Today on Center for Security Policy president Frank Gaffney’s radio show, Mitt Romney foreign policy adviser John Bolton defended Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) call for the U.S. government to investigate suggestions that government employees — including a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — are affiliated with a Muslim Brotherhood plot to infiltrate the U.S. government.

Bolton has direct ties to the Romney campaign, serving as an unpaid adviser that regularly appears at campaign events stumping for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. “John Bolton insists on good results for America and is someone I respect,” Romney said in December. “I think he’s a fine man with great capacity.”

On Gaffney’s radio show today (Gaffney is the brains behind Bachmann’s campaign), Bolton said Bachmann and some of her fellow Republicans are just asking questions, adding that he’s “mystified” by the criticism Bachmann has received:

BOLTON: What I think these members of Congress have done is simply raise the question, to a variety of inspectors general in key agencies, are your departments following their own security clearance guidelines, are they adhering to the standards that presumably everybody who seeks a security clearance should have to go through, are they making special exemptions? What is wrong with raising the question? Why is even asking whether we are living up to our standards a legitimate area of congressional oversight, why has that generated this criticism? I’m just mystified by it.

Listen to the clip, courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

Bolton joins right-wing luminaries Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh in defending Bachmann’s anti-Muslim witch hunt but many top Republicans — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) — have criticized the Minnesota Congresswoman’s crusade.

One of Mitt Romney’s foreign policy advisers this morning in a conference call with reporters promised that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee would clearly articulate his Afghanistan policy in a major foreign policy speech today before the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Romney and his campaign surrogates have either been all over the map on Afghanistan or failed to contrast Romney’s policy from the Obama administration’s. But today didn’t turn out to be any different. In his speech this afternoon — which contained little substance and was full of oft-repeated untruths — Romney chose to side with much of what President Obama has already proposed:

I have been critical of the President’s decision to withdraw the surge troops during the fighting season, against the advice of the commanders on the ground. President Obama would have you believe that anyone who disagrees with his decisions is arguing for endless war. But the route to more war – and to potential attacks here at home – is a politically timed retreat.

As president, my goal in Afghanistan will be to complete a successful transition to Afghan security forces by the end of 2014. I will evaluate conditions on the ground and solicit the best advice of our military commanders. And I will affirm that my duty is not to my political prospects, but to the security of the nation.

President Obama has also said he plans to withdraw U.S. troops by the end of 2014. There is one slight difference in Romney’s plan. He would complete the withdrawal the surge troops in December of this year, instead of September.

“Unlike Barack Obama,” Romney adviser Alex Wong said on the call this morning, Romney “would look to a successful transition to the Afghan security forces based on the ground and the best advice from military commanders.”

Perhaps Wong meant “just like Barack Obama,” which can be said for a number of Romney’s foreign policy positions this campaign season.

A 20-year-old journalism student is facing up to 7 years in prison in Belarus. His crime was photographing teddy bears.

More than 800 teddy bears were dropped into the country from a plane in a stunt by a Swedish advertising company, Studio Total. The bears carried placards in support of free speech, a right that has been compromised during the oppressive presidency of Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko, who said recently that it was “better to be a dictator than gay,” won reelection in 2010, after two other presidential candidates were seriously beaten by police. European Union ambassadors boycotted his inauguration in January 2011.

The 20-year-old photographer, Anton Suryapin, had no affiliation with Studio Total. He simply posted photos of the stuffed animals. He was then charged with illegally assisting an organized group cross the border of Belarus. Amnesty International has called for his release. The police also arrested Syarhei Basharimau, a real estate agent who reportedly rented an apartment to the two pilots who dropped the bears. Upon hearing of the arrests, founder of Studio Total mocked president Alexander Lukashenko as an “armed clown.”

Watch it:

Tea Party Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) lashed out at Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for criticizing him and his fellow conservative members for suggesting that a senior aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Gohmert is part of a small group of five Republican members, led by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who are demanding an investigation into whether Clinton deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin is connected to the group.

“Normally you don’t go blast somebody on the floor who is a colleague on the same side of the aisle unless you touch base with them,” Gohmert complained during an appearance on the Dennis Miller Show on Tuesday, referring to McCain’s denunciation of the group’s allegations as “nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack.” The fiery Texan then launched into a personal attack against McCain, calling him “numb nuts” and suggesting the Muslim Brotherhood is now influencing him too:

GOHMERT: Well, it’s obvious that John McCain didn’t even read the letter because of what he said in accusing Michele and us of making these horrible accusations. There were five letters and there were many things that are stated that are facts in each letter. And I wish some of these numb nuts would go out and read the letter before they make these horrible allegations about the horrible accusations we’re making. But we also know that John McCain himself had said back in the early stages of stuff going on in Egypt that he was, in his words, “unalterably opposed to helping the Muslim Brotherhood.” Well, obviously the unalterable person has been altered, so he is okay with it now.

Listen:

Gohmert has long believed that Muslim extremist organizations have infiltrated the American government. At a recent Congressional hearing, he furiously questioned Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about whether Mohamed Elibiary, a member of DHS’s Combatting Violent Extremism Working Group (CVE) and a Muslim is part of a terrorist organization.

While Bachmann and her small group of supporters are doubling down on their attacks, a growing number of Republicans are distancing themselves from the charges.

Prominent Arizona Tea Party leader Wes Harris emailed his supporters yesterday to announce that he would be trying to recall Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). The offense? McCain defended Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, after Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) suggested that she is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

In an interview with the Arizona Capitol Times, Harris went on a rant against McCain, and then started to bash Muslims generally, saying that “anyone that is a Muslim is a threat to this country” and that Islam is “more a fascist type of organization”:

“Have you ever read the Quran? I suggest you do so, because anyone that is a Muslim is a threat to this country, and that’s a fact,” Harris told the Arizona Capitol Times. “There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. If they are Muslim they have to follow the Quran. That’s their religion and that’s their doctrine.”

Harris said he plans to circulate recall petitions against McCain. In his email, he said, “We must find a way to get rid of this embarrassment.” [...]

Harris disagreed with McCain’s assessment of Abedin, saying she shouldn’t be working for the State Department, regardless of whether she has Muslim Brotherhood ties.

“Is she a Muslim? Is she an active Muslim?” Harris said. “I rest my case. That’s all she needs to be.”

Harris also ended a blog post that accompanied his email with this line about McCain: “Go to hell, Senator, it’s time for you to take your final dirt nap.” On Twitter, McCain called the Times’ article an “interesting news item.”

Conservatives have been condemning Bachmann left and right for her unwarranted attack attempting to link Abedin to the Muslim Brotherhood. Even the right-wing Daily Caller called out the Congresswoman, and her tea party supporters, for the implicit Islamophobia in the charge. One group has even calling on House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) — who also criticized Bachmann’s anti-Muslim witch hunt — to take the Minnesota Congresswoman off of the House Intelligence Committee.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) appeared on CNN this morning and discussed Mitt Romney’s campaign trip abroad. An early Romney endorser, Chaffetz was asked about Romney’s recent remark that Russia “is without question our number one geopolitical foe.”

Chaffetz told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien that Romney was right: Russia is “absolutely” the U.S.’s top geopolitical adversary before O’Brien bails him out by mentioning other top U.S. adversaries:

O’BRIEN: Here’s what Governor Romney said to Wolf Blitzer on March 26: Russia “is without question our number one geopolitical foe. They fight every cause for the world’s worst actors.” Do you think that is true? Russia is our “number one geopolitical foe”?

CHAFFETZ: Well, as you look at behind the scenes what’s going on — and how they support terrorism; how they supported some of the worst actors in the world, including Iran; if you look at what’s going on in the cyber-security front, some of the classified briefings we hear there — absolutely.

O’BRIEN: Worse than North Korea? Worse than Iran? Worse than China?

CHAFFETZ: Well, look, those are probably your top three. But certainly you cannot dismiss the Russians even though sometimes they stay out of the news.

Watch the video:

Romney’s comment about Russia drew widespread, bipartisan ridicule. Former George W. Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell denounced the remark as a “cataclysmic sort of pronouncements,” and called on Romney to be more “mature.” Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said the comment was “naïve.” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a Romney supporter, dodged a question about the comment. A Russian politician, for his part, said Romney’s comment could portend “a full-scale crisis” in relations should he be elected president.

On an Obama campaign conference call Monday, former Undersecretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy said that while “everyone recognizes that the relations with Russia will be difficult” at times, the Russians have helped the U.S. in international coalitions against Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programs — a fact noted by the Washington Post when it described Romney’s “number one geopolitical foe” remark as “puzzling.” Flournoy went on to say: “Frankly, we woudln’t be able to sustain this cooperation if we go back to the Cold War and treat russia as our biggest enemy in the world.”

CNN’s Will Cain asked Chaffetz about the Syrian civil war, where Russia supports Bashar al-Assad’s embattled government. Cain asked for “some specifics”: “How would [Romney] handle the situation in Syria were he president?” Chaffetz responded that Romney would “work very closely with” and “strengthen” Israel.

Newt Gingrich came to Michele Bachmann’s defense during an event at Politico Tuesday morning, insisting that she and the four Congresspeople who have been criticized by other Republicans for implying that a senior aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, are raising legitimate concerns about the groups’ efforts to infiltrate the American government.

“There weren’t allegations, there was a question,” Gingrich insisted. “The question ought to be asked across the board, what’s the role of the Muslim Brotherhood, what are its various networks and to what degree does it now influence the United States?” Gingrich claimed that senior members of his own party — including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) — have bought into an “elite” culture of “political correctness” that prevents any discussion about radical Islam:

JIM VANDEHEI (POLITICO): So you think the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the American government?

GINGRICH: I think it’s worth knowing and I think it tells you something about the level of hysteria attacking these five members of Congress….I would ask the question, what is it they’re afraid of learning?

Watch it:

The former House Speaker lamented that most Republicans, including the party’s presidential nominee Mitt Romney, have resisted investigating the influence of radical Islam on the government and singled out former primary opponent Rick Santorum as a leader on the issue.