Romney: Muslims not needed in Cabinet

[sabra]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/7059.html

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, asked about putting a Muslim in his presidential Cabinet, said that he “cannot see that a Cabinet position would be justified” based on the percentage of Muslims in the U.S., according to an Islamic businessman who asked the question at a fundraising reception.

Kevin Madden, Romney’s national press secretary, told Politico: “At this point, we're not focused on what Gov. Romney's Cabinet might look like. But the governor does not believe that in order to effectively fight radical jihad you need to have Muslims serving in the Cabinet.”

Mansoor Ijaz, a New York financier and commentator of Pakistani ancestry, says the exchange with Romney occurred at a closed fundraiser in Las Vegas in mid-November. Ijaz describes himself “an American-born citiz

...

As Ijaz recounted the exchange in an opinion piece in Tuesday’s Christian Science Monitor, “I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his Cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that ‘jihadism’ is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today.

“He answered, ‘ ... based on the numbers of American Muslims (as a percentage) in our population, I cannot see that a Cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration,’” Ijaz wrote.

[Tempest]

1. Muslim voters in Michigan and Florida gave those states to Bush

Romney just cut his own throat.

[skipos]

2. That is a dumb question, imo nt

[yardwork]

10. Given that Romney says that the war on "Islamist terrorism" is the number 1 priority

I think that the question is highly relevant, actually.

[MadBadger]

3. By his logic, I guess we cannot justify a Mormon being President.

[Benhurst]

20. Yeah, but one could serve in a lower capacity, such as restroom attendant.

:rofl:

[yardwork]

23. And only in numbers that exactly match the percentage of Mormons in the U.S. population.

[Boojatta]

28. So now you're just going to dismiss from employment all of

the people who were hired based on recommendations from Larry Craig?

Those restroom attendant jobs are already filled. You should think of an occupation with more job vacancies.

[Benhurst]

35. ....

:rofl:

[MrCoffee]

4. so what?

Romney dodged a question. stop the presses.

[yardwork]

9. You're giving this Republican bigot a pass on this?

[MrCoffee]

12. a pass on what? a dumbass question that he dodged in a dumbass fashion?

the original question was asinine. the response was even more asinine. this is such a waste of time and outrage that it's just silly.

[yardwork]

14. I disagree on all counts.

[MrCoffee]

17. unless he hired a jihadist for the Cabinet...

it's a stupid question. that's like asking a candidate if they'd hire a Christian for the Cabinet to counter the KKK.


the whole thing is BS.

[yardwork]

19. That's because everybody knows that almost everyone appointed will be Christian.

There is a strong anti-Muslim attitude among Republicans, and it shows. That's why the questioner asked. And Romney failed badly. See the posts downthread. Making appointments based on religious affiliation is unconstitutional. It's alarming that Romney doesn't respect that.

[MrCoffee]

21. "Making appointments based on religious affiliation"

works both ways. It's just as unconstitutional to use religion as a preferential charateristic as it is to use it as a detrimental characteristic.

That said, i still maintain that the question was BS, and the dodgy answer was even more BS.

[yardwork]

22. Who said that it wasn't unconstitutional. That's exactly what we're saying.

We agree on one thing - Romney's answer was BS and I'm not going to give him a pass on it.

[tanyev]

5. So...Mitt's cabinet would be chosen based on a quota system?

[LiberalFighter]

26. I thought Republicans were against quotas... especially Clarence Thomas

[KingFlorez]

6. What a bigot

Trash like this doesn't deserve to be President.

[yardwork]

7. Hm. Does that mean that he'll base all his hiring decisions on percentage of population?

In that case, Romney must be planning to have a majority-female Cabinet, as females make up the majority of the U.S. population. He'll also need about 20% (that's one in five) of the Cabinet to be Latina/o, about 15% (that's about one in six) of the Cabinet to be African American. Romney's obviously planning to make at least one in ten appointments openly gay, right?

[Purveyor]

8. Using the Romney criteria, there would be no Mormons or Jews either. eom

[yellowcanine]

11. What part of "no religious test" does Romney not understand? The correct answer to the question is

that religion will not be a determining factor for any appointee, cabinet level or otherwise.


United States Constitution Article VI, section 3

“ ...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. ”


One does not appoint members of a particular religion based on the percentages that they occur in the general population.

[KingFlorez]

13. Good point

[yardwork]

15. This was a serious mistake on Romney's part. We need to keep hammering on it.

The response demonstrates how willing Romney is to use religion in the political sphere.

[woo me with science]

16. Thank you

for returning us to what should be the main point here.

[slackmaster]

18. Bullseye

:nuke:

[TechBear_Seattle]

31. Since when do Republickers read or abide by the US Constitution? n/t

[yellowcanine]

32. Good point, but reporters should at least raise the question. I know, silly me.

Most reporters have no idea what the Constitution says and they are more concerned about "Who's on first?" according to the latest polls.

[blogslut]

24. Silly Mittens!

Always fudging up!



I thought those pubs couldn't get anyone dumber than W. Color me wrong.

[Kucinich4America]

25. So, Muslims are out but the guys with funny underwear who baptize the dead are in?

Yeah Mitt..... that makes a lot of sense. This from a guy who declared "jihad" on his own dog.

[The Stranger]

30. Excellent point -- the victim of religious bigotry is -- get this -- a religious bigot himself.

You can't make this shit up.

[damntexdem]

27. So, would he apportion his cabinet by population percentages?

If he won a close election, would nearly half of his cabinet be Democrats?

If he wouldn't appoint based on population percentages, why rule possible members out based on such percentages?

Why note the percentage of Muslims in the population at all?

[yellowcanine]

29. Wonder if Mitt knows that the number of Muslims in U.S. is approx. the same as the # of Mormons?

Yep, just for chuckles I looked it up. Number of Mormons in U.S. and number of Muslims in U.S. both equal about 5.5 million at least according to the article below on Mormons. Oy vey. Do you think any of the MSM will be clever enough to look that up and ask Mittens about it?

I guess this means there will be no Mormons in Mitt's cabinet.

http://www.allaboutmormons.com/number_of_mormons.php

[book_worm]

33. And he's upset that people are unsure of him because he's a Mormon!

[KamaAina]

34. KamaAina: Ken Doll not needed in White House

although, based on the proportion of vapid idiots in the country these days, it might be justified... :sarcasm: