Wednesday, January 4, 2012

We’ve had our fill of ‘birther’ babble

Starting today, all eyes will be on New Hampshire in anticipation of Tuesday’s primary election, which once again could play a major role in determining the Republican presidential nominee for 2012.

So perhaps we should be thankful that state Rep. Larry Rappaport and his merry band of “birther” lawmakers chose Tuesday – a news day dominated by the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses some 1,300 miles away – to once again embarrass the state over their cockamamie crusade to keep President Barack Obama’s name off the Democratic primary ballot.

During a morning press conference in Concord, the Colebrook Republican, who was accompanied by some fellow GOP lawmakers, hand-delivered a signed affidavit to the office of Attorney General Michael Delaney, urging him once more to investigate whether the president is a U.S. citizen and therefore eligible to seek re-election to the nation’s highest elective office.

Specifically, the lawmakers cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and a Senate resolution that they say defines a “natural-born citizen” as one where both parents are citizens of the United States. Since the president’s father is a native of Kenya, they contend, Obama is not eligible to be president.

Under this argument, the fact that Obama was born in Hawaii – and thereby a citizen at birth under the 14th Amendment – doesn’t matter. While it may make him an American “citizen,” it does not make him a “natural born citizen” eligible to be president, a point never specifically addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Got all that?

If all this sounds familiar, it should. It was only seven weeks ago that the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission voted, 5-0, to reject a complaint filed on the lawmakers’ behalf by California attorney Orly Taitz to deny the president a spot on the Democratic primary ballot because of questions over the validity of his birth certificate and Social Security number.

To say the hearing didn’t end well – for either the commissioners or the state’s national image – would be an understatement:

n Rep. Harry Accornero, R-Laconia, accused the commissioners of “treason” in an embarrassing tirade that has since been viewed thousands of times on YouTube.

“We’re trying to defend the U.S. Constitution, and you’re sitting there saying a treasonous liar, who doesn’t even fit the description, goes on the ballot? How dare you!” he shouted. (Presumably, the “treasonous liar” in question is the president of the United States.)

n Rep. Susan DeLemus, R-Rochester, was so upset after the ruling that she stood over Assistant Attorney General Matt Mavrogeorge for a full minute, castigating him for not providing an immediate answer to her question.

n Later, Mavrogeorge and Assistant Secretary of State Karen Ladd felt it necessary to lock themselves in an office and call security, prompting investigations by the attorney general’s office and the Legislature’s protective services unit.

So far, the attorney general, New Hampshire Supreme Court and Ballot Law Commission have rejected all attempts to strip the president’s name from Tuesday’s ballot – and rightly so.

A controversy that should have been put to bed with the release of the president’s Honolulu birth certificate – both the short- and long-form versions – has now become a pointless exercise whose only accomplishment is holding New Hampshire up for public ridicule among the vast majority of Americans.

Just drop it.