Three retired special operations officers have started a new political action committee aimed at, as a recent fundraising email states, “remov[ing] Barack Obama from office.” The swift-boat style group, Special Operations Speaks, will try to achieve this goal by highlighting “what they see as unforgivably security leaks by President Obama and his team.” The email, signed by retired SEAL captain Larry Bailey, continues:

Let me lay it on the line: Barack Obama’s loose lips are doing worse than sinking ships – they’re putting our entire nation at risk.

And if you and I don’t get this man out of office, he’s going to destroy our military, undermine every ally we have, and arm our enemies to the teeth.

It’s interesting then, that the group’s website promoted a Fox News article yesterday reporting that current U.S. Special Operations commander Adm. William McRaven, while warning about national security leaks, praised Obama as a “fantastic” commander-in-chief:

Indeed, talking with CNN’s Wolf Blizter at the Aspen Security Forum this week, McRaven said, “we’re never happy when leaks occur obviously,” but the Special Operations commander never pinned any blame on the president. In fact, as the article SOS promoted notes, McRaven praised Obama:

BLITZER: What kind of commander in chief is he?

MCRAVEN: The president of the United States is fantastic. And, again, I am not a political guy. I have worked in both administrations. I very, very much enjoyed working for President Bush, and I very much enjoy working for President Obama. … This is about a commander in chief who I have the opportunity to engage with on a routine basis, and watching him and the decisions he makes, along with his national security team. They’re a very impressive group of guys and gals.

Watch the clip:

If you’re a group of former special ops officers and your goal is to kick President Obama from office on national security grounds, it’s probably not the best idea to promote stories reporting the top American special operations officer calling President Obama a “fantastic” commander-in-chief.

Instead of dealing with difficult issues like Afghanistan, Mitt Romney meant for his trip abroad to highlight the Obama “administration’s shabby treatment” of allies and demonstrate that a President Romney would be “nurturing our alliances.” He probably didn’t expect that the alliance he’d be nurturing was between Britain’s ruling conservative party and President Obama.

That’s just what happened today when, after a rough day with British leaders and press, a cabinet member in the British government told the Huffington Post’s U.K. site that, despite an ideological bond with Romney, British conservatives still preferred Obama:

Our head is with Romney, but our heart is with Obama. Romney would be a fantastic CEO president but in our hearts there’s connection that we all have with Obama.

Another source in the Tory government told the Huffington Post:

The warmth that was obvious between Cameron and Obama on the president’s trip to the U.K. wasn’t really on display yesterday when Cameron met Romney.

Romney’s row with the U.K. came over comments he made suggesting London wasn’t adequately prepared to host the Olympics, which begin on Friday night with the torch lighting and opening ceremony. British Prime Minister David Cameron fired back that London was indeed ready, even taking a shot at Romney’s leadership of the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City, Utah: “Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”

At an event in London’s Hyde Park attended by some 60,000 people, London’s mayor Boris Johnson mocked Romney. “I hear there’s a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we’re ready,” Johnson said as the crowd booed at the mention. “He wants to know whether we’re ready. Are we ready? Yes we are!”

British Olympic minister Hugh Robertson literally laughed off the possibility that Romney would be involved in carrying the Olympic torch after his disastrous visit to the country.

A day after making the case for tolerance of gays and Muslims, Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (VA) defended his colleague Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) Islamophobic quest to root out supposed Muslim Brotherhood “deep penetration” of the U.S. government. Cantor lent credence to Bachmann’s claims by saying her accusations came from her “concern about the security of the country,” and then professed ignorance about her allegations.

CBS host Charlie Rose asked Cantor about his comments to BuzzFeed on Thursday that “It’s a bad thing to look at a Muslim and think bad things.” Cantor was explicit to BuzzFeed that he was not discussing Bachmann, but Rose asked him directly about her allegations:

ROSE: Do you think Congresswoman Bachmann was out of line? I mean, it does not square with this?

CANTOR: Well, again, I think that if you read some of the reports that have covered the story, I think that her concern was about the security of the country. So that’s about all I know.

Watch the video:

That Cantor would plead ignorance about Bachmann’s quest stretches credulity: the issue has become a national story with nightly news coverage over the past two weeks.

While some Tea Partiers, right-wing media figures like Glenn Beck and even one Romney adviser have supported Bachmann’s paranoid endeavor, other Republicans had no problem denouncing her witch-hunt. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and others did so last week to much media hoopla.

This isn’t Cantor’s first brush with Islamophobia — and, just like the last two days, he’s ended up on both sides of the story before. In 2011, Cantor endorsed fellow Virginia Republican David Ramadan, a practicing Muslim whose successful bid for a seat in the state House of Delegates was opposed by the Islamophobe Frank Gaffney, the progenitor of Bachmann’s charges. Earlier that year, though, Cantor co-hosted a Capitol HIll screening of a film by the Islamophobic Clarion Fund, where Gaffney sits on the board.