In the course of continuing his periodic winks and nods at birtherism, Rush Limbaugh said on his Friday show that Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie is a “well-known socialist.”

LIMBAUGH: This governor out in Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie -- a well-known socialist, by the way, longtime member of Congress, is now the governor of Hawaii -- really stepped in it earlier -- what, this -- well, I think it was not even this week. It was last week.

Abercrombie is obviously no such thing. (Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, on the other hand, is an actual well-known socialist.)

Pretty much the only reference to Abercrombie as a “socialist” that seems to exist in the media is in a July 12 article from WorldNetDaily, the very same birther hothouse that Limbaugh references shortly after his statement about Abercrombie. The headline of the article, which was posted during Abercrombie's campaign to become governor, is “Hawaii guv candidate member of socialist group?”

Given how well known that is, they seem strangely unclear on the subject.

There's little point in getting into the specifics of the charge that Abercrombie is a “well-known socialist.” But for the record, two days after WND published its article, Abercrombie's campaign addressed the claim on its website in a post titled “Get the facts on Neil Abercrombie: Debunking socialist rumors”:

The latest wave of rumors and attacks are lame attempts to link Neil Abercrombie to a socialist group. See the facts below.

QUESTION: Was Neil a member of the Democratic Socialists of America or any other socialist or communist organization?

ANSWER: NO. Neil has never been part of any socialist or communist organization. These rumors are being spread by Neil's political opponents and conspiracy theorists including those behind the so-called “birther” movement who continually claim that President Obama was not born in the U.S.