In an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday evening, former House Majority Leader and future "Dancing with the Stars" contestant Tom DeLay joined the ranks of those who are not sure the president was born in the United States.
While other prominent Republicans have said that people have a right to question the president or that he should release his birth certificate to put the rumors to rest, few have gone as far as DeLay did in supporting the birther movement.
On "Hardball," Chris Matthews tried repeatedly to get DeLay to comment on the conspiracy, an issue that often makes Republicans uneasy on television. Finally he said, "You keep skipping over this birther thing. A half dozen members of what was your delegation, you built that delegation, you built that republican stronghold down there ... people like that are birthers and raise the questions of the president's legitimacy. The implication is this guy ought to be picked up because he was never naturalized and therefore, in the country illegally. Where are you on that one?" Matthews was referring to the six Texas Republican lawmakers who have co-sponsored Rep. Bill Posey's (R-Fla.) "birther bill."
This time, DeLay did not avoid the question. On the contrary, he seemed to place himself firmly in the birther camp. "I would like the president to produce his birth certificate," he said. "I can. I can, most illegal aliens here in America can. Why can't the president of the United States produce a birth certificate?"
DeLay even went so far as to ask for Matthews' help in securing the document. "Chris, will you do me a favor?" he asked. "Will you ask the president to show me... his birth certificate." Matthews declined, and pointed out that there was a newspaper announcement of the president's birth in 1961. DeLay questioned that as well: "Is a newspaper article an official document?" At that point, Matthews appeared to give up. "It's common sense we're talking about here," he said. "Common sense ... They gave us the document that was made available to anybody in Hawaii who asked for a birth certificate. That document they give you. That's all I know." He then changed the subject.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/19/tom-delay-joins-the-birth_n_263532.html
The document Obama produced
The document Obama produced is also issued to foreigners and is not an original.
His grandmother says she was there in Kenya when he was born.
When he attended school in Indonesian, Indonesia was listed as his place of citizenship.
He was able to enter Pakistan when it was illegal for Americans to do so.
Obama is spending millions getting the cases against him thrown out instead of producing the original certificate.
Those are the facts.
I don't know if he is legal or not but I wish the case to be taken up by the Supreme Court and settle it once and for all.
The birther bill will prevent this in the future and will not affect Obama's first and likely only term.
Wow Peter, your
Wow Peter, your misinformation campaign amazes me. Although after seeing your comments I am not surprised that you are also among the "Birthers".
Once again here is the birth certificate. It has been shown everywhere. It is the same kind of standard issue certificate that I have for all three of my kids. The same kind that I have -- a 1958 certificate from St Jerome's hospital in Batavia issued 50 years ago -- that I used to get my passport.
You really need a new shtick. Maybe something based on facts.
from snopes -- You know the non partisan fact checking site. http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp
It includes those two newspaper announcements. Or are you going to tell us that the conspiracy goes back to 1961 when this young mother had a vision that her son may someday grow up to be president so she paid to have the announcements placed in those Hawaiian pennysavers from her husbands hut in Kenya....just in case.
As I might of guessed your "revolution" is based on legitimacy. Sadly, it does make me wonder if some of this legitimacy stuff (and I am not accusing you of this -- just adding my own broad brush) has anything to do with race. I hope it doesn't.
Youtube of Orly the leader of this movement --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOYVr7OKpV0
Some advice -- get a new leader.
Its not about race most
Its not about race most americans do not want anything to do with government health care, cap and trade (climate change is a farse), government banks, government cars or anything else on the democratic socialist party agenda. Freddie and Fannie and Nancy and Barney and Frank and Harry did such a great job on housing who in their right mind wants them taking over health care.
Let me repeat myself I just
Let me repeat myself
I just said I don't know one way or the other. But I trust his grandmother more than I trust his shystiness.
I support the bill so this type of thing never happens again.
If his original B.C. is there, then release it, how hard is that?
Snopes has been wrong before
http://www.google.com/search?q=snopes+wrong&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=…
Lorie, Personally, I could
Lorie,
Personally, I could care less, and this is not the first time a President has been accused of not being born here.
Obama could end all this by just him producing his personal,original copy. Why does Obama lets this go on?
The point here is we should
The point here is we should all be debating the REAL stuff. This has been debunked.
53% of the electorate went to the polls and voted for this man. He is the legitimate President. He ran on health care reform and lowering green house emissions, to name a few. The 53% that voted for him have expectations that he will stick with his platform and fulfill his promises with signed legislation. Your job as opposition is to vigorously oppose, as you should, if you don't agree.
I don't begrudge discourse. Opposition and consensus are vital to our democracy. Revolution and questions of legitimacy, however, are not.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-27-obama-hawaii_N.htm
So if 53% of the electorate
So if 53% of the electorate voted for Hugo Chavez, does that mean we ignore the Constitution and put in him in office?
We were founded on revolution. It is part of America.
If he is illegitimate he should be removed from office and a special election should be held.
Peter is in his bunker,
Peter is in his bunker, hiding from Obama.
Just as a point of law, if Obama was removed for any reason, Vice Pres. Joe Biden gets the job. There is no provision in the Constitution for a special election.
To me it's completely
To me it's completely ridiculous to suggest Obama can't be, shouldn't be president.
He was legally eligible for office. He ran a legitimate campaign. It was a full and fair campaign. He was duly and legally elected.
I didn't vote for him (nor did I vote for McCain), and I'm unlikely to vote for him in 2012. But he is my president. I respect him as such.
And why we're on the subject: Republicans have no right to complain about his powers as president. Since the time of Lincoln, the Republicans have been part and parcel and active enablers of creating the unconstitutional imperial presidency. Recent Republicans never complained about the imperial powers of Bush, Bush, Reagan, Ford or Nixon. They shouldn't complain now, not without at least doing penitence and replacing all of their current leadership with true conservatives, along the lines of Robert Taft.
All the partisan sniping at Obama is ridiculous. The Republicans created this situation by betraying the principles of liberty and limited government over the past 50 years or so, and going even further afield since the era of Rush Limbaugh Republicanism began.
Well said, Howard. I wish
Well said, Howard.
I wish DeLay would read this while he is lacing up his dancing shoes.
Howard, really well said.
Howard, really well said. We (Republicans/Conservatives) did this to ourselves. We lost our vision, we didn't follow our principles and we got cocky.
The political history of this country shows that as far right as the pendulum swings, it will swing left even farther. And, someday, the pendulum will swing back to the right - then it's our job to decide - do we swing it farther right? - or do we use restraint and try to gather ourselves back at the middle of the political spectrum? President Obama has definitely chosen his path - and as you can see - people are getting a little crazed - but the same thing happened with President Bush - the left got nuts.
My blog this week focuses on how we can get back to having center/right elected officials in the majority - look for it Sunday afternoon on the Batavian.
Oh - and I think Rush, Glenn, Sean Hannity, Bill Cunningham, etc. is the best thing that happened to the Conservatives.
His grandmother says she was
His grandmother says she was there in Kenya when he was born.
A birther lie. The entire transcript is available online.
It was NEVER illegal to enter
It was NEVER illegal to enter Pakistan in 1981.
Check the U.S. State Dept. site. This is WND & birther lying.
YOU ARE COMPLETELY FULL OF
YOU ARE COMPLETELY FULL OF SHIT.
Easy, David. Easy. It's just
Easy, David. Easy. It's just a website. Don't get so worked up.