Breaking: Inhofe Does Not Question Obama’s Legitimacy As President
GOP Senator James Inhofe doesn’t question Obama’s legitimacy as president, his spokesman tells me.
As I noted below, Inhofe clarified his earlier claim that the birthers “have a point” by saying he was merely agreeing that the White House hasn’t effectively rebutted their charges. Inhofe’s clarification left unclear whether he disagrees with the birthers’ core argument.
So I asked Inhofe spokesman Jared Young whether the Senator questions Obama’s legitimacy as President. He answered:
No. His focus is on issues.
That wasn’t so hard, was it?
Actually, it was…which is precisely the whole point…
Update: Other Congressional GOPers are refusing to say what Inhofe said here.
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I think what Inholfe is trying to say is that while Obama is in fact the legitimate President of the U.S. he is not recognized as the president of the Confederate Union.
Debra — good one. Maybe I should go back for more clarification.
Totally amazing. In 2001 there were those who questioned Bush’s legitimacy because he did not win the popular vote. A concern base don fact. But it didn’t come from sitting Members of Congress of the opposition party, or anyone in government that I’m aware of. By 2002, anyone who dared question Bush’s authority was labeled un-American and un-patriotic. But now we have actual members giving credo to wing nut conspiracy theories without any rebuff.
the GOP congress critters are afraid of taking
the birthers on. obama’s hawaiian birth is a proven
fact. the rest is just b.s, lou dobbs’ fantasies,
and right wing noise. they won’t take them on because
they know how crazy they are.
That’s too bad he clarified that.
Because..
REPUBLICAN SENATORS CLAIMING OBAMA ISN’T A CITIZEN IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR REPUBLICANS!!!
I just read an interesting article on Orly Taitz, one of the birther movement leaders, from a month ago. http://www.ocweekly.com/2009-06-18/news/orly-taitz/Comments This lady is Fatal Attraction scary.
Mike
Just google Orly Taitz and Phillip Berg. There is some Birther canibalism going on and it ain’t pretty!
One soldier has already used the birther position to refuse a lawful order from a superior officer. Lending credence to the idea that Obama isn’t a citizen therefore is undermining the US miliary. In a time of war. How exactly is this not treason on Inhofe’s part?
The location of Obama’s birth is actually of no consequence. That his mother was a United States citizen is sufficient to make him a naural born citizen as is my daughter who was born in Seoul, Korea of a Korean mother. This is an issue only to the ignorant, the uneducated and the stupid.
What this really exposes about the GOP is that they can only function when someone tells them what to say. When they don’t have their messaging ready they are up the creek without a paddle. But just you watch, in another week or so they will finally come up with a uniform message and they will all be repeating it for the cameras but then nodding and winking when they go to townhalls.
By the way, you HAVE to watch this video of GOOPers in congress either running away from saying President Obama is a naturual born citizen or playing into the birther hysteria.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1o1p_ly7Yw
So right wingers think an American born in Hawaii isn’t a “natural born citizen” but think foreign born Panamanian John McCain is okay?
Combine Panama John with the neo-Confederate secessionist loving Sarah Palin claiming what is and isn’t “real America” and you’ve got the modern day Republican Party: Divisive, destructive, and duplicitous.
sg, yes. The article goes into detail about how Berg was suing Orly.
And regarding the military officer that was allowed to not go to Afghanistan because it was a voluntary assignment…if the military is voluntary, couldn’t they in theory begin using the same justification to get out?
This birther thing is truly entertaining. I’m sure there are plenty who honestly believe the misinformation being fed to them. But there are a whole host of people who go along with it because they think this is hilarious.
It’s interesting how the Internet is playing a role in this movement on both sides of the discussion. Since traditional media refused to entertain this movement initially until right wing radio got into the game along with CNN, the internet acted as the enabler of the movement. But, at the same time, the internet has a plethora of information debunking the birthers and each argument used to cast doubt can quickly be countered by a quick Google search and and a ctrl-c/ctrl-v. That article I previously linked has links to a few birther debunking sites.
It’s almost turned into the GE fight between the right wing smear shops and fightthesmears.com, which is now non-existent.
Maybe Obama should go ahead and fire up that site again.
While it is unfair to tarnish all of the GOP or the right with the yolk of a few idiotic eggs (that’s the equivalent of spreading scary rumors about the democrats doing the work of MoveOn or ACORN) it’s pretty sad that there are so many people waving the self-righteous flag of “Internet Watchdogs investigating the marcksiss president”.
Have you all seen this video? Why is it so hard for these hill republicans to just say that the birther issue is a non-issue? http://firedoglake.com/2009/07/27/mike-stark-on-capitol-hill-know-your-birthers/
Credit must be given to the republicans who call the issue for the bumf it is, but the discredit must also be extended towards those who can’t muster any distancing from the birthers.
Nice article on these agreements. I am working on a project to find out about these unfair credit agreements and this has helped