This is going to be a brief diary, but I thought it was worth calling everyone's attention to this article at the centrish site Talking Points Memo, which details another, and in fact more severe account of Romney's anti-Muslim bigotry.
Some highlights:
TPM Election Central has learned that at a private fundraising lunchleon in Los Vegas three months ago, Romney said a second time he would probably not appoint a Muslim to his cabinet -- and on this occasion, he made other comments that one witness described as "racist."
The witness, Irma Aguirre, a former finance director of the Nevada Republican Party, paraphrased Romney as saying: "They're radical. There's no talking to them. There's no negotiating with them."
A second witness, a self-described local registered Republican named George Harris, confirmed her account.
Aguirre says Romney made the comments three months ago at Lawry's restaurant in Las Vegas, at a different event from the one chronicled in the Monitor op-ed. Aguirre says that she was at the event with local Republican George Harris, who asked Romney the relevant question. She described the exchange this way:
"His question was something to the effect of, `Considering the problems that we have with the Jihadist movement and the problems we have with the Middle East, would you consider having a Muslim as an adviser that can guide you as to what kind of decisions to make with regards to the Middle East?'"
"He said, `Probably not.'"
Aguirre added that what Romney said next surprised her. "He said something to the effect of, `They're radicals. There's no talking to them. There's no negotiating with them.' I can't remember the exact words he used, but that was the explanation. We left thinking, `Wow, what a racist comment. He automatically assumed that all Muslims are radical.'"
This is about way more than Romney being hypocritical and politically incorrect. It's about how he'd conduct his foreign policy, in which there are few things more important than having a fair and balanced (heh!) understanding of the Islamic world.
I've believed for some time that Romney is the most dangerous of the current Republican candidates, and so hopefully this will be his "Macaca Moment".