No Republicans Running For Election Are Supporting Romney's Anti-American Statements-- Except Fellow Mormon Warmonger Buck McKeon

Yesterday, TPM reported that not all Republican officials fled for their political lives from Romney's insane statements about Obama being on the side of the terrorists in Libya. And they weren't just talking about a hack like Reince Priebus who was scripted by the Romney team. Romney tried to get Republicans to rally around him. Not many did; exceptions being Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and radical crackpot Jim DeMint (R-SC). Kevin Drum has a report at Mother Jones showing that the Romney smear was a premeditated-- if ill-conceived and badly botched-- team effort

This was no late-night, one-person screwup that Romney then felt he had to stand behind. It was a carefully calculated statement drafted by Romney's entire team and then signed off on by Romney himself. Even with his whole staff beavering away on this, apparently not a single person pointed out that (a) they didn't have their facts straight, (b) it might be appropriate to wait a little while before scoring cheap political points, and (c) accusing the president of the United States of "sympathizing" with embassy attackers was beyond the pale.

Alternatively, someone did point this stuff out and got voted down. I'm not sure which is worse.

And if most Republicans actually running for office-- unlike Gingrich, Palin and DeMint-- are making believe they never heard of Mitt Romney, one crazy Republican hardliner is backing Romney to the hilt, fellow Mormon fanatic and warmongering head of the House Armed Services Committee, Buck McKeon. Even the Republican L.A. Times, which normally doesn't pay much attention to McKeon's serial transgressions and scandals, seemed surprised.

While many GOP leaders on Capitol Hill distanced themselves from Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's criticism of President Obama after U.S. diplomatic compounds were attacked in Egypt and Libya, a top House Republican said it was no surprise American lives were lost given Obama's approach to foreign policy.

"Again and again under President Obama we have met threats and thugs with apologies and concessions," Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

"Unsurprisingly, these mobs aren't satisfied with apologies anymore, they have clearly been escalating the offensive in the war of ideas for some time,” the Santa Clarita Republican added. "Is it any wonder that events spun out of control and that American lives were lost?"

...[Other than McKeon] top GOP defense hawks in Congress took a decidedly softer public tone than their party's nominee, largely declining to echo the political criticism Romney used in responding to the tragedy.

From Capitol Hill to the congressional campaign trail, Republican officials responded with sadness and calls for justice, but hardly the criticism of Obama that Romney had leveled in the aftermath of the deadly attacks.

The despicable and childish video itself was made by Romney supporting extremists in McKeon's own district, though so far no proof has turned up that McKeon was personally involved.

An inflammatory anti-Muslim film that has been blamed in this week's deadly attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya was produced by a Duarte-based Christian non-profit, officials said.

Media for Christ, which has its administrative offices south of the 210 Freeway in Duarte, took out a film permit for the production, according to City Manager Darrell George.

The producers also used Blue Cloud studios in Santa Clarita, also known as Blue Cloud Movie Ranch, as the film's location, George said.

"It was filmed in Santa Clarita," George said. He said he obtained the information from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

The film negatively portrays the prophet Muhammad as a sex-obsessed, bisexual who thrives on acts of sadistic violence. Several scenes are fairly pornographic including one which appears to depict Mohammed engaged in oral sex.

This is where owning hundreds of thousands of dollars in McKeon's Venetian gambling debts comes in very handy for Sheldon Adelson, who is Romney's biggest financial supporter and who is eager to gin up a war in the Middle East. The biggest newspaper in McKeon's district, The Signal made note of the L.A. Times report and quoted Democrat Lee Rogers' response to McKeon's bizarre comments: "To blame the President for these terrorist attacks is akin to blaming President Bush for 9/11. His statement didn’t condemn the terrorist act or show our resolve in bring those that killed our ambassador to justice. Instead, he attacked the President who just lost a member of his administration, a diplomat of the United States... The United States has only lost five ambassadors in its history. This is a time to mourn the loss of a good American and to find out how this happened, punish those responsible, and determine how we can prevent similar incidents in the future. McKeon responded in hast, without all the facts, and while Americans were still in danger. McKeon’s opportunistic attack was unjustified, undignified, and Un-American. It’s just disgraceful.”


UPDATE: Guess The Zombies Are Falling In Line

And... 24 hours later, Republicans circle the wagons around their "cheap news cycle hit."