In his latest book, “No Apology,” Romney admits that he agrees with the overwhelming majority of scientists in concluding that climate change is real and “human activity is a contributing factor.” The assertion puts him at odds with many within his own party (a December 2009 Ipsos/McClatchy poll found only 47 percent of Republicans believe humans are contributing the climate change) and sets him up for attack by many grassroots conservatives activists.

Enter controversial Christian radio host Steve Deace. The WHO-AM personality has never been a fan of Romney and repeatedly spoke up in support of Romney’s chief rival during the 2008 Iowa Caucuses (and the eventual caucus winner), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Deace pounced on news or Romney’s climate change statements as yet another issue that he says doesn’t square with conservative voters.

From Deace’s blog:

News: Willard Comes Out for Global Warming

Views: How will the “conservative” intelligentsia (see that as Coulter, Rush, Hannity, National Review, Fox News, etc.) handle the news that their favorite son is closer to Al Gore on this scam than them?

Are you kidding me?  These people eat hypocrisy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Thus, they’ll probably handle this inconvenient truth the same way they handled the truth that Romney was the author of a government-mandated healthcare plan (which they oppose when Obama wants to do it), $50 taxpayer funded elective abortions (which they oppose when Democrats want to do it), and for bringing sodomy marriage to Massachusetts.

At this point most of these people just stand for Republicans beating Democrats, no matter what the Republican is for, so I doubt Romney’s latest sellout will compel them to admit when they’re wrong, nor do I doubt it will cause them to stop believing they get to tell the rest of us how to think.

Romney has had his share of problems with WHO-AM, the largest radio station in the Midwest and a 24-hour conservative talk machine. The most high profile run in came when Romney agreed to an interview with morning host Jan Mickelson. In a heated off-air exchange that Romney said he was unaware was being taped, Romney and Mickelson argued over the Mormon religion. (the off-air portion takes place at the 11 minute mark)

Steve Deace

Hume, a political commentator for Fox News, was offering his opinion on the Tiger Woods sex scandal when he said the golf legend should give up his Buddhist faith because it doesn’t offer “the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith.” He later suggested that Woods become a Christian in order to “make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”

Deace, who hosts a drive-time show on WHO-AM, said he will be interested to see how the media reacts to Hume’s advice.

“I remember the feces storm that was stirred up when I made similar statements about a Major League Baseball player five years ago, so it will be interesting to see what the reaction will be from the secular media on a national scale to this earnest plea by Hume,” Deace said on his blog. “Nonetheless, it’s a refreshing take and Hume’s mixture of truth and grace in the clip leads me to believe his Christian faith is very real to him.”

In 2004, while he was hosting a sports talk show on WHO-AM’s sister station, KXNO-AM, Deace criticized Shawn Green, a Jewish outfielder who at the time played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, for missing an important game scheduled during Yom Kippur. Deace said Green could solve all his problems by “accepting the fulfillment of his Jewish heritage, recognizing his Messiah is Jesus Christ, therefore he is the atonement for his sins, no further need to jump through hoops, no further need to recognize or go through observances or rituals or rites.”

Deace said at the time that an executive with Clear Channel Communications, which owns WHO-AM, asked him to allow Jewish leaders a chance to present their views on his show. The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines declined the invitation and instead discussed the comments with Deace and station executives off the air.

Deace also drew fire last November in the aftermath of the shooting spree at Ft. Hood, Texas, when he said the shooter “may have done America a favor” if the tragedy serves as a wake-up call that Islam is incompatible with military service.

WHO-AM radio host Steve Deace

Deace’s comments came while discussing the recent shootings at Fort Hood in Texas, a topic he has returned to repeatedly on his daily WHO-AM program and on his blog.

He first questioned whether those who have “sworn allegiance to Islamic ideology” should be allowed to serve in the U.S. armed forces. He later said the shooter “may have done America a favor” if the tragedy serves as a wake-up call that Islam is incompatible with military service.

He discussed the shootings with Walid Shoebat, an ardent critic of radical Islam and a self-described former Palestine Liberation Organization terrorist (a claim disputed by some Middle East scholars).

Later, Deace and Bob Deever, pastor at Grace West Church in West Des Moines, concluded that the military’s quest for diversity was a “recipe for disaster.”

Lastly, he interviewed Dave Gaubatz, author of “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.” Gaubatz has drawn criticism for his book and for publically calling for a “professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders.”

Sheila Musaji, founder and editor of The American Muslim magazine, said despite the fact that every major Muslim and Arab organization has condemned the shootings and offered their condolences to the families of the victims, many are still trying to use the tragedy to inspire hatred of Muslims.

“The suggestion that Islam is the problem can only be called Islamophobia, bigotry, religious hatred,” she said. “The danger in this sort of labeling is that it sets off those among us who are only too happy to have a scapegoat on which to vent their rage. It is an irrational prejudice that lumps all Muslims into one category — the ‘other,’ ‘them,’ ‘those people.’”

Abed Ayoub, legal adviser to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said Deace’s comments are simply hate speech.

“It’s garbage,” Ayoub said. “He’s prejudiced. He believes his race and beliefs are superior to others and wants to attack a segment of the population because of their religious beliefs.”

Since the shootings, Ayoub said his group has responded to a number of attacks against Islam similar to Deace’s, as well has a large amount of hate mail and death threats.When Deace tells listeners that Muslims have “declared their loyalty to a theology that we are currently at war against” then says America needs to “kill [the enemy] before they kill us,” someone listening could take that as a call to violence and “take it a step further,” Ayoub said.

“Everyone has First Amendment rights,” he said. “But we can’t have it escalate from hate speech to hate crimes. After Sept. 11 there were numerous acts of violence.”

If Islam is incompatible with military service, what about “all the other Muslims who have and are serving in the military and those that fought and died in Afghanistan and Iraq, Vietnam, World War I and II?” Musaji said.

“Was it in spite of being Muslims — or does religion matter only when a Muslim commits a crime, not when a Muslim is a good and productive citizen?” she said.

Despite comments from those who want to blame the shootings on Islam, the reality is that the shooter “betrayed his country, he betrayed his military oath, he betrayed his medical oath, he betrayed his religion,” Musaji said.

Ultimately, it is up to Muslims to counter statements by reaching out to people in their community.

“Most people want to know the truth,” Ayoub said. “They want to learn. Muslims have to make their voices heard.”

Calling the radio station and complaining to companies that advertise on his show can also go a long way towards combating Deace’s comments, he said, adding: “We have just as much right to be heard as he does.”

This isn’t the first time that Deace has been criticized for statements regarding religion.

In 2004, while he was hosting a sports talk show on WHO-AM’s sister station, KXNO-AM, he criticized Shawn Green, a Jewish outfielder who at the time played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, for missing an important game scheduled during Yom Kippur. Deace said Green could solve all his problems by “accepting the fulfillment of his Jewish heritage, recognizing his Messiah is Jesus Christ, therefore he is the atonement for his sins, no further need to jump through hoops, no further need to recognize or go through observances or rituals or rites.”

Deace said at the time that an executive with Clear Channel Communications, which owns WHO-AM, asked him to allow Jewish leaders a chance to present their views on his show. The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines declined the invitation and instead discussed the comments with Deace and station executives off the air. They also publicly called for Clear Channel to rebuke Deace’s comments.

In a statement to the Iowa Independent, Deace said he was confused why the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee would speak out against his program:

I wasn’t aware Islam was a religion unique to Arabs, since Iran isn’t even an Arab country and State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, who is a Muslim, is also not an Arab. Not to mention the fact my comments regarding Major Hasan’s alleged actions were based on his belief system, not his race.  Thus, I’m not even sure why the ‘American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’ has a comment on my radio program, but I am flattered by the publicity nonetheless.  All I ask is that if they plan on protesting my program could they please make sure to spell my name right, because it is spelled differently then it is pronounced and we are in a ratings period at the moment.

It’s also ironic that I did have an Arab guest on my show condemning Major Hasan’s actions named Walid Shoebat, but somehow the ‘American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’ missed that. If a representative of the ‘American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’ would like to come on my show to discuss my comments and the actions of Major Hasan, I’d be happy to provide them access to the largest media audience in the state of Iowa at their convenience. They’ll reach far more people with their message on WHO then they will on a blog, even one as well-funded as the Iowa Independent.

When asked about whether he is concerned that his statements could be construed as a call for violence against Muslims, Deace said:  “As a broadcaster, I take very seriously how my comments may be construed by the audience, and even try to anticipate that response before I give them. And I took that very seriously in this case. I’m sure I am just as concerned about someone using my comments to justify their own violent tendencies as Muslim and Arab groups are that people like Major Hasan use their religion to justify theirs.”

WHO-AM radio host Steve Deace

Deace first discussed the Ft. Hood shooting Monday on his show. In a blog post published Wednesday, Deace expanded on his ideas and offered solutions to avoid similar acts being committed in the future.

Major Nidal Hasan allegedly shot and killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas and wounded 29 more. While his motives are still under scrutiny, he allegedly yelled ”Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” before opening fire.

Deace said news of Hasan’s religious beliefs proves that while America has “sold out our religious traditions for a secular enlightenment,” the same cannot be said of the Muslim world.

“Contrary to conventional wisdom, Hasan may have done America a favor if we heed the warnings after the fact that we ignored beforehand, which sadly cost 13 brave and loyal Americans at Ft. Hood their lives,” Deace said. “If we stop lying to ourselves and accept the grave determination of the religious ideology that allegedly drove Hasan, then those 13 Americans didn’t perish in vain.”

The first step is Christian churches in American must begin to clearly define the differences between the teachings of the Bible and the Koran.

“We are at war with an ideology that has an aberrant view of God and what he demands of his people, so why wouldn’t the church use this as perhaps the greatest evangelistic and apologetic opportunity of the age?” Deace said. “We can’t expect our politicians to know the truth if the people in the pews who vote for them aren’t hearing it from the pulpit.”

Step two is to recognize that “Islam is not a religion of peace.”

Third, there is a difference between private citizen and public servant, so while Muslims are allowed to believe whatever the wish in America, being a part of the military means swearing loyalty to the U.S. Constitution.

“Since this is a nation largely founded on the Judeo-Christian value system, following the U.S. Constitution doesn’t provide too many roadblocks for me as a Christian, but it obviously does for those who follow the Koran,” Deace said. “Soldiers and public servants should be held to a higher standard than a private citizen, regardless of their belief system.”

Islam is an ideology opposed to the American ideal “every bit as much as communism or Nazism,” Deace said. The war against “radical Islam” has been taking place for more than a decade, and there is a simple reason why it won’t end any time soon.

“Because we began this war on a faulty premise, the premise that we’re all the same and truth is just a matter of perspective,” Deace said.  “Our Islamic enemy doesn’t believe this, but is exploiting our belief in it, and is winning as a result.”

In the aftermath of Major Nidal Hasan’s killing spree at Fort Hood in Texas, questions of whether his actions were inspired by religious fervor are still unanswered. But because Hasan reportedly yelled “”Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” before opening fire, Deace believes it is a clear example of political correctness getting in the way of protecting American lives.

“I haven’t said we should purge the military of every single Muslim, but I do think we should start asking ourselves a real key question: If someone has sworn a public loyalty to the ideology that brave men and women are fighting against, why are we giving them uniforms and guns?” he said.

Deace compared allowing Muslims to serve to allowing someone to serve in the colonial army who had pledged loyalty to the British crown or to a Nazi sympathizer during World War II.

The problem, he said, is that society is so worried about offending anyone that they are putting everyone at risk.

“This is the problem with political correctness,” Deace said. “I do not believe Islam is a peaceful religion. But I also don’t believe all Muslims are warmongers. I just think if you look at this history and tradition of Islam, to come to the conclusion that it’s a peaceful religion is laughable on its face. “

Deace was particularly upset with two audio clips he played for his listeners. The first was former President George W. Bush saying Christians and Muslims will both go to heaven, “we just have a different routes of getting there.” Deace said this was absolutely untrue, and that Bush was either lying or uninformed of how incompatible the two religions are.

He then played an interview with Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey who said he’s worried that rumors and speculation surrounding Hasan’s motives could result in a backlash against Muslim soldiers.

“His concern is that we won’t be fair to people who have declared their loyalty to a theology that we are currently at war against. I don’t understand this,” Deace said, later adding: “My concern is that we know who the enemy is and we kill them before they kill us. That would be my concern. Not diversity.”

The problem is that “diversity training and gobbledygook and psychobabble and gay rights and tolerance” have taught society that people who disagree with them are hateful.

“We assume that if I think you marrying another guy is not a good idea for you and that other guy and the children you might adopt, that must mean I hate you,” Deace said. “If I think that the police, instead of interrogating child sex offenders ought to shoot them, that means I hate the sex offenders. If I think it’s not a good idea to have someone who screams out ‘Allah akbar’ to serve in the military, I must hate him. There’s no delineation between the inherent value of human beings created in the image of God and whatever phony, evil things they either believe in or engage in.”

Controversial Christian radio personality Steve Deace slammed Grassley in a blog post Monday morning, calling his speech “a long, rambling, incoherent embarrassment of something which may have resembled a speech that not only killed the event but continued on well into the body’s decomposition process.”

Deace pointed to the elements of the speech and of Grassley’s record in the Senate that most upset him, including his vote last year for a bank bailout and his support for Earthpartk, an indoor rain forest at one time expected to be built in Iowa.

He then criticized several amendments offered by Grassley to health care reform legislation, in particular, an amendment that would clarify  “reporting requirements for tax-exempt organizations.” Deace fears that the language of the amendment opens the door to discrimination against churches that refuse to hire homosexuals or to consider women applicants for pastoral positions.

Perhaps in the future some Democrat will come along and decide these ministries need to be investigated because they think homosexuality is a sin, so government needs to intervene and look at their finances, too?

Grassley is helping to grease the skids for that to happen in the future because when you’ve been in Washington too long you see everything as a problem for Washington to handle.  Yet another reason why the slogan of our nation’s capital ought to be “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Potomac Fever is a deadlier disease than H1N1 and HIV put together.

Grassley has a long record of  going after nonprofit organizations, specifically Christian ministries, that he believes are engaging in financial misconduct. In 2007, Grassley announced the Senate Finance Committee would investigate six prominent televangelist ministries who were believed to be improperly using their tax-exempt status as churches to shield lavish lifestyles.

Deace’s afternoon radio program has been the platform for sevearl calls for a social conservative to primary to Grassley in 2010.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

Speaking with controversial radio host Steve Deace about a recent letter criticizing Grassley penned by GOP state Rep. Kent Sorenson of Indianola, Salier said it is not surprising political observers believed it was the first shot of a coming primary challenge.

“If this were 8 to 10 years ago, then yes, I would have been surprised by that reaction because Grassley was the dominant force in Iowa politics, in both parties,” he said. “Grassley was the dominant force and had an enormous amount of loyalty. That has so eroded out from underneath him. There is so much talk of primarying Chuck Grassley now that I think he had to respond very quickly to somebody like Kent Sorenson to try to head that off if that was indeed what Sorenson was thinking.”

After the letter was made public, Grassley apparently had dinner with Sorenson to discuss his concerns, which included past statements on same-sex marriage and his vote for the $700 million bank bailout.

Earlier in the day, Sorenson told Deace he has no interest in running for the U.S. Senate. However, he said he has been contacted by two different county central committees urging him to challenge Grassley in a primary.

If Grassley doesn’t take Sorenson’s complaints to heart, a primary challenger will emerge and Salier will work hard to make sure Iowa’s senior senator does not return to Washington, D.C.

“If he doesn’t right his ship on this, he very well may face a primary,” he said. “And if it’s someone who thinks like me on these issues or someone who thinks like Kent Sorenson does, I’ll take everything I’ve got to try to propel them forward.”

Grassley’s seniority in the Senate should not be a reason to support his candidacy, Salier said, since something like his position of power on the Senate Finance Committee means “absolutely bupkis if what you do with that power is work with [Montana Democratic Sen.] Max Baucus to try to advance socialized medicine.”

Deace said several times that if Salier were to enter the race, he would defeat Grassley.

“People are that frustrated,” Deace said.

This isn’t the first time Salier has discussed Grassley’s political vulnerablity. He blasted Grassley’s response to the April Supreme Court ruling overturning Iowa’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying he “isn’t even close to the same conservative” he was when he was first elected.

Salier is the founding member of the conservative group Everyday America. In 2002 he became a hero of sorts to Iowa’s social conservative movement when he ran a surprisingly close U.S. Senate primary race against Congressman Greg Ganske.

Deace discussed the issue with Drew Zahn, editor of the conspiracy theory Web site World Net Daily, who said that while his cohorts have been “ridiculed and mocked” for continuing to follow the story, it simply won’t go away.

“We’re catching heat from almost every direction,” Zahn said.

Zahn and Deace started off blasting the “mainstream media” for not fully investigating an issue that deals with whether “we’re going to follow the Constitution at its most basic level.”

The pair then attempted to debunk any evidence produced that may contradict their theory — including a certificate of live birth and newspapers accounts at the time — ultimately concluding all materials could be easily obtained fraudulently or easily fabricated.

And even if that evidence was proven real, Zahn said the questions would remain.

“Even if we know he was born in Hawaii or not, we still have questions of whether he is a natural-born citizen,” he said. “On his own Web site, he admitted he was born of a father of Kenyan nationality… a dual citizen. Is that or is that not a natural born citizen? We don’t know.”

“Birthers,” as the believers of this particular conspiracy theory are known, believe that either Obama’s mother gave birth to the future president in Kenya in 1961 or that because Obama’s father was Kenyan and Obama has dual citizenship he ineligible to sit in the White House.

Of course, the birthers theories have been thoroughly discredited, and the U.S. Supreme Court last year dismissed a legal challenge to Obama’s citizenship. Despite this, the issue has gained several high-profile supporters, including CNN’s Lou Dobbs and conservative talker Rush Limbaugh.

This is not the first time Iowa’s largest radio station has dedicated large segments to birthers. Afternoon host Jan Mickelson has repeatedly discussed the conspiracy theory, interviewing numerous proponents who have brought lawsuits in regards to the issue.

Deace discussed the issue once before in January, when he interviewed the birther movement’s most high profile advocate, Orly Taitz, a woman news site Politico describes as “the Russian-born attorney/dentist who has become a kind of ringleader for the movement.” Among other things, Taitz has become famous of late for encouraging soldiers to disobey orders from a president who is “ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of U.S Armed Forces.”

Fong told Cedar Rapids ABC affiliate KCRG that while Iowans deserve the right to vote on a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as one man and one woman, he does not condemn those who disagree with him.

“I’m not embarrassed about where I stand on that issue,” Fong said. “But at the same time I don’t look across at anybody that has a different view. I don’t condemn them for what they hold so deeply.  And I invite everyone to the table.”

Brian Dumas, a political consultant with the firm Victory Enterprises and an adviser to Fong’s campaign, anticipated the answer would upset Deace and e-mailed him a transcript of the interview with the hopes of heading off any angry reaction.

Deace was not impressed, and responded quickly on his blog.

First of all, the idea “that I don’t condemn people that have a different view” is a ridiculous statement for a person that serves as essentially an elder at a Christian church to make.  The Bible constantly condemns people who advance evil, and isn’t shy about doing it.  It also condemns those who claim they know right from wrong but won’t take a stand, you know, kind of like Fong does in the [KCRG] transcript.

God says homosexuality is evil, Deace wrote, so Fong should have no problem condemning evil.

Why would Christians respect the views of those who want to advance evil?  Would Fong say the same thing about Islamic radicalism?  He’d have to, unless he doesn’t really believe homosexuality is evil and that’s why he’s saying such soft-headed psychobabble — trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Deace then attacks Fong for not agreeing with another GOP gubernatorial hopeful, Bob Vander Plaats, that the governor can issue an executive order stopping same-sex marriage. Fong told KCRG that he “wouldn’t waste time signing an order that my legal staff said was unenforceable anyway.”

Constitutional scholars, as well as Vander Plaats’ other rivals for the Republican nomination in 2010, agree with Fong that the governor does not have the authority under Iowa’s Constitution to issue such an order.

Appearing on the show of controversial Christian radio host Steve Deace, Vander Plaats once again said if elected governor in 2010 he would issue an executive order stopping same-sex marriage until the legislature either passes a law legalizing it or passes a constitutional amendment banning it.

“I can’t give the people the right to vote on this, but I think I can mobilize people like [Senate Majority Leader Mike] Gronstal and [House Speaker Pat] Murphy by saying no more same-sex marriages until you step up and vote to make this law,” Vander Plaats said.

After doing so, he said he fully expects Democrats to try to remove him from office for “promoting lawlessness.”

“I would like to have that debate, because then Pat Murphy has to go back to his people in Dubuque and tell them we’re going to impeach Vander Plaats because he wants the legislature to do its job in the constitution and he also wants to give you the right to vote,” he said.  “I don’t think that would play very well.”

Mark Kende, director of Drake University’s Constitutional Law Center, said the governor lacks the authority to issue an executive order freezing a decision by the Iowa Supreme Court. And while they disagree on many things, that is “pretty well accepted constitutional law by scholars who are both conservative and liberal.”

If Vander Plaats were to issue such an order, it could result in a constitutional crisis the likes of which the country hasn’t seen since desegregation cases in the Deep South, Kende said. Local officials, who are responsible for issuing marriage licenses, would be stuck between the governor’s executive order and an earlier order from the Iowa Attorney General’s office explaining to county recorders that they have no authority to ignore the court’s ruling.

Ultimately, desegregation cases were settled in the south by the federal government using troops to support the court, an option that is unlikely in Iowa.

“Courts do depend on the executive branch for enforcement, and regular executive disobedience would result in numerous crises,” Kende said. “This is what has happened in some other countries where the executive ignores the judiciary, such as Zimbabwe to give just one example.”

Vander Plaats said the Iowa Supreme Court overstepped its authority when on April 3 it issued an order striking down the state’s Defense of Marriage Act and legalizing same-sex marriage.

“If the Supreme Court goes out of bounds, who holds them in check?” he said. “I believe that’s where the executive branch comes in, to hold them in check. “

How to oppose same-sex marriage has been a focal point of a debate raging within the Republican Party of Iowa. Last month, Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King of Kiron publicly criticized those calling on elected officials to ignore the court’s ruling, saying the only method available to Iowans to stop same-sex marriage is a constitutional amendment.

King’s opinion, which he shared in a guest column for The Des Moines Register, drew harsh criticism from Deace and conservative activist Bill Salier, who said elected officials must be willing to confront the judicial branch, as well as ignore decisions they disagree with.

More recently, Vander Plaats attacked another GOP gubernatorial hopeful, Christopher Rants, for saying the governor does not have the authority to issue such an order.