News
Andrew Breitbart
The profiteers who organized the tea bagger convention last weekend must have backed off their plan to ban the media from covering events in Nashville last weekend. C-SPAN was there, as were reporters from supposedly liberal sources like the New York Times. In fact, one report said there were 150 credentialed reporters to cover the 600 attendees — or one reporter for every four baggers.
But when it comes to coverage of the biggest kerfuffle of the event — a verbal brawl between Andrew Breitbart, a blogger who once referred to himself as Matt Drudge’s “bitch,” and WingNutDaily editor Joseph Farah, a leading proponent in the 1990s of the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton murdered Vince Foster — the action took place outside the event and would have been fair game to reporters even if there’d been a media blackout in the hall.
What sparked the contretemps was Farah’s use of his address Friday night to relaunch the tired and often-disproved claim that Pres. Obama was not born in the United States. The made-up controversy over Obama’s birth certificate has become a non-issue among right-wingers who are sufficiently sentient to understand that even if Obama were disqualified, it would be his vice president, Joe Biden, would become president — not his 2008 GOP rival, John McCain (who, by the way, really was born in the foreign nation of Panama).
In his address to his fellow baggers in Nashville — after a few minutes of hard-selling his books — he told a lame joke that ended with this punchline:
FARAH: we recently took a guy with no birth certificate, no brains and put him in the White House and now half the country is looking for work.
Then he launched into a rambling 10-minute screed about the birth certificate:
FARAH: You know, I have a dream. And my dream is that if Barack Obama even seeks re-election as president in 2012 that he won’t be able to go to any city, any town, any hamlet in America without seeing signs that ask “Where’s the Birth Certificate?”
It’s a simple question, and it has not been answered, despite what Bill O’Reilly will tell you. The rest of the media, they think it’s ridiculous, which makes me certain it’s one of the most important questions we can be asking…
But the media and the politicians, they keep pretending it’s all been settled. “You know, it’s all been proved.” I say if it’s been settled, show us the birth certificate. Simple.
(For video and transcript of Farah’s rebooting of the birther movement, click here.)
One of the reporters on hand for Farah’s speech was the Washington Independent’s David Weigel, who wrote later that conservative political types in the back of the room were heard “grumbling audibly” about Farah’s re-introduction of birtherism into tea bag movement. Among the most vocal was Breitbart, who has been in the news a lot lately because he is or was the employer of James O’Keefe, the alleged felonious prankster who was caught attempting to tamper with phones in a federal building in New Orleans. (It is unclear what, if anything, Breitbart paid O’Keefe to do and whether he knew what O’Keefe intended to commit a felony.)
Later in the evening, Weigel found Breitbart outside the hall being interviewed by Chelsea Schilling, an employee of Farah’s WorldNetDaily. Weigel later wrote that Schilling was holding a voice recorder in plain sight apparently to make it plain that Breitbart was speaking on the record:
“It’s self-indulgent, it’s narcissistic, it’s a losing issue,” Breitbart told Schilling. “It’s a losing situation. If you don’t have the frigging evidence … raising the question? You can do that to Republicans all day long. You have to disprove that you’re a racist! Forcing them to disprove something is a nightmare.”
“Wouldn’t you say,” asked Schilling, “in this case, that Farah is asking Obama to prove something rather than his disprove it?”
Breitbart rejected the premise. “When has a president ever been asked to prove his citizenship?”
Later, Weigel found Farah in the crowd and asked him if the convention’s organizers had approved his attempt to relaunch birtherism:
“They asked me to speak,” said Farah. “They didn’t ask me, ‘What do you want to speak about?’ No, this operates like a free and open society, not like the kind of Marxist society you would apparently like to be a journalist for.”
When Weigel told Farah that his birther reboot had been negatively received in the crowd, particularly by Breitbart, Farah spotted Breitbart in the crowd and stalked over to him and said:
“Andrew is my friend … He has the right to disagree, and he has the right to say anything to a socialist newspaper that he wants. And if he wants to criticize his friend to you, and he’s dumb enough to do that..”
Breitbart raised his eyebrows. “I’m dumb to do what?”
“Criticize your friend to this socialist newspaper.”
“I was talking to her,” said Breitbart, pointing to Schilling. “I was talking to you. And I was saying that I disagreed on the birther stuff… She was asking me if I thought it was was [sic] to bring it up, and I said, no. “
Breitbart schooled Farah on the use of the birth certificate controversy in politics, according to Weigel, saying it was “an argument for the primaries that did not take hold.” He argued that reintroducing birtherism now while there were substantive issues on the table would be distracting and make the tea bag movement look foolish. “[It’s] not a winning issue,” Breitbart said.
The argument then devolved into a sort of “uh-huh,” “hunh-uh” exchange during which Breitbart quickly found himself swinging at Farah’s conspiracist tar baby:
Farah said, “It is a winning issue!” to which Brietbart replied, “It’s not a winning issue,” to which Farah said, “It is!”
Breitbart is correct, of course. In the GOP primary election for the Illinois U.S. Senate seat last Tuesday, for example, a prominent birther, Andy Martin, came in fifth in a six-person race — and the four tea party candidates collectively only received 36 percent of the vote and were trounced by establishment candidate, whom Martin had publicly accused of being secretly gay and, worse, a “liberal.”
As their exchange continued, Breibart steamed as Farah grew more obtuse and condescending.
“Prove it!,” Breitbart said.
“Prove what?” Farah answered.
Breitbart: “Prove your case.”
“I should prove, what, a birth certificate that may or may not exist?” said Farah.
At that point, Farah played the “journalism card” — which is rich considering that he is a propagandist without a shred of credibility.
“You don’t even understand the fundamental tenets of what journalism is about, Andrew,” Farah said. “It’s not about proving things. It’s about asking questions and seeking truth.” (But aren’t “proving things” and “seeking truth” roughly the same pursuit?)
With tempers boiling Farah said, “I know you’re not a journalist, so that’s fine. But don’t diminish people who’ve been doing this for 35 years.”
“So you’re going to go on record saying that I’m not a journalist?” Breitbart said.
“Are you?” Farah answered, “I’ve never heard you claim to be. Are you?”
“I’ll let it be answered by you.”
“Well, I knew Drudge didn’t consider himself a journalist,” said Farah, “so I assumed that you were. … I don’t know, I’m not trying to insult you.”
“You did,” Breitbart answered.
Poor Breitbart. Just as Farah continued to promote the charge that Clinton killed Vince Foster even after three federal investigations, including one by no less an amoral right-wing ideologue than Ken Starr, had ruled the death a suicide, Farah is not likely to let go of the birth certificate controversy, even though the matter has been litigated all the way up to the Republican-controlled U.S. Supreme Court.
Breitbart must know he is on the losing side on this one. He also knows that, short of a sex scandal involving Sarah Palin and a dead boy or a live girl, few things can do more damage to the tea bagger movement in the eyes of normal Americans and independent voters than reviving the quest to prove the unprovable: that Barack Obama was not born in Honolulu.
Topics: News
I knew that the TEA Party convention would turn out to be like a daytime soap. You had politicians reminiscing about the glory days of the South, bad guys fighting over whose misleading message was better, Sister Sarah getting caught in class with crib notes and the angry mob was left to pay the tax, aka tab, for the whole show.
No matter how bad things look for the O man and the Democrats right now they are much worse for the GOP as long as the TEA Party exists.
In 2011 the “giant sucking sound” the Republicans will fear will be “Run Sarah Run” as the campaign dollars and the boots on the ground turn and walk away from Ronald Reagan’s coalition of religion, racism and economic rulers!
Even Farah’s World Nut Daily has stated that the president’s birth certificate was valid. Although Farah won’t admit it, his continued attempt to delegitimize President Obama has deeper roots that, if exposed to the light, he’d vehemently deny, and since I’m an African American over 50, I’ll identify Farah’s real problem: there’s an intelligent African American male currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and Farah doesn’t believe any AA belongs there. And I’m willing to say on the record that Farah probably thinks that having an AA in the WH corrodes what many America’s exceptionalism. He and others who think in a similar manner fail to realize that America’s exceptionalism exists BECAUSE this country provides an opportunity for all citizens to reach their highest potential, not just a favored few. People like Farah pose a serious threat to our democracy because their ideal vision for America is one in which only certain people have full constitutional rights.
***what many call America’s exceptionalism***
WHAT? How did I miss this?
“often-disproved claim that Pres. Obama was not born in the United States.”
When did this get disproved? Didn’t happen Ponder?
We won the election and now these sore losers will continue to spew your hate with lies. The way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked lies, then, and only then, you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called facts that they present. Let’s face it no one will go along with you until you guys win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. Keep plucking that chicken.
jai – First of all, you do understand that Hawaii is in the United States, right? Just checking.
This nonsense was disproved when it went all the way to the Supreme Court and your boy, Justice Antonin Scalia, reviewed it and refused to hear it. If there was any possible way he could have, Scalia would have lied, cheated or stolen to replace Obama with McCain — as he did when he and the others replaced the legitimately elected president, Al Gore, with the half-wit George Bush. If Scalia didn’t buy the birthers’ fantasies, it had to be bullshit.
Also, why did your Dear Leader, Sister Sarah, not call Obama out on this when she was running against him with McCain?
My take is that birthers are all on heavy hallucinogens. How else could someone come up with the idea that al Qaeda (I guess) went back in time, faked a birth certificate in Hawaii and even ran birth announcements in both Honolulu daily newspapers the day after Obama was born in Kenya or Indonesia or wherever?
I know… I know… Facts don’t matter, but that’s okay because normal Americans know this ain’t about Obama’s birth certificate. It’s about birthers’ refusal to accept the fact that a black man was elected president.
But listen, keep it up. Normal people think you’re all fools — and so the more you push this birth certificate crap, the more you increase the likelihood Obama will win a second term in a landslide.
To all the Birthers, prove it, Oh thats right you can’t, just more of your unsubstantiated rumors you keep writing on your hands to help you keep up. You are just another Palin, just like “W”, just like Quayle, just like Reagan. I love you guys. Keep plucking that chicken.
Jon,
Doesn’t matter if Hawaii is on the moon. Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii or else he would not be spending YOUR money to hide the documents that would prove it.
Jon baby, you better check YOUR facts. And while you’re at it, get a clue what your terms mean. The Obama birth case was never reviewed by Scalia or anyone else on the Supreme Court. They did not review it and they did not “dismiss” it. They “denied” it. That means the Clintonistas didn’t even read it. They knew if they did, they’d have to find Obama ineligible for the office of President. Even if they only based that finding on Obama’s own admission in his ridiculous books where he says his father was not a U.S. Citizen. The Constitution requires a candidate for President to be a ‘natural born citizen’ meaning he has to have two parents who are American citizens and also be born on U.S. soil. Thus by his own admission, Obama is disqualified under the U.S. Constitution fo the office of President.
Sarah Palin did not call Obama out on this when she was running against him with McCain because McCain was afraid to call him out. McCain is not a natural born citizen either. He ran only as a result of an end run around legislation by Obama and Hilary who passed a legally unenforceable ‘Senate Reslution” supporting his candidacy because they knew they could beat the old codger.
Nobody went back in time to forge a Birth Certificate or anything else. Obama’s cronies photoshopped the Certificate of Live Birth while he was running for office. They probably didn’t know that a Certificate of Live Birth is not the same as a Birth Certificate. And their work looks like something photoshopped by a first grader. Nonetheless, the super intelligent libertards fell for it. Then after the photoshopped Certificate of Live Birth was exposed, they photoshopped a couple of newspaper columns. Look up the post they put online. The announcements are so crooked even my child could do a better job.
Facts do matter, except to the drugged out, mesmerized, stoned out and stupid followers of Obama who follow him as blindly as the followers of Jim Jones. Like Jim Jones followers, they first gave the poison of a communist country to their children and now they’re taking it themselves in the form of the Stimulus and Obamacare which has bankrupted our country. Obama has already given his poison to our kids and now you libs are sipping the kookaid. Just keep sucking on that koolaid baby. Us Conservatives are finally feeling our oats. Your messiah is on his way OUT of office, out of the country or into jail.
And blaming it on his color is an out-dated tactic. The libs have worn that it out. Nobody’s falling for that anymore. And as far as a landslide goes, the only landslide in Obama’s future is his downill slide to either jail or deportation. BTW, his popularity plummeted another 20 points today.
Grow up Jon boy. You’re on the losing team. Obama is a faud and you’ve been chumped.
jai — here a few questions I hope you’ll answer:
Is it the policy of the state of Hawaii to release what it calls “certifications of live birth” rather than “birth certificates?”
What evidence is there that Stanley Dunham Obama, age 18, was out of the country when she gave birth on Aug. 4, 1961?
Who placed the birth announcements in the Honolulu newspapers, and why did they do it?
What birth certificate was shown when Obama traveled to Indonesia at age 6?
What birth certificate did he provide when got his driver’s license in Hawaii at age 16?
If the document he used those two times was fake, who faked it and why?
Please provide a citation for your assertion that in order to be a “natural born citizen” a person’s parents must both be U.S. citizens.
Also, please provide a link to the Senate resolution passed by sens. Clinton and Obama supporting McCain’s candidacy.
Finally, it’s absurd to say the Berg matter was not reviewed by the Supreme Court, and specifically by Scalia, before he passed on it. All the cases have to be read in order to determine whether the court will hear them — otherwise, what? the Supremes decide whether to hear a case based solely on its title? Besides, Scalia is a political hack of the first order — as are John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, and they can usually get Kennedy to go along with them. It defies common sense to suggest they wouldn’t have been keenly interested to know whether Berg provided grounds to overturn Obama’s election.
To Jai: Here is the constitutional def. of a natural born citizen:
“Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years
Seeing as Obama’s mother was a citizen of the United States it doesn’t matter who his father is, whether his father was a citizen or where Obama was born. This whole issue was also investigated when vetting John McCain as he was born in Panama to US citizens. Unfortunately for you, but fortunately for the rest of us, the US doesn’t get to pick and choose who the laws apply to. Or do you only uphold the constitution you teabggers profess to hold in such high regard when it only suits your purpose?