RSS Feed MenuVan Jones, former green jobs czar and 9/11 denialist, was appropriately and unceremoniously dumped from his gig at the White House last September. It was a victory for sensible Americans everywhere.
Jones claimed he didn’t really believe in the petition he signed, which demanded an investigation into whether or not President Bush allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen as a pretext for war. For obvious reasons, Jones was pressured into resigning. Even though the petition did not specifically and categorically state that Bush was behind 9/11, supporting the idiotic question merited Jones’ dismissal.
So why haven’t Republicans came out en masse against former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, the far right primary challenger to Senator McCain? Hayworth has called for President Obama to unveil his birth certificate (although the President has already conclusively shown he’s a naturally-born American citizen). Senator Jim DeMint and the Conservative Senate Fund refused to back McCain in the primary, indicating that among right-wing leaders, advocating for the birther conspiracy is just A-OK.
Conspiracy wingnuttery about the President’s birth or whether Bush allowed 9/11 should have no place in mainstream politics or the conservative movement. If J.D. Hayworth wants to pal around with birthers, he should apply to be a guest host on Jesse Ventura’s conspiracyfest on TruTV.
All conservatives should give J.D. Hayworth and others who wink, nod, and back the birthers the Van Jones treatment.
Chekote // Feb 12, 2010 at 9:51 am
I will tell you why. Because they are cowards and are afraid to take on any voter.
oldgal // Feb 12, 2010 at 9:58 am
Ignorance and stupidity might be playing a role here.
TAZ // Feb 12, 2010 at 10:24 am
Because there is nothing left of the Republican base but birthers, truthers, birchers and nuts.
These freaks have turned on Orielly, Newt, Coulter, and now even Beck.
Republican candidates know how quick they can to turn too, and are rightfully frightened as hell.
kevin47 // Feb 12, 2010 at 10:37 am
When has any party come out en masse to oppose one of their own? What would doing so accomplish?
I’m not convinced that birtherism is as nutty as trutherism. The latter requires the belief that the president organized a cast of thousands to commit first degree murder, while the former would require a bit of futzing with paperwork by a half dozen or so lawyers.
sinz54 // Feb 12, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Even RedState.com has banned Birthers from their site.
As far as I’m concerned, Birtherism is far out of the mainstream.
mlindroo // Feb 12, 2010 at 12:37 pm
> I’m not convinced that birtherism is as nutty as trutherism.
> The latter requires the belief that the president organized
> a cast of thousands to commit first degree murder,
> while the former would require a bit of futzing with paperwork by a half dozen or so lawyers.
It’s a matter of degree. Birthers and truthers are equally ignorant.
If Obama indeed wasn’t born in the U.S., his pals would have needed to secretly insert a forged 1961 birth certificate into the Hawaii State Department of Health many decades ago. A document so good it has fooled all the Hawaii and U.S. federal gov’t policies and procedures regarding record keeping/verification despite being subject to intense scrutiny over the years as Obama rose through the ranks of government. Skeptics also need to explain Obama’s birth announcement which appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser on Sunday, Aug. 13, 1961. Was it part of this far-sighted conspiracy too??
MARCU$
rlynn // Feb 12, 2010 at 12:45 pm
This whole birther smear is kept going by Obama. Where is his original birth record? Not a summary copy of what? Where are Obama’s health records, academic records, legislative records…? We seem to have an international man of mystery here and it would be nice if Col. Obama would come out.
Rockerbabe // Feb 12, 2010 at 2:41 pm
No one gets the original copy of their birth certificate; when one requests a birth certificate, one gets an official copy on genuine paper with a raised seal of authencity and a signature of the current head of the records agency in any given state.
Everyone knows President Obama is healthy and his MD has confirmed that in the manner that has been done for past Presidents.
His academic records are private, but everyone knows where he went to school and which schools he graduated from; we know when he took his law boards to get his license and which classes and which schools he taught.
We know his Illinois legislative record and his federal Senate record [matter of public record].
It seems to me that you are just lazy about doing research on the President and want to continue the myth that President Obama is a “mystery man”. No President in modern times is a “mystery man”; not with all the media hounds out to make a name for themselves over everything and nothing and at everyone else’s expense. It seems with President Obama, what you see is what you get; a calm, thoughful, intelligent man who is practical and wants to make a better society for all Americans. Now, we need to get the GOP out of the way, so all this stalling and hypocrisy can abate for awhile.
Chekote // Feb 12, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Interesting article about the Birther Movement. It seems it was started by PUMAs.
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2010/02/truth-about-birther-movement.html
rbottoms // Feb 12, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Interesting article about the Birther Movement. It seems it was started by PUMAs.
And the Southern Strategy swelled the ranks of the GOP with the refuse of racist crackers who were afraid to seat young Sally next to savage blacks. Democrats infrequently take out the garbage, which we know from time to time is picked up by scavengers.
nancyanny // Feb 12, 2010 at 3:59 pm
It isn’t a wonder why the right extremists are losing their sh*t over this, and if they were smart enough to be honest w/ themselves, they’d realize what a waste of time this is for everyone who is a part of the GOP to continue to entertain these people who are dividing and splicing and dicing and kicking people out… I can only believe their party will implode at some point soon, each outdoing the next at exactly how ‘pure’ pure can be… if they get feisty enough, we can just send them over to IAP (iraq, afgahn paki) to fight the ever increasingly angrier al quaeda, they seem to be equipping themselves w/ the same weapons and feelings of hatred for the rest of America.
nancyanny // Feb 12, 2010 at 4:01 pm
oops, 3 kids here — meant to say they’d realize how divisive they are becoming, and turing the GOP on its ear. If the republicans would stop paying attn… something along those lines…
have a great Friday all.
vedserenity // Feb 12, 2010 at 5:31 pm
My main concern as a democrat is the growing anger of the birther/tea-party movements. They seem more and more to be drivin by emotion then what’s rationally good for the country. A valid point may be occasionally raised but their methodology prevents true bipartisanship, which I wholeheartedly support.
By the way, Morgan is awesome and the only reason I look at this site!
kevin47 // Feb 13, 2010 at 11:29 am
“My main concern as a democrat is the growing anger of the birther/tea-party movements.”
Do you have any evidence that suggests that tea-party movement is growing angrier?
“A valid point may be occasionally raised but their methodology prevents true bipartisanship, which I wholeheartedly support.”
What is bi-partisanship, and why do you support it unequivocally?
Carney // Feb 14, 2010 at 7:42 pm
What is so wrong with calling on Obama to release his birth certificate? And why won’t he do it? 2 simple questions that are never answered amid a torrent of name-calling.
txanne // Feb 17, 2010 at 12:15 am
First of all, he did release his birth certificate. It has been online for anyone to see for the last two years. It has been verified by the Hawaiian Govenor and other state officials.
What other President has ever been called upon to do this? Just one simple question.