House GOP Vice-Chair On Birthers: "I'd Like To See The Documents"
Check out this new video from Fire Dog Lake's Mike Stark, in which he asks multiple House Republicans -- including a high-ranking member of the GOP leadership -- whether they believe President Obama is a natural-born citizen.
The most interesting non-answer came from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who happens to be the Vice-Chair of the House Republican Conference -- the fourth-highest position in the leadership -- and also gave the Republican YouTube address this past weekend. "We're all going to find out," said McMorris Rodgers. When asked again, she said: "Oh, I'd like to see the documents."
And by the way, some thanks are due to Reps. Mike Coffman (R-CO), Dave Reichert (R-WA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ) for affirming that they believe Obama is a natural-born citizen, ranging from Coffman's short and simple "Yeah" to Franks' detailed statement that his office researched the matter and concluded that the facts are clear.
We've asked McMorris Rodgers' office for further clarification, and are waiting for them to get back to us.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Seems to me that Creme DeMinthe may have been onto something wrt the "Waterloo" comment. But it may not pertain to Obama or health care.
July 27, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure it pertains. I hope to be able to say to Republicans, "You were right. It was Waterloo for Barack Wellington Obama."
And if they don't get the reference, we get to laugh.
July 27, 2009 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Think the Gopoleon moniker would catch on?
July 27, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds good to me. Especially for a party that proved itself so full of armchair Napoleons.
July 27, 2009 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cathy McMorris Rogers is not an American. She was born in Edinburgh, to non-American parents.
July 27, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're joking, right? Because if you're not, then it is true that irony is entirely lost on Republicans.
July 27, 2009 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know if Karl was joking, but Wikipedia says she was born in Salem, Oregon.
On another note, I expect to see her apologizing to Ann Coulter any minute now...
July 27, 2009 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does she have her original certificate of live birth? If not, then, I'd like to see "the documents".
July 27, 2009 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone can edit the Wikipedia page.
"Cathy McMorris Rogers" was born Kathleen Charlotta Murray in Edinburgh some time in August 1964, and she is not even a naturalized citizen.
July 27, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously? Any links?
July 27, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
She has in her possession the passport that was issued to her by the UK, her medical records and at least one of the certified copies of her birth documents (as well a passport from Greece, where she lived for three years while married to a Greek man by the name of Nikos Lakopoulos before divorcing him due to infidelity.)
I call upon her to immediately release that information to the press.
July 27, 2009 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
so, how do you know?
July 27, 2009 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not necessary. See Art. l, Sec. ll, Cl.2 of the U.S. Constitution.
ex animo
davidfarrar
July 28, 2009 8:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
I was reading an article from back in June about Orly Taitz, the lady out in Cali that has been spearheading this birther effort along with Berg.
Anyways, the article is pretty interesting.
http://www.ocweekly.com/2009-06-18/news/orly-taitz/Comments
July 27, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Orly Taitz makes Michele Bachmann look rational & level-headed.
Orly Taitz makes Rush Limbaugh look like a sensitive metrosexual.
July 27, 2009 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
On Point on NPR did a whole show about the birthers today, complete with Orly Taitz. What a wackadoo.
I was on hold to go on the air but they didn't get to me. You can listen to the show here and see what we're up against . . . NOTHING!!
http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/07/the-fury-of-the-birthers?autostart=true
July 27, 2009 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wouldn't say "nothing". Only in terms of evidence. What we're up against is a worldview --- of which racism is only a part --- that disintegrated when it confronted reality, and had that disintegration confirmed in the election. We're talking about people for whom having a black president in not merely a bad idea, but an impossible idea where white conservatives are a majority. Since the election shows white conservatives are not majority, on top of conservatism failing, conservatives have been hit deep in the gut.
However, if Obama isn't a citizen, then we don't really have a black president, so conservatives can feel robbed rather than defeated, and they don't need to change how they view the world.
In other words, they NEED the birther conspiracy to be true.
July 27, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm so sorry you didn't make it on. I turned it on towards the end, and was flabbergasted at the woman from Buffalo who was so insistent on seeing his certificate of live birth and who simply wouldn't listen to anything contradicting her world view.
July 27, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I heard her. She kept screaming for the "certificate of live birth" and that the exact document Obama has shown for over a year now. That's also the document that most birthers say is not legitimate.
I was going to point out that most of the semi-sane birthers are getting embarrassed because they're being laughed at so much. Their next ploy: Obama was born in Hawaii but he's hiding his birth certificate because there's something on it that's really embarrassing.
Like what, you ask? His name is really Barry and he doesn't want anyone to know that.
No shit. That's the tripe Larry Johnson at noquarter of Michelle's Whitey Tape fame is peddling now.
July 27, 2009 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
He was born in Hawaii and his mother was an American citizen, but they still want his birth certificate???
Seems to me if they concede that he was born in hawaii then their whole raison detre is kaput, isn't it??
July 27, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
They want it because it will prove he's a fraud and a liar. They allege that he lied about his real name or that the bc may have been amended to show he was adopted by Sotero in Indonesia or it may show his religion as Muslim or claim he was illegitimate or that his parents never married.
This would be so embarrassing, they say.
For the man who wrote a book about his mother getting knocked up at 18 by a married african who abandoned them when he was 2, married another white woman, became a drunk and died a broken man?
Yeah, that would be sooo embarrassing!
July 27, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Larry Johnson went insane last year.
Before 2007, I used to enjoy reading his blogs at TPM Cafe, and didn't really know too much about No Quarter. But after the primaries started, I did wander over there, twice, and thought "What a shame." He sounded pathological.
July 27, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd say that being any variety of Birther is prima facie evidence of being bat-shit insane. So I'd say the phrase "semi-sane birther" is a bit of an oxymoron.
July 27, 2009 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think some Democratic Congressman should introduce a Resolution in the House affirming that Obama is an American citizen, born in the United States.
Hold the Republican's feet to the fire.
July 27, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Someone needs to get Eric Cantor on the record, one way or the other. There are benefits to however he replies.
July 27, 2009 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
dswx,
Republicans obviously don't want to go on record as saying Obama is not a citizen, but then again, they have to please their base....the lunatic fringe. They're between a rock and a teabagger....er, a birther....er, a hard place.
There should be more of this kind of on-film interviewing of Republicans regarding this issue.
July 27, 2009 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cantor "friended" Orly Taitz, birther nutcase extraordinaire on Facebook. So did Michael Steele. Taitz is very proud; they are saying "that doesn't mean anything."
LOL.
July 27, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know I was thinking. Normally something like this would appear on the TPM muckraker site. But since it has become so normal for the GOP to spout conspiracy theories, it's now appearing under TPM DC. It's just routine every day issues to say the President of the United States is undocumented for the GOP, in fact it's all their doing.
July 27, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Something tells me that we could staple the documents to her forehead--text facing inward, of course--and she'd still say, "I haven't seen the documents, yet."
I don't know what it would take, short of being reincarnated as a normal person, for one of these birthers to "see" the documents.
Look at 'em, idiot!!!
July 27, 2009 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, when did Chandler Bing get elected?
July 27, 2009 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why would 2 quite poor, quite young students leave Hawaii, travel to KENYA to have a baby? This is so ridiculous, just like the modern day Republican. Poor Richard Lugar, he must be feeling very lonely in Wash., DC, a sane, moral Republican
July 27, 2009 10:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Birther smirther, this is all very black & white, if you get my drift.
These same people also thoroughly enjoyed dickie & bushie. What are you gonna do?
July 28, 2009 12:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is a special kind of lunacy... it gives a framework for what in the end is pure inchoate hatred and racism.
The Republican party has a 30 year history (at least) of winking at and using race hatred... they don't know how not to do it. It's in their political DNA... southern strategy, racial codes, birtherism, whatever.... they wouldn't do it if it didn't work.
July 29, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a special kind of lunacy... it gives a framework for what in the end is pure inchoate hatred and racism.
The Republican party has a 30 year history (at least) of winking at and using race hatred... they don't know how not to do it. It's in their political DNA... southern strategy, racial codes, birtherism, whatever.... they wouldn't do it if it didn't work.
July 29, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink