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You may have missed it, but Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) — the perpetual star of our Henry Decker’s “This Week In Crazy” — recently accused the 2008 Republican nominee for president, John McCain, of being a supporter of al Qaeda:

When it comes to the shutdown that’s going on, I heard just before I came on, some senator from Arizona — a guy that liked Gadhafi before he wanted to bomb him, a guy that liked Mubarak before he wanted him out, a guy that’s been to Syria and supported al Qaeda and the rebels — but he was saying today the shutdown has been a fool’s errand, and I agree with him. The president and Harry Reid should not have shut this government down.

Gohmert later said his comments were being used in an “an inappropriate way.” But the former military judge, who has been a member of the House since 2005, has accused the senator of palling around with terrorists before, even accusing him of being partially responsible for the Benghazi attacks.

McCain responded to Gohmert’s comments about as gently as humanly possible Wednesday night, when speaking to NBC News’ Brian Williams.

“Sometimes those… comments like that are made out of malice, but if someone has no intelligence, I don’t view it as being a malicious statement,” McCain said.

Unlike Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Gohmert isn’t on the House Intelligence Committee. So perhaps the senator was pointing out Gohmert’s lack of actual government intelligence.

Screenshot via NBC News