Monday, March 28, 2011

Aiming at President Obama, the Republicans may take out the Donald, too...

The Republicans in the Arizona Legislature have revived their "birther" bill (strikers to HB2177 and SB1157) in an attempt to play up to the "birther" wing of their own party, people who insist that the first African-American president must have been born in Africa, not Hawaii.

The striker to HB2177 was approved by the Senate Rules committee on Monday and is scheduled for caucus consideration on Tuesday, setting it up for floor action this week or next.

The striker to SB1157 is awaiting a hearing before House Rules.

The strangely interesting part has been watching the various Republican contenders/pretenders for the race for the presidency try to jump on the birther bandwagon.

It's especially interesting when one of those would-be bandwagon jumpers misjudge their leap and smacks his chin on the wagon's gate -

The most recent example: Donald Trump, who released his birth certificate on Monday after going on Fox News (where else? :) ) to roll in the birther muck.

One problem - the birth certificate released by Trump isn't a legal birth certificate.

From The Smoking Gun (hat tip to Taegan Goddard's PoliticalWire for this) -
“It’s inconceivable that, after four years of questioning, the president still hasn’t produced his birth certificate,” Trump told Newsmax. “I’m just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate. Why’s he making an issue out of this?" To prove how easy it was for a household employee to find his birth certificate, Trump, 64, crowed, “It took me one hour to get my birth certificate.”


As seen above, he provided the conservative web site with what he purports to be his birth certificate.

Except the document is not an official New York City birth certificate, but rather a document generated by Jamaica Hospital, where Trump’s mother Mary reportedly gave birth in June 1946. Official birth certificates are issued (and maintained) by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of Vital Records.
Oopsie.

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