BIRTHER MADNESS CONTINUES…. It never ends.
… Rep. Bill Posey’s (R-FL) “birther bill” has gained yet another cosponsor. Yesterday, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) became the latest Republican congressman to declare support for the bill.
Notably, Rep. Gohmert hasn’t issued a press release announcing his sponsorship, so it seems he doesn’t want to advertise his move toward the fringe.
Whether he advertises it or not, Gohmert is mad as a hatter.
Posey’s ridiculous Birther Bill obviously isn’t going anywhere, but it is interesting to see just how many Republicans are deranged enough to sign on as co-sponsors. When Posey unveiled the bill in March, he stood alone, literally and figuratively. For two months, no one in the House would sign onto his measure, which made the Republican caucus seem relatively responsible — Posey was just a fringe nut, who lacked support from his own colleagues.
But note the trend since. In May, the Birther Bill picked up one co-sponsor. In June, it received five more. So far in July, four more climbed on the train to Crazytown. This doesn’t constitute “momentum” in any practical sense, but it suggests more and more House GOP lawmakers are comfortable embracing right-wing nonsense.
And it goes beyond just this one silly piece of legislation. Rep. Roy Blunt (R) of Missouri, a former House Republican leader and current candidate for the U.S. Senate, said this week, on camera, “What I don’t know is why the president can’t produce a birth certificate. I don’t know anybody else that can’t produce one. And I think that that’s a legitimate question — no health records, no birth certificate.”
In perhaps the most amusing Birther-related story of the day, one Republican consultant argued in CQ today that the entire right-wing conspiracy theory is getting attention because the media may be trying to make conservatives look foolish.
Someone ought to tell Limbaugh and Dobbs, because if this theory’s true, the right is helping the “liberal media” in strange ways.
