of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and people of many other faiths who live in harmony and contribute to our culture. In the President's words, "It is not an accident that freedom of religion is one of the central freedoms in our Bill of Rights. It is the first freedom of the human soul.… We must stand for that freedom in our country. We must speak for that freedom in the world."

http://www.gop.com/media/2004platform.pdf

Your words are a repudiation of that platform, and as such I repudiate you and your words.

Ms. Mosteller, there is only one appropriate course of action for you to take following your public expression of religious intolerance. You must resign your leadership position. If the Republican Party is to continue to stand for religious freedom in this nation and abroad, there is simply no place for you and those who hold your views as the public face of the GOP on any level. If you cannot see your way clear to doing the honorable thing, it is my sincere hope that the Charleston County Republican Party Executive Committee sees fit to censure you for the disgrace you have brought to the organization.

Hopefully you'll be hearing from a few others on this issue, as I have written on it at my blog.

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