Birther Of A Nation, Part 3

AmericaBlog's Joe Sudbay takes a look at the Village response to the Birther-mania out there this week and finds very different responses from CNBC's Chris Matthews and CNN's Rich Sanchez and Lou Dobbs.

The absurdity knows no bounds. Today, Taegan noted that CNN's Lou Dobbs had joined the crazy birther movement. Dobbs did it on his radio show, not CNN, but he's most identified with CNN. Most of the birther crowd has been hanging out at FOX, but Dobbs joined in.

Also today, actually on CNN, Rick Sanchez went after the birthers in a big way. I watched it live and it was fantastic. I couldn't find video, but Rachel Weiner at Huffington has a report:

It's a "completely unfounded story," Sanchez said, and then repeated himself for emphasis. "There's something strange about even having to do this story," he said, but so many people believe it that "it needs to be addressed."

Lou Dobbs should watch CNN every now and then.

Jed posted a clip of Chris Matthews eviscerating one of the whacko GOP members of Congress, John Campbell from California, whose been pushing legislation on the birther issue. After telling Campbell "what you're doing is appeasing the nut cases" and "you're verifying the paranoia out there" and "you are feeding the whacko wing of your party," Matthews did get the Campbell to admit that Obama was born in the U.S.

Here's that clip from DKTV:

Go Tweety. Grew a spine and everything.

But we are seeing a large uptick in Birther activity in the last couple weeks, and this thing is starting to get out of hand, as Marc Ambinder notes:

At least nine members of Congress have cosponsored a birther bill that would require prospective presidents to affirm their U.S. citizenship. What we don't know is how widespread the belief is among Republicans -- and even if the belief is confined to a narrow minority, whether the belief will spread as Republicans begin to pay closer attention to electoral politics in 2010 and 2012. In the same way that Democrats in 2004 always got a stolen election question (which, to be fair, was at least closer to reality than the birther's claims), Republican presidential candidates need to figure out how to diffuse angry birthers who are bound to show up and demand their attention. .... The buried lede to this post: Rush Limbaugh claimed today that Obama "has yet to prove that he's a citizen." Republicans have to be extra careful. If they give credence to the birthers, they're (not only advancing ignorance but also) betraying the narrowness of their base. If they dismiss this growing movement, they might drive birthers to find more extreme candidates, which will fragment a Republican political coalition.

To this I say "Man, what behavior that you've seen lately from the Right makes you think that the GOP actually wants to diffuse this Birther stupidity?" If anything, I believe they are trying to actively encourage it.

There are more Republican co-sponsors joining the list on Mark Posey's bill, not less. If El Rushbo has weighed in on it, you'd better believe it's now An Official GOP Talking Point. In the last two weeks we've seen the Birthers cross over from the realm of Newsmax and World Net Daily to Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh. Underestimate this movement at your own peril, because I foresee a point very, very soon where people other than Lester Kinsolving are asking Robert Gibbs about Obama's birth certificate at those daily briefings.

But the real problem is what the Birther movement really represents: the belief that Barack Obama is not the legitimate President of the United States and needs to be removed from the office by any means necessary. More than a few of these folks believe he is an enemy of the state and should be treated as such. They will not stop. They will not be satisfied with anything less. Some see the movement as a joke, or as a mass delusion of some sort where harmless cranks and tinfoil lunatics hang out and swap tips on keeping the NSA out of your cereal. I assure you, for some of these folks it's deadly serious.

The more the Birther movement is encouraged by the GOP and its mouthpieces, the more it becomes a clever little meme on the intertubes and the talk radio box and the teevee, the more it grows from silliness to curiousity to zeitgeist shorthand to a rallying cry of "I do not recognize this man as our President."

Many of them will do nothing but complain and vote in 2012. But some may not be so sanguine about it. Some may decide to do something about the man they see as an illegitimate President who America needs to rise up against. A few of those may formulate a plan. A small number of those may decide to act on it. A couple may even have an opportunity.

And one may get "lucky", as it were. No. I don't find the Birthers harmless at all. I find some of them to be dangerous fanatics. And there's a mainstream political party and their media enablers who are encouraging them openly. The GOP is well aware of the potential dangers of fueling these idiots. Yet, their influence is growing, and the GOP continues to boost them anyway. What does that say about the Republican Party in 2009?

"Will no one rid America of this troublesome Kenyan?"

What's it going to take, folks?