Spokesman: Romney confused 'similar sounding words' because 'it was the end of the day'

Hmmm. Sikh or sheik? Sheik or Sikh? Hmmm. I have for you a humorous anecdote. It starts with this:

Mitt Romney mistakenly confused the words 'Sikh' and 'sheik' at a fundraiser here Tuesday night when he offered his condolences to the victims of last weekend's shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. [...] Sheik is an Arabic honorific, whereas Sikh is a religion with roots in South Asia.

That might be worth a guffaw or two, but things got really uproarious when Romney's in-house comedian Rick "Kiss my ass, this is a Holy site" Gorka defended his boss:

Reporters questioned Romney spokesman Rick Gorka about the mistake after the event. He said Romney simply 'misspoke.'

'It was the end of the day,' Gorka said. 'He mispronounced similar sounding words. He was clearly referring to the tragedy in Wisconsin. You clearly heard him talk about it earlier today in Chicago.'

True enough, Romney did say it correctly earlier in the day. Whether he knows that these two "similar sounding words" have completely different meanings is a different question, though. Either way, Gorka's response had me rolling on the floor. I mean, c'mon. Sikh and sheik are no more similar than, say, "fucking" and "fracking," but you don't hear Mitt Romney out there on the campaign trail yelling at Obama for imposing too many regulations on fucking, do you?

And also too, what does Gorka's "it was the end of the day" defense say about Romney's stamina? I mean, Romney didn't campaign at all on Monday. He spent it hanging out at his vacation home in New Hampshire and shopping for water, soda and corn. Plus, Romney had the whole weekend off too. If on Tuesday he was so wiped out that he couldn't differentiate between similar sounding words, can you imagine what might happen if he takes that 3 AM phone call?