Thus far, most elected Republicans haven't backed Mitt Romney's disgusting claim that the Obama administration is somehow responsible for the deaths of our ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three of his colleagues. Somehow, though, I expected that eventually at least one Republican would back up his standardbearer.
Turns out that day came yesterday. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican congressman from California, appeared on the radio show of noted Islamophobe Frank Gaffney and blamed the White House for the attacks on the Libyan and Egyptian embassies. He even repeated Romney's blatantly false assertion that the president failed to condemn the riots in Cairo and Benghazi. People for the American Way got a clip.
Mitt Romney by stepping up and pointing out that you do not apologize for standing up for freedom of speech or freedom of religion, you don't apologize to a radical Islamic group that murders other human beings because they disagree on their religious values or want to express that they think Islam may be incorrect here and there or even basically someone who wants to have a very heavy attack on the basic fundamentals of Islam in terms of intellectual discourse. Instead what we've got is we have to walk on eggs, we have to be so sensitive that we can't condemn those people when they're out in the name of retaliating against us for disagreeing with Islam. We can't even condemn them for their murderous activities, and now even our ambassadors are being assassinated and this is a result of that attitude being presented on our behalf by this administration.
Listen to Rohrabacher's full appearance
here. If you'll notice, Gaffney claimed that Romney was the only condemnatory voice in the wake of the attacks, prompting Rohrabacher to go all the way off the deep end by "applauding" Romney for speaking out.
Never mind that both Obama and Clinton have condemned the attacks in the strongest terms and promised that those responsible would be brought to justice. Never mind that Romney's original statements have been condemned across the board. Rohrabacher still saw fit to repeat this vicious, false and blatantly irresponsible statement. Oblivious, in denial, dangerous.
What makes Rohrabacher's statements even more irresponsible is that he is chairman of the House Foreign Relations Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Says a lot about what passes for leadership in the House Republican caucus.
For those who don't know, Rohrabacher represents portions of southwestern Orange County (Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and a few wealthier portions of Los Angeles County (mostly the Palos Verdes Peninsula). Apparently thinks he can get away with spewing such drivel because his district is still fundamentally Republican. John McCain would have won 51 percent in his reconfigured district (he only got 49 percent in the old one), but Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer both got flat-out spanked here. Still, he deserves to have the hot lights turned on him.
Drop him a line on Facebook or on Twitter at @DanaRohrabacher. If you live in his district, here's his contact information:
Washington office:
2300 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2415
Fax: (202) 225-0145
District office:
101 Main Street, Suite 380
Huntington Beach, CA 92648
Phone: (714) 960-6483
Fax (714) 960-7806
Also send his Democratic opponent, Ron Verasteh, some coin at ActBlue here.