Richard Shelby Goes There, Suggests Obama May Be Illegal President (UPDATED: Or did he?)

Michael, how do you explain the LA Times' Andrew Malcolm starting out a piece yesterday about Alan Keyes' (typically) unhinged anti-Obama rant -- including questioning Obama's presidential legitimacy on the basis of the birth certificate claim -- thusly:
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The controversy over the validity of Barack Obama's birth certificate is back on a burner with firebrand conservative Alan Keyes making serious new charges.

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Alan Keyes making "serious" charges? And what's "new" about Keyes' lunacy? Keyes' lawsuit on the subject was dismissed in January.
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One has to wonder why a so-called "legitimate news organization" like the LA Times would permit that kind of garbage to be published under Malcolm's byline.
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No surprise, really, that Shelby picked up the tinfoil baton. He's another clown in the mold of Inhofe. Let's remember that dinosaurs roamed the Earth only 6,000 years ago...

Unprintable opinion:

What drives me most crazy about the birth certificate issue is.. his mother was American, correct? So the birth certificate doesn't matter. Natural Born = American from the moment of birth. American parent? American child. Location only matters to children of non-citizens.

One can safely assume that a clarification will be forthcoming.
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Or one can more safely assume that this will go down in history as another 'zombie lie' that will continue to resurface from the grave after every debunking.
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This is where merely repeatedly pointing out the truth is inadequate. Absolute ridicule seems to me the only approriate response. And I'm referring to it coming from within the press corps. After all, devotion to discovering truth is the noble calling to which you aspire.

And what has happened to reduce the GOP to the party that, literally, celebrates ignorance?
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It is not healthy for the nation to have the opposition party be so ignorant, purposely or otherwise.

What a gallery of Scumbags: Alan Keyes: is this man still getting space in the papers? Really? In the LA Times? Don't they have serious problems in California? Richard Shelby: still smarting from the fact that his clock was cleaned on the Stimulus issue?

Well then, as someone else has pointed out, shouldn't we be demanding, at least as vociferously, for the bonafides of the Republican's great young[sic] hope for 2012 ? Where the heck is Bobby Jindel's birth certificate ? Where the heck was that boy born ? Is he one o' us ???
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Really, shouldn't we be ?

The MSM won't ridicule him, they'll continue to have him on, but not Noam Chomsky...he's a radical. The fact that the media, which doesn't do facts, HAS debunked THIS, is indicative of the idiocy of the claim. I wouldn't assume that he'll back away though, he's playing to the base...have I mentioned how ignorant, backwards, nationalistic and violent these white heartlanders are? I think I might have mentioned it once or twice:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/02/delightful.php

Shelby has --cynicallly, dishonestly, poisonously-- thrown some red meat to the Howler Monkeys that he and his kind hold in as much (probably more, actually) contempt as the rest of us do, but that he and his kind must and will contintue to exploit to stave off political irrelevence. He will, no doubt, issue that 'clarification' MS predicts. And he, or McConnell or Cantor or Palin or McHenry, will throw the Howler Monkeys some more meat next week or next month, which may or may not show up on the MSM's radar. If it does, he/they will issue another 'clarification', and so on, and so on, and ever on again.
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The question is, will the Guardians of our political discourse continue to treat Shelby, and Palin, and McConnell as serious participants in that discourse. Will they have the courage to call Shelby out for the slimy demagogue he is, or will terror of Limbaugh and O'Reilly lead them to say "Some on the left were outraged by what they saw as Senator Shelby's..."
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Well, that's not really a question at this point, is it?

I think this is AWESOME. Just like when the legislators in my home state of Tennessee signed on to the lawsuit. There is no better way to illustrate how out of touch with reality and the tone of the country than quotes like Shelby's. I hope that Cantor, Boehner, Inhofe, Bachmann and the rest of the WingNuts in Congress follow suit. What they don't seem to get is that President Obama's approval ratings are well over 60 and challenging his citizenship was an EPIC FAIL during the campaign. For them to go back down the road just shows to average Americans how desperate they are and explains again exposes that they aren't really making an honest effort at bipartisanship. I mean how will Shelby now convince people that he wants to negotiate in good faith with a President that evidently he thinks isn't legitimate.
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MORE OF THIS PLEASE.
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Oh and Scherer a good young journalist would take a straw poll of Republican Congress persons who agree with Shelby before the spot gets too hot and they try to walk it back. Not saying you are that good young journalist but I do think it wouldd make for one helluva article exposing the two Americas we live in. One might even envision some kind of prize for such an article.

Is there any correlation between this and belief in creationism?

I believe Sentor Shelby should have to prove that he was actually "born," rather than having escaped from a bad episode of Beevis and Butthead.

Just like Rush Limbaugh's wish for the failure of Obama (therefore the failure of America), Shelby's comments represent the "mainstream" of the modern day Republican party. As palininatowel points out, the Republcian party celebrates ignorance. As long as the Republicans continue to embrace this strategy, they will continue to suffer electoral failures.

@Joyomama - I have often wondered about doing a poll to see if such a correlation exists (is there a correlation between being Republican and hating science? is there a correlation between being Republican and hating immigrants? seem like broader questions to start with)

re: scherer's post, no wonder the Southern Republicans don't want to work in good faith with Obama - to them, he's not a legit American. Also, I love how these dudes come from welfare states (the same concept that Reagan railed against, no?) taking blue state taxpayer money and then they whine about a stimulus package. Not to mention they come from the states that have some of the nation's worst healthcare and education systems. I feel bad for the citizens they claim to represent. They can hit back all they want at Northerners being "judgmental" about their states but the proof is in the pudding.

It's all of a piece. The repugs are, quite literally, going full bore insane right in front of us as they are confronted with a Democrat who is pursuing democratic initiatives in a country that approves of these initiatives by a clear margin. Earlier today, Steve Benen noted: It seems a little early in Obama's presidency to see Republicans become this deranged. I shudder to think how unhinged they'll be in, say, a year.
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Of course, the lunatic fringe is Beck and crew. sgw: At a time of great crisis in this country they choose to try to exort our citizens to take to the streets and engage in violent acts against their government primarily because President Obama is now in charge. I know that the media is affording wide latitude with our country's protection of free speech but how this "report" isn't the very definition of an act of treason I will never know. There is absolutely no acknowledgement that there are people in this country who aren't right in the head and will take this "report" as a sign that they need to act. And my question is if and or when that happens will FoxNews and Glen Beck be held liable?

To quote John Boehner: Oh...My...God...

Shelby cannot be serious about this. Do you know the potential chaos that will erupt from the right-wing fringe now that a "respectable" sitting U.S. Senator has endorsed their divisive and downright frightening views? Is the Obama presidency literally going to be challenged on its legitimacy?

And the Right keeps screaming about how the Dems wouldn't give up on Gore's "loss." This is ten times beyond the Gore controversy.

http://www.political-buzz.com/

thanks for linking wvng
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affording should be afforded. fixt

What Paul Dirks said. GOP politicians, like GOP columnists, are never held accountable for their lies.
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Not by the mainstream media, which for some peculiar, path-dependent reason exalts finding a middle ground over factual accuracy. And certainly not by the GOP or its paramedia, which lives on another planet.

I wonder when McCain will jump on the 'not a citizen' bandwagon?

I suspect John "Panama" McCain will be suitably silent, while the lunatics run around the asylum. Heroic statements of reality and principle just don't appeal to our former presidential wannabe.

Shelby was just cheap pandering to his rabid constiuency. What more would you expect? But Keyes is another story. The man is seriously disburbed and the media flocks to him for the tabloid headline tactic that all msm, print and electronic have adopted. May I suggest to them that the local residential psychiatric facilities would prove as fertile grounds for such insights as Keyes provides?

Michael Scherer:
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You're a liar. There is indeed "serious doubt". The Snopes page you link to just synthesizes others' work, and Snopes isn't a reliable source. The FactCheck page you link to contains a blatant lie.
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For the truth about this matter, read this over and over until you understand the issue.
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If you disagree:
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1. Cite an *original source* at a government agency verifying the cert. Note: only original sources count.
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2. Direct us to the part of the 10/31 statement from HI where they verify where he was born. Once again: only the original source counts.
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Scherer: let's see you do this again, but pretend you're a real reporter this time. See if you can answer those two questions using *original sources*, and see if you can stop lying.

kattest,
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Me thinks your metallic lid may be strapped too tightly to your noggin. Is your nose cold?

Mr Keyes, I recognize that you crave acknowledgment as the Roland Burris of your party, but you'd be better off posting under your own name, rather than as kattest123. Same lunatic arguments, but more dignity.

I keep thinking who is the most ridiculous Republican in Congress and everyday I have to change my mind . First there was Vitter, then Cornyn , then Dr. No Cantor , then Hissy Fit Lindsey , then the Taliban group , then all the hypocrites who voted against the stimulus and then take credit for the jobs going to their area.
And of course ,there is John McFeign Outrage who talks about a generational theft and then proposes a 2.5 trillion tax cut. Each day they go deeper in the ditch. Didn't Ditch McConnell claim the New Deal caused the depression?. And now DICK Shelby. They are not a political party , they are a heap of manure