Rove: Stomp on Birthers and "9-11 Deniers"

Amen. We don't cover the Birthers around here, but they're right up there with the Truthers in terms of brainpower. In fact, one of the original Birthers was also a major Troofer: Phil Berg. A recent poll indicated that as many as 51% of Republican primary voters believe Obama was not born in the United State. Now, as Rove indicates, that's probably about as likely as the polls from a couple years back that indicated something like half of all Democrats were 9-11 Troofers. But any number much over 10% is a cause for concern.

Birthers and Truthers: Equally Moronic, But Not Equally Pernicious

Jonah Goldberg wrote yesterday:

As I wrote last year, I find it amazing that the "Birthers" are considered more dangerous and evil than the "Truthers." The Birthers believe that an ambitious man who travelled a lot as a kid has concealed the circumstances of his birth so he could be eligible for the presidency. I don't think they've made their case. And, frankly, I'm not sure I'd want them to at this point. Aside from the horror of a Biden presidency, I for one don't yearn for a constitutional crisis. And while I am sure there are more elaborate and crazier versions of Birtherism, the basic allegation isn't that crazy, at least in the abstract.

He's wrong there; Birtherism is crazy, just as crazy as Trutherism. They have a lot in common, including waving away all evidence that contradicts them as evidence of the coverup.

But I agree that the Truthers are more dangerous and evil than the Birthers, which statement came under attack from Eric Boelert and Kevin Drum (who, to their credit, dismiss the Truthers as "whackjobs (sic) and bombthrowers"):

Compare that to the birthers. It's bad enough that prominent conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh, Liz Cheney, and Sean Hannity have flirted with the birthers. But what's worse is that birtherism seems to be a perfectly acceptable belief among actual Republican leaders. Sarah Palin thinks it's a question well worth asking. Roy Blunt isn't sure Obama is a citizen. Dick Shelby thinks it's curious that we haven't seen Obama's birth certificate. Michele Bachmann recently showed up at a tea party event and palled around with birther queen Orly Taitz.

I'm in agreement that both the Truthers and the Birthers are crazy. And I'm even in agreement that Birtherism appears to be more widespread among Republicans than Trutherism ever was among rank and file Democrats, and even more acceptable. And I'm appalled at those on the right who've embraced the Birther nuttery.

But for chrissakes, let's not forget the magnitude of the charges. On the one hand, you have a supposed conspiracy involving huge segments of the government, military and other professions in America to kill 3000 people.

And on the other you have a supposed conspiracy of a few people (most dead) to conceal the real circumstances of birth of a man who later grew up and was elected President.

Suppose both theories turned out to be true; which would result in executions? Nobody (well, nobody sane) would suggest the death penalty for those covering up Obama's birth, whereas I'd probably be among those recommending execution for Bush if it were proven to my satisfaction that he ordered or knew in any detail of the impending terrorist attacks.

Let me repeat this: Both conspiracy theories are retarded. Both share Phil Berg, too. But 9-11 Troof is pernicious in a way that the Birther nonsense isn't.

The Truther/Birther Harmonic Convergence

In this incredibly nutty post by Orly Taitz, Birther Supreme:

(Attachment D) shows that Magic Plumbing had worked on the sprinkler system at the World Trade Center just days before 9/11. One of the men that performed this work lived in Brooklyn. He left Brooklyn on 9/11 and went to Tennessee. A woman that had a court date involving identity theft with the motor vehicle department in Tennessee met a mysterious death. Mr. Chatfield had no comment or thought in reference to this material being shown to him.

Compelling evidence. I now believe that Barack Obama was actually born inside the World Trade Center based on this testimony, possibly in WTC-7 itself. Let's remember that Mr Chatfield had no comment or thought in reference to this material. What more need we say?

The National Review on Truthers and Birthers

The prominent conservative opinion magazine, the National Review, opines on the birther controversy, and their connection to 9/11 truthers.

Much foolishness has become attached to the question of President Obama’s place of birth, and a few misguided souls among the Right have indulged it. The myth that Barack Obama is ineligible to be president represents the hunt for a magic bullet that will make all the unpleasant complications of his election and presidency disappear. We are used to seeing conspiracy theories from the Left, for instance among the one in three Democrats who believe that 9/11 was an inside job conducted with the foreknowledge of the Bush administration. We’ve seen everything under the sun blamed on Dick Cheney and Halliburton, and Rosie O’Donnell has given us much mirth with her metallurgical expertise, while Andrew Sullivan has beclowned himself and tarnished the good name of The Atlantic with his investigation into the “real” parentage of Trig Palin. Most notable, the Iraq War summoned the craziness in a big way, and there are those who still shudder over their espressos at the mention of the Carlyle Group. And there is a fair amount of crossover between those fixated on Obama’s birth certificate and the 9/11 “truthers” — lawyer Phil Berg, for instance, is a player in both worlds. There is nothing that President Obama’s coterie would enjoy more than to see the responsible Right become a mirror image of the loopy Left circa 2003.

Of course I would be remiss in not pointing out that one the first people, if not the first, to point out what a legal crank Phil Berg is, was our very own Pat.

Truthers and Birthers

Okay, here's a post for our liberal readers on the intersection of 9-11 Truthers and Obama birthers:

Their twin demonstrations worked as intended. Troothers walked away from the Democrats and went to the presidential campaign most friendly to them—that of Texas Republican Ron Paul. (An October 20 article posted on InfoWars even denounced Maher as “an apologist and advocate for the criminal cabal.”) With two short strokes the Democrats not only removed an albatross from their neck but hung it on the other party.

It didn’t take long for the word to get to the troother rank-and-file. As if ordered by Clinton and Maher, Pennsylvania Democrat Phil Berg, a former deputy attorney general, dismantled his website www.911forthetruth.com in October 2007. (It is now available only on the Wayback machine.) Berg is now a leading Obama ‘birther’ who has filed several bogus lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility even as he quietly pursues conspiracy-related 9/11 litigation.

I do think the article is a little unfair in the beginning; for the most part the liberals did not treat the 9-11 Truthers as friends; Daily Kos has had a standing ban against 9-11 Truther diaries since 2005. The Maher and Clinton incidents he points to were hardly a turning point; the Truthers were behind Ron Paul well before this, and were not some devious plot by Clinton and Maher to disassociate the Truthers from the Left. And he fails to note that in the general election, the 9-11 "Truth" candidate was Cynthia McKinney, hardly indicative of a swing to the right for the Troofers.

That said, the article does some terrific debunking on the Obama "birther" nonsense:

It is up to the Secretary of State or equivalent election officials of each state to ascertain whether a candidate for president of the Untied States is eligible to appear on that State’s election ballot. This is a process which was carried out in late 2007 as election officials prepared for the presidential primary season. All of the states—whether controlled by Democrat or Republican administrations—determined that Obama was indeed eligible to appear on their ballot.

He further notes that one candidate did not qualify:

Roger Calero, Presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party, openly states he was born in Nicaragua. He admittedly does not meet the Constitutional requirement that a U.S. president be a “natural born citizen.” As a result, the SWP was required to substitute the name of James Harris—a constitutionally eligible candidate—who appeared as the SWP candidate for President on the ballot in seven states (CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, LA, WA). The legally unqualified Calero was allowed on the ballot in his own name in six other states (CT, DE, MN, NJ, NY, VT). In 37 other states plus DC the SWP either did not seek ballot status or was denied a ballot position for other reasons.

Hat tip: Bwa-ha-ha-ha in the comments.