So Multiple Choice Mitt got in a bit of a sticky wicket yesterday when it was reported that he came out against Muslims serving in his cabinet. Because, you know, that's an unbelievably bigoted stance to take. Certainly if Hillary Clinton pledged not to appoint Mormons to her cabinet, that would be major news, for example.Well, Mitt claimed not to have been asked what he was asked, saying, "His question was did I need to have a Muslim in my Cabinet to be able to confront radical Jihad and would it be important to have a Muslim in my Cabinet and I said, 'No, I don't think that you have to have a Muslim in the Cabinet to be able to take on radical Jihad....'"
This may shock you, but Mitt is lying:
We've now discovered that there's a contemporaneous account of this episode in something called Liberty Watch Magazine, which Harris publishes. In the September 2007 issue is this account by Editor Mike Zigler:
...when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently addressed a group of a prominent local conservatives at a Las Vegas fundraiser, George lobbed the first question: “If you are elected President,” he asked, “will you include any Muslim members in your cabinet?”
In the seconds before former Massachusetts Governor Romney responded, you could have heard a pin drop.
His (admittedly, very smooth) answer in a nutshell? “Not likely.”
The rest of the account describes the surprise that local GOPers felt upon hearing that Mitt appeared so hostile to this idea. And again, this account is contemporaneous -- it was laid out well before this ever became controversial.
I'm sure we're all stunned that Mitt would lie. The naked anti-Muslim bigotry thing? Not so much. Sadly, I imagine this will help him with GOP voters.
