The Hutchinson News‘ editorial board struggled some to endorse a candidate in the crowded Republican primary for Kansas’ 1st District U.S. House seat, in which all six candidates sound mostly the same. But in an endorsement published in Sunday’s editions, we settled on Salinan Tracey Mann as the best pick, saying he “at least shows the ability to be reasonable and straightforward with voters.”
We were wrong. And we withdraw that endorsement.
Quite simply, the reason is that it turns out Mann is what is known as a birther. He questions the citizenship of President Barack Obama despite evidence that is irrefutable to most objective, rational people – including a birth certificate released by the Hawaii secretary of state and birth announcements printed in Honolulu’s two major newspapers.
That this even continues as an issue is appalling, which is why we didn’t think to pose the question to Mann or any of the other candidates. …
Whether Mann truly doubts the president’s citizenship or is just saying so in another effort to appeal to the far-right extremists of his party and get elected we don’t know. Either way, it is unflattering and doesn’t demonstrate the kind of intellect we want representing us in Congress.
Hector Maldonado, a naturalized American citizen born in Mexico, running as a Republican from Missouri for the US Senate, is making a big show of having been asked to verify his citizenship in order to be placed on the ballot. It turns out Missouri election officials had checked the voter registration rolls, which sounds like a fairly routine thing, and found he hadn’t registered to vote before 2008.
The qualifications:
U. S. Senator – Art. I § 3 U. S. Constitution
* At least 30 years of age
* Citizen of United States for 9 years
* Resident of Missouri
Since the office of US Senator requires nine years as a citizen constitutionally, which couldn’t be determined by voter registration, since he only showed two of the necessary nine years, he was asked to provide proof of citizenship.
Big whoopy-doo.
I hope he does sue the Secretary of State of Missouri. The more Republicans making fools out of themselves this year, the better. Hector Maldonado candidate for US Senate
Guy wants to “exterminate” us domestic threats. Surely, though he clearly sees the President of the United States is número uno, when it comes to domestic threats, and all, he is not advocating anything, you know, iffy, that right wing nut jobs might try to fulfill his exterminatin’ wish. Is he? Nah. We’ll hear from him soon enough that he meant nothing by it.
This comes before the extermination, practically speaking: The Republican candidate for the US Senate intends to sue Missouri’s Secretary of State, instead of being all “childish” and “high school” and picketing her office, the way his voter pool might do.
GOP Senate candidate Hector Maldonado made a strong move this weekend to shore up the birther vote in the August primary. In the clip, you’ll see Maldonado explain how he thinks his rights were violated when the Secretary of State’s office asked for proof of U.S. citizenship when he filed to run for the Senate.
Yo, Hector! President Obama doesn’t have to show naturalization papers, like you did. He was born in the United States. The State of Hawaii certifies that fact.
One reason that Republicans are happy to have recruited Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.) to run against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) — the odds of a primary win by Republican Curtis Coleman have declined considerably. Coleman talks to the Tolbert Report blog:
Absolutely, the President must produce his birth certificate. I will find out what steps are available to require him to do so, and will take those steps aggressively and unrelentingly. I don’t know where the President was born, which is a matter of immense concern and Constitutional issue for all Americans. If he has nothing of consequence to hide, then there’s no acceptable reason not to have full disclosure.
The “I don’t know where the president was born” part prevents this one from being a case of a candidate just slipping up.
Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) has come forward and admitted that he was the one who yelled “baby killer” during the House debate on the health care bill last night. …
It should be noted that in addition to the “baby killer” outburst, Neugebauer is also a sponsor of the so-called “Birther Bill,” introduced by Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), to require presidential candidates “to include with the committee’s statement of organization a copy of the candidate’s birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution.”
The guy who wouldn’t appear onstage at CPAC with Birfer speaker Gary Kreep, is the new Attorney General in Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli. This seems worse to me, in a way, because at least Birfers believe in their wrong-headed cause. For Cuccinelli, it seems to be just something that might come in handy one of these days, since it’s not “beyond the realm of possibility” the usurpin’ mofo is a usurpin’ mofo, and, you know, there may come along someday, if we wish hard enough, a law we can spring as a usurpin’ mofo trap.
Q What can we do about Obama and the birth certificate thing?
CUCCINELLI: It will get tested in my view when someone… when he signs a law, and someone is convicted of violating it and one of their defenses will be it is not a law because someone qualified to be President didn’t sign it.
Q: Is that something you can do as Attorney General? Can you do that or something?
CUCCINELLI: Well only if there is a conflict where we are suing the federal government for a law they’ve passed. So it’s possible.
Q: Because we are talking about the possibility that he was not born in America.
CUCCINELLI: Right. But at the same time under Rule 11, Federal Rule 11, we gotta have proof of it.
Q: How can we get proof?
CUCCINELLI: Well… that’s a good question. Not one I’ve thought a lot about because it hasn’t been part of my campaign. Someone is going to have to come forward with nailed down testimony that he was born in place B, wherever that is. You know, the speculation is Kenya. And that doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility.
Actually, it’s pretty shocking to me that Cuccinelli didn’t just tell the questioner, look pal, the State of Hawaii certifies the President’s birth there and, as chief legal officer of the State of Virginia, I am obliged to follow the federal Full Faith and Credit Statute, just as I would expect Hawaii to do in the case of our own state certifications. It is the job of the United States Congress to remove a president from office, if that is warranted, not mine. Failing that, President Obama can be voted out of office. And it is beyond the realm of possibility that I, as Attorney General of Virginia, would lead you to believe otherwise.
Update: “I absolutely believe that President Obama was born in the United States.”
Back in 2008, [Jim] Schneller, a resident of Wayne, filed a lawsuit to prevent Pennsylvania’s electoral votes from being certified because, in his mind, there was insufficient proof that Obama was a natural-born citizen.
“I felt it was a matter of national urgency,” he said. “Ultimately, my petition was denied, but (the state Supreme Court) in accepting the brief told the world that I had a valid reason to entertain this petition.” …
In a press release at the time, Schneller wrote:
“
We have witnessed a treasonous coup by the Democratic Party and the Congress. The Supreme Court has had time to consider Mr. Obama’s acts and how his post-election activities relate to his subterfuge. How long do we have to pretend that this man is our president? What may have been novel, or overwhelming, in the realm of political equity, has disappeared, and the gentleman is to most voters an interloper and un-American.”
I read Schneller his own words. He didn’t seem to recognize them. …
As for the birth certificate issue, he’s decided to let it go.
“Once eight or nine courts toss it out (maybe it’s time),” he said. “It’s like an old pork roast in the freezer. Maybe it’s time to put it out for the trash man.”
Hayworth added, “Barack Obama is the president of the United States,” and, “To bring up a topic and to talk about it is not the same as endorsing a point of view.”
Last week in an interview with CNN’s Campbell Brown, Hayworth raised the issue of identity theft as one reason some members of the public might be concerned about Obama proving he is a U.S. citizen. Hayworth was responding to Brown’s query about comments he’d made in late January where he called on Obama personally to produce a birth certificate instead of relying on the State of Hawaii to do so.
In his Monday news conference, Hayworth, who recently left a stint as a conservative radio talk show host, said his earlier comments about Obama’s citizenship had been inspired by his time working in radio.
“I was talking in another context about what I was hearing on the radio,” Hayworth said.
That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? Believing what is blabbered on talk radio and what is circulated in false emails by your Aunt Suzie, taking it all as gospel, and then repeating it everywhere you go. That’s what Birthers and other wingers do with this president day in and day out. In my opinion, nobody with this level of critical thinking skills should be in public office, anywhere, or even run as a wannabe public official. It’s bad enough when constituents behave like ignorant nincompoops, without politicians jumping on the bandwagon and affirming the ignorance.
But this won’t end it for J.D. Hayworth, because he did not say, “I believe that Barack Obama is a NATURAL BORN American citizen.” So Birthers can go on believing J.D. Hayworth is one of them, wink wink.
Taking a hard time from ‘Baggers at a Town Hall Meeting, Hatch said the Tea Party movement is tearing the Republican Party apart.
“If we fractionalize the Republican Party, we are going to see more liberals elected,” Hatch warned a crowd of 300 at a town meeting at American Fork Junior High School on Wednesday night, amid jeers from Tea Party supporters.
Hatch blamed extreme conservatives for the 2008 defeat of Sen. Gordon Smith, a politically moderate but fiscally conservative Republican from Oregon. …
Along with dealing with Tea Party members, Hatch also fielded a question about whether Obama was legitimately qualified to be president.
Tami Wall, of Saratoga Springs, asked if the Senate was going to look into whether Obama was a natural-born U.S. citizen. The “Birther” movement claims that Obama was actually born in Kenya.
Hatch said it was a fair question, but it is one that has been put to rest. Obama, he said, was born to a U.S. mother in Hawaii.
“Who has seen the papers? Have you?” Wall asked.
“I am satisfied he fits the requirements [for the presidency],” Hatch said.
Gino DiSimone, running as an Independent, assures Dr. Orly Taitz, Esq. that, just as soon as he is Governor of Nevada, he is ready to take out the Usurpin’ Mofo in the White House, fast and hard.
Posted to her web site*:
Posted on | February 17, 2010 |
Gino DiSimone Says (#132):
February 16th, 2010 at 1:10 am
My name is Gino DiSimone and I am the leading Independent non-partisan candidate for Governor of Nevada. Immediately after I take the Governors seat, I will require the birth certificate and I will exercise all my executive powers to get this done! It will be the biggest issue you have ever seen. I have already laid the foundation to blow this wide open like never before and it will be from the executive powers of a Sovereign State Governor.
Please send my info around the USA. God be with us as we take this tyrant down, fast and hard. Your support is greatly appreciated.
–
Sincerely,
Gino DiSimone
Candidate, Governor of Nevada 2010, Independent non-partisan, GIN ! (Go Independent Nevada !
Last month on Chris Matthews, Teabagging challenger J.D. Hayworth came out as a Birther pol. Now he is letting John McCain know just what kind of fight he can expect in the Arizona primary race.
J.D. Hayworth has a warning for John McCain: Bring up Jack Abramoff and I’ll rehash the Keating Five scandal.
The former six-term congressman isn’t yet officially in the race but already the Arizona GOP Senate primary shows signs of turning into a bare-knuckle brawl.
“If John McCain really wants to make this a campaign about ties to lobbyists we will very forcefully respond to his outrageous conduct and Bahamian vacations with convicted banker Charlie Keating,” said Jason Rose, a spokesman for Hayworth.
Perhaps Sarah Palin, who has endorsed McCain, will be sent out to fight it out, Teabagger to Teabagger, along the campaign trail. Wouldn’t that be fun.
“Mr. Hayworth was the largest recipient of campaign contributions tied to the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Senator McCain led the investigation that exposed Abramoff’s corruption.”
A couple of widely debunked conspiracy theories — the “birther” and “truther” arguments — are getting mainstream attention in two of the country’s gubernatorial races. …
Republican Debra Medina, a candidate for governor in Texas, has said she has questions about whether the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks — echoing the members of the so-called 9/11 “Truther” movement, which rejects the accepted fact that Al Qaeda terrorists acted alone.
And in Georgia, Rep. Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor, has sent a letter to the White House asking President Obama to release his birth certificate — a request that is at the heart of the “birther” movement, which questions whether the president was born in Hawaii.
But Medina and Deal insist they are not part of those movements, which have drawn derision and scorn for focusing on conspiracy theories that lack evidence or have been proven false. …
