More Romney chatter about Muslims in his cabinet

wplog

Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007 | 1:44 p.m.

John L. Smith of the Review-Journal follows the Sun's political blog with a column about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and whether he'd appoint a Muslim-American to his cabinet. (Here's our original post.)

And here's what Romney said in response to a question from Mansoor Ijaz, a Muslim American businessman, about whether he'd appoint a Muslim-American to his cabinet:

“…based on the nuumbers 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 Muslms could serve at lower levels of my

administration.”

Romney denied Tuesday making the statement.

Talking Points Memo (www.talkingpointsmemo.com) the blogger/writer/reporters extraordinaire (see this GQ profile) found a couple of Nevadans who had heard Romney at a previous fundraiser allgedly say he'd never appoint a Muslim-American to his cabinet because they're not trustworthy. The two Nevada Republicans, George Harris and Irma Aguirre, suggested to Ijaz before this month's Las Vegas fundraiser that he ask about the Muslim-in-the-cabinet issue.

Smith followed Talking Points and talked to Harris. He also reports Ijaz is looking for a home in Vegas.

Here's another wrinkle. There's a separate independent account of Romney saying no Muslims in the cabinet, this one from Liberty Watch magazine editor Mike Zigler. (Harris is associated with Liberty Watch, so it's all the same circle, but Zigler claims to have been at the previous fundraiser and heard Romney say no Muslims in his cabinet.)

Another item to consider: Who's best qualified to be the next Republican Secretary of State? Near the top of the list would have to be Zalmay Khalilzad, currently our ambassador to the United Nations, and previously ambassador to Afghanistan and ambassador to Iraq. He's smart, pragmatic, and a polished diplomat who speaks languages, including fluent Arabic. He's also a Sunni Muslim.