ROMNEY CLAIMS TO SIDESTEP ABEDIN CONTROVERSY, BUT MEETS WITH A PRO-BACHMANN McCARTHYITE

Mitt Romney was asked to weigh in on Chick-fil-A and on the McCarthyite campaign against Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, and he refused, telling reporters, "Those are not things that are part of my campaign." However, I see he's hanging out with some folks who aren't quite as shy about expressing opinions on these issues:

Mitt Romney took time on Thursday during a trip to Denver to meet with a group of well-known social conservatives, including Gary Bauer, James Dobson and others, POLITICO's Jonathan Martin reports.

The group assured Romney they are firmly behind him, according to a source familiar with the conservation.

... Thursday's meeting ... also included former Sen. William Armstrong and Lt. General William Boykin....

Boykin? I expect a Republican presidential candidate to meet with Bauer and Dobson, who are bad enough, but Jerry Boykin? Seriously?

You probably know this about Boykin:

A Pentagon investigation in 2004 concluded that Boykin had violated "internal regulations" by giving speeches marked by fiery religious rhetoric while in his U.S. Army uniform....

In one instance, Boykin mocked a Muslim adversary in Mogadishu for believing he would be protected by Allah. "I knew that my God was bigger than his," Boykin said. "I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

... Despite the controversy, Boykin remained deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence under Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, and retired in 2007.

But he was recently one of the signers of a letter to House Speaker John Boehner endorsing Michele Bachmann's call for an investigation into Muslim Brotherhood influence in the U.S. government.

... If our country and its people are to be spared potentially grave harm, it is essential that we establish the nature, extent and impact of ... influence operations aimed -- to borrow the Brotherhood's own words -- at destroying us from within, by our own hands.

We urge you to acquaint yourself with the background and status of the Muslim Brotherhood's civilization jihad in America. Should you do so, we are confident you will agree with us that the requests for formal inspector general investigations into this matter by Reps. Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Trent Franks, Lynn Westmoreland and Tom Rooney are both warranted and needed....

And no, these aren't just a couple of blemishes on an otherwise exemplary record.

Boykin has maintained that "Islam is evil" and a "totalitarian way of life," and therefore its adherents should not receive First Amendment protections. Boykin even wants the U.S. to ban mosques, telling fellow mosque-banner Bryan Fischer, "no mosques in America." But his conspiracies don't end there. He believes that a "cabal" led by George Soros and the Council of Foreign Relations is trying to "create a global government," and that Obama, who may or may not be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood himself, is using the health care reform law to build his own version of the Brownshirts to impose Marxism on America. He also seems to think that the only difference between Islam and Marxism is that Muslims believe in a God.

... Boykin in an interview just this week on TruNews with Rick Wiles praised McCarthy and said he wishes "we could find a McCarthy-like individual today that was willing to stand up and proclaim very boldly that we do have a problem with a Marxist cabal in America, which are now in powerful positions, influencing our policies and the direction of our country," including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Wiles: Little Leon Panetta, he's got some Marxist relationships in his closet too, if you go back far enough, Mr. Panetta, he's palled around with no communists.

Boykin: That's right. He certainly has, as have a number of the people who are in the administration right now....

Boykin went to agree with the host that Joe McCarthy "was a great American."

Why is it acceptable for a major-party presidential candidate to meet with a guy like this, and to accept his endorsement? Why isn't this a scandal? It would be scandalous if Romney met with Orly Taitz or Alex Jones or some other conspiratorialist. Romney gets grief when he hangs out with Donald Trump. Why isn't this on par with that?

(X-posted at Balloon Juice.)