Boykin added, "I talk to a lot of folks who don't support where Obama is taking the military, but in the military they can't say anything."

Reporting on Boykin's shocking comments, The National Journal indicated that WorldNetDaily (WND) is "a website best known for pushing Obama `birther' conspiracy theories."

That's just scratching the surface. If you're not familiar with WorldNetDaily, it's a site so far to the right that it make the Fox News Channel looks like the People's Daily World. It's chockfull of conspiracy theories, racist articles and all-around kookery.

A flavor of the site can perhaps be found in some recent headlines: "Newspapers directed: Cover-up Black Violence," "Riot Warnings Over Food-Stamp Cuts" and "Claim: Obama Hid `Gay Life' To Become President."

Boykin apparently has a cozy relationship with this wacko site, and WND frequently reports on his antics. In the WND bizarro world, Boykin is portrayed as a bold Christian warrior constantly kept down by appeasers, gays, secularists and a band of nefarious America haters.

In the real world of actual facts, the man is an embarrassment who has uttered a string of extremist statements. Boykin first came to Americans United's attention back in 2003. He had a habit of wearing his uniform to far-right events where he would bash Muslims and peddle "Christian nation" nonsense.

In one case, the White House had to issue a "global message" distancing itself from one of Boykin's Islamophobic rants. He was eventually sanctioned for his antics with a punishment that was described as "appropriate" but not "significant."

I'm not sure why the Army let Boykin go with a slap on the wrist. Perhaps officials knew he would soon be retiring. In any case, Boykin did leave the Army and ended up going to work for the FRC as an executive vice president. There he has continued to utter offensive nonsense on a regular basis. In other words, Boykin fits right in at the FRC.

Around the time Boykin was hired at the FRC, for example, it came to light that he had accused Obama of plotting a "Marxist insurgency" backed by a secret military force "that would control the population in America."

Two years ago, Boykin wrote a column suggesting that Islam isn't fully entitled to First Amendment protections. He has also argued that no more mosques should be built in America.

The FRC has been labeled a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Religious Right group chafes at this designation and insists that it merely provides a voice for the concerns of conservative Christians.

Actually, the FRC is increasingly a forum for views that are not conservative but reactionary. Boykin's latest outburst, which amounts to almost wistful rumination on the fact that our structure of government prevents military coups, is yet one more example of that.

I don't claim to be an expert on military issues. A few semesters of ROTC in college was the closest I ever came to serving. But I do know this: There is a term for people who sit around expressing regret over the fact that our military doesn't have the power to unseat a democratically elected president by force.

They are called extremists.