A year? Give 'em a week. It's going to make the GOP's rhetoric over the stimulus bill look like an afternoon tea party.

This is all they have left right now-- lie, obstruct and obsfucate everything Obama and the dems do. Truth and facts be damned. They are smart enough to realize that if any of Obama's plans actually work, if we're on more solid footing a year or two from now, it will completely undermine the GOP's decades of trying to convince (and prove it when they can) that government isn't good for anything.

Oops, left out a critical part of my first sentence-- the subject. When Obama's budget comes out the GOP will be swooning and screaming like their lives depend on it.

I would expect this kind of crazy from Jeff Sessions, but Shelby was kind of sane for an Alabama republican. Must be in the water...

Oh well, back to apologizing for Alabama.

Yes, Shelby was sane, at least in comparison to Jeremiah Denton, who Shelby beat to become Senator, back when Shelby was a Democrat.

I hope that these people are being watched *very* closely by the Government, especially the Secret Service - they're just the type to pull a "Babylon 5" - type military coup. One that would utterly end up destroying the country, if not the world.

Please keep up the great work, Mr. Benen and Ms. Hilzoy!

-knightphoenix2

I hope that these people are being watched *very* closely by the Government, especially the Secret Service - they're just the type to pull a "Babylon 5" - type military coup. One that would utterly end up destroying the country, if not the world.

Please keep up the great work, Mr. Benen and Ms. Hilzoy!

-knightphoenix2

Has anyone seen Shelby's birth certificate? Can he even PROVE that he is a human and not an android or space alien in disguise? I'm not talking about state health departments and raised seals here, I'm talking about PROOF! You know, the kind of proof that satisfies right wing conspiracy theorists...i.e., the kind that agrees with their preconceptions.

Senator Shelby: Buffoon, Ignoramus, or Lunatic? You make the call.

I recall reading that John McCain was born in Panama, which, if you really want to split legal hairs, brings his citizenship into question. That technicality was ignored during the election, thank goodness.

In the days of yore, when an afternon newspaper was dropped on your doorstep and half an hour of Walter Cronkite delivered the 'news', the Republicans could make shit up and not be questioned on their veracity.

Limbaugh can still fool some of the people some of the time, and his dittoheads all of the time, but now that we have the web and 24/7 cable you can't get away with that, so much.

The GOP still hasn't realized this.

Isn't the ongoing effort to dissprove Obama's citizenship the same thing as harping on the fact that Bush was "stupid" and comes from a "wealthy" family?

Hypocrits.

The right is on the path toward bigfoot investigations, moon landing conspiracies, and anal probe wielding alien abductors. I'm afraid there's no end in sight for their rocky divorce from reality.

It's clear that the only sane Republican is an ex-Republican.

Anyone going to Shelby's website (http://shelby.senate.gov/public) can plainly see the man isn't wearing an American flag lapel pin in the picture at the top of the page. He's obviously a communist and shouldn't be trusted.

Ditto seriously's comment on Shelby's birth certificate. I haven't seen it either. What's Shelby hiding?

This is all about claiming that the government is illegitimate and foreign, as it is a lot easier to drive a truck bomb into the front of an illegitimate federal building than a legitimate one.

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.

You shudder a lot, don't you.

Sounds to me Shelby is asking for a good old fashion fist fight!

Whatever happened to Americans of "stature" unequivocally stating the facts? Instead, we get ambiguities and deflection, all for political gamesmanship. Shelby is a whore! -Kevo

You guys just don't seem to understand that any "proof" offered - like the "birth certificate" or the "newspaper annonement" - is just further evidence of the depth and breadth of the conspiracy!

Keep digging. This is good news for America. The first round of rightwing attack on a Dem president, with Clinton, was tragedy. The second with even flimsier conspiracy theories floating around Obama is farce. Meanwhile the GOP becomes more and the party of the Alabama right.

Sorry about the accidental double post above.

If the Moderator is online, please feel free to remove the duplicate post. Thanks.

-knightphoenix2

The Republicans have been purging moderates and independent conservatives for 15 or 20 years. They campaign with slogans and smears, and by now, slogans and smears are all they know. They really believe what they're saying, which is a very bad thing.

The real leaders of the Republican Party are Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Grover Norquist, and whoever it is that leads the neocons and conservative Christians these days. Republican elected officials are zombie slaves, utterly obedient to their masters.

It is getting hard to describe the current state of Republican politicians, but "zombie slaves" is good and accurate.

It is getting hard to describe the current state of Republican politicians, but "zombie slaves" is good and accurate.
I sort of like "Insane Clown Posse".

The only thing left to do with the Republican Party is throw a tent over it and charge admission.

My favorite part of Shelby's comment was "...and they said he was born in Hawaii..." Now, the context is somewhat ambiguous, but is Shelby saying Hawai'i is not part of the USofA?

Wait, he said that AFTER the Inauguration?

So, Selby is actually suggesting that the President of the United States is, somehow, not legitimately in the office? That the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court had no business swearing him in (twice)? That, since January 20th, the entire executive branch of the United States has been illegal, and our military is without a commander-in-chief?

You'd think that, if that were true, it would be a national and global crisis, and a United States Senator would have the responsibility to take action to save us, not just mumble about it to small town audiences back home.

If, instead, a United States Senator didn't do anything, but instead made comments like that, comments which now serve only to delegitimize the elected and established government of the United States, I'd have to ask if the Senator was familiar with the word "sedition" and ask him if considers sedition during wartime to be a high crime worthy of execution.

Many on the right are obviously suffering from what is called True Believer Syndrome. The syndrome offers relief from cognitive dissonance at the cost of denying reality. Sufferers have erected a psychological wall to exclude contradictory reality. Confronted with this reality, all I can say is, 'Mr. Obama tear down these walls!'

biggerbox even though your post is somewhat tongue in cheek I believe your on to something here. These assholes are really anti-american in that they are only interested in how much money their masters can attain. They have no concern for the welfare of the people of the country as a hole.

Yes Gandalf...and if they have their way we'll all (including them) be in a deeper hole.

Again, its not a trip to the wilderness the Republicans are going for. They are headed into the abyss and what comes out the other end will be either a totally different even more irrelevant party or two separate parties split between the truth moderates and the face painters. Either way they are sewing the seeds of their own destruction and I will be around to cheer them on. In all actuality I want MORE Republican Congress persons to jump on this band wagon. Get Inhofe on, and Bachmann. I am sure Cantor wouldn't mind signing up for the crazy train. The more the merrier to have them talk their way out of Congress.

Sedevacantism.

For Baptists.

You know, I've always thought that Shelby was, for a southern Republican, not quite so deranged as the rest of them. Clearly, I was mistaken.

Donald, the implication is "they say he was born in Hawaii"...AND YOU KNOW HOW "THOSE PEOPLE" LIE!

That's the elephant int the room as far as these dilholes are concerned. Whether "those people" are blacks, libs, dems or terrorist sympathizers, on the right, that's all tomayto tomahto. The right thinks "they ain't like us, us loves Murka, ergo they ain't like Murka n' don't love Murka & must be stopped before Murka ain't Murka no more, cue ee dee."

It is getting hard to describe the current state of Republican politicians, but "zombie slaves" is good and accurate. I sort of like "Insane Clown Posse". Posted by: Dennis-SGMM on February 22, 2009 at 11:29 AM

Except that ICP can be kind of fun to listen to at parties.

Republicans, not so much.

"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"

Hows about in 8 years, where the world is more stable stable politically and economically, and 70+% of Republicans in Congress are from the south; ie. the Republican "values" have been rejected by all of the country except the south, which is their only base left. If Obama has a successful two-term presidency, the Republican party will be a regional party, only able to hurt those that still believe in them. The south, and Republicans, deserve each other.

What proof do we have of the Republicans' citizenship? Faked documents and computer records? Pretty thin, pretty thin.

Get the camps ready.

Hey, DAY: In the old days of Uncle Walter, Chet and David, and Howard K., the networks were not corporately owned. They had to get it right or else. Now, I wouldn't trust the cable networks much less than the broadcast networks. Its all about money coming in.

Being delusional means creating your own reality if you don't like or can't tolerate the more common one around you. That's what the Rethugs did over and over again for the past eight years, and used their well-oiled propaganda machine to sell. The more demented among them obviously think times haven't changed.

How far will they go? When the deranged delusional types persuade themselves they have to take matters into their own hands anything can happen. When a smaller and smaller minority comes to believe zealously they must save the country from itself then the president will be in great jeopardy. The more successful Obama becomes the more in danger he is. Witness the obscene New York Post cartoon this past week, and the lunatic ravings of Lush Bimbo, which serve to give the lunatics permission to act on their convictions.

Dick Shelby

Need we say more?

I think Shelby's conduct throughout the economic crisis has been craven and despicable. He is not responsible. He is a hack.

a leading House Republican ... a prominent Senate Republican ... and a leading Senate Republican ...

... all worthy of the label, "Enemy of the Republic." They are not going to go away peacefully; their propaganda network assures us of the truth in that aspect, and the rhetoric has already ramped up beyond any imaginable "point of no return."

We are, unfortunately, rapidly approaching the moment in time where each must make the hard choice; to lie down in surrender and become the lower caste to the GOP's terrorism, or to stand and fight. I, for one, will not surrender my country or my family to these rabid pigs.

THIS is why the Founders wrote the 2nd Amendment---to fight those who would usurp the Constitution and place the People into sociophilosophical slavery.

Despite the form of my earlier comment, I am actually pretty mad about this. Shelby is really doing something despicable - it's his duty to defend the legitimacy of our government, and he should have politely but firmly shot down any implication that the President is not fully qualified and duly elected, sworn and inaugurated.

Again the Republicans benefit from the lack of a left-wing echo chamber. Had a Democratic Senator said such a thing about a Republican President, Drudge and Limbaugh would have made it the focus of several news cycles, and his 'disloyalty' would be the talk of cable news channels for days.

Why does Richard Shelby hate America?

I am white. I am not a traditional liberal: I don't even like affirmative action. I hate the constant cry of 'racist' to anyone who disagrees with the left position.

But.

I listen to the Repubs and all I can think is: "He's black. Deal with it."

Google: "alan keyes" mental illness

Ding!

Shelby isn't just some random yahoo with a right-wing radio talk-show; he's a four-term United States senator.

When it comes to Republicans, I really fail to see the difference.

I remain convinced the GOP hoisted its reality anchor when Bush Big Lied the nation into unleashing war. In conjusnction with a equally guilty democratic establishment, they aided and abetted that treason every step of the way and then lacked the moral courage to declare it treason (once the monstrous WMD rationale was exposed as birthed from thin air). They've since concocted ever more egregious lies, first to obscure the enormity of that war crime, and then as a matter of bad political habit, on different issues across the board.

Isn't the ongoing effort to dissprove Obama's citizenship the same thing as harping on the fact that Bush was "stupid" and comes from a "wealthy" family?

Hypocrits.
Posted by: dead freight mike
-----------

Yep, in the sense that "dry" is the same thing as "wet".

Or were you trying to say that Bush is actually a smart kid from a hardscrabble po' family and this is documented somewhere?

The Internet Says It,
I Believe It, And
-- That Settles It

Why is it that most of the Republican states, as Alabama (red states) ARE KNOWN AS THE WELFARE STATES,they get about $1.50 back for every dollar in tax they pay.Not so most of the blue states, yet the repubs always paint the dems as welfare lovers.

If Obama's mother was American, what does it matter where he was born? Isn't the question that he was born an American citizen? Would not the fact that his mother, an American citizen, make him an American citizen?

It's far more annoying to have elected Republican officials in Tennessee signing on as plaintiffs in a lawsuit "aimed at forcing" the President to "prove he is a United States citizen."

I'm sure this has been raised elsewhere, but it occurs to me that if the fringers can even get people TALKING about the idea that it MIGHT be legitimate to force the President to "show his papers," it gets a lot easier to force anyone on the street to show theirs.

"I shudder to think how unhinged they'll be in, say, a year."

What do you mean "unhinged?" These are tha same people who called American citizens traitors for questioning Bush's march to war in Iraq despite mountains of evidence there were no WMD. They dropped everything to kowtow to the religious right about Terri Shaivo. Lunacy is their trademark.

They're Republicans, they have no shame.

From Ben Smith's blog, linked in this post:

UPDATE: Graffeo calls to say that the Cullman Times report is a "distortion" and that Shelby mentioned that he hadn't seen the birth certificate only as a "throwaway line" while listing the qualifications for office and explaining that the issue had been examined at length and put to rest.

"He doesn't have any doubt" about Obama's citizenship and eligibility, Graffeo said.

I think Sen. Shelby was tipsy, or bemused, or maybe even snot-flying drunk.

Let the retractions begin.

"I shudder to think how unhinged they'll be in, say, a year."

So, today they're simply raving lunatics. In a year, they'll be stark raving lunatics? Seems to be a distinction without a difference. Nuts is nuts.

Hypocrits.
Posted by: dead freight mike
-----------

Yep, in the sense that "dry" is the same thing as "wet".

Or were you trying to say that Bush is actually a smart kid from a hardscrabble po' family and this is documented somewhere?

I guess you didn't notice that "Dead Freight Mike" rhymes with "Red State Mike," which means you obviously don't recognize snark when you read it.

"Dead Freight Mike" rhymes with "Red State Mike," etc...
=====

To which I say, aw shit, undone by the snark thing again. I never could hunt worth a damn.

I recall reading that John McCain was born in Panama...

That was actually part of the plan to make Sarah Palin president.

I write as a person who graduated the same college as Senator Shelby--though I came along a bit earlier (during the Montgomery bus boycott).

Well educated and having traveled the world many times over, when I go to my great great parents'county, I recall what my Mother
told me many years ago,"Be careful what you say to people who may 'do their own lawin'." I love
all sorts and conditions of the people in my
home county.

Recently,I wrote a letter to my old home town paper (subscribed by my family since 1875) and
criticized an up and coming radically right wing
young man--who was charged with a crime.

The next week, there was not one advertisement--not one--in the paper. A distant cousin--of another belief--wrote a diatribe to me that all but burned up the page. No more letters to the editor from me for ever after.

That is the kind of risk Senator Shelby has to take if he is to be a savvy and successful politician.

When my parents taught in small rural schools in the late 30's--early 40's, they were masterful in seeming to agree--to whatever was said;otherwise they would have lost their jobs. That is not a lie; it is survival.

What Senator Shelby said in Cullman does not surprise me in the least.In Cullman, Montgomery,
Troy, and Mobile all have a different shading of
speech and of political thinking. A politician
cannot be just one person with one voice of ideas.

In writing this, I recall Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom" novel. A new Canadian at Harvard asked his Mississippi room mate Quentin, "What is the South like?" He could never quite catch what to say, and at last walked outside under the iron New England sky saying, "I don't hate the South. I don't." That has been the quandary of the
Southerner.

I send Mr.Shelby a note from time to time, but I do not flog him for using English in a variety of tones--as every good politician knows.

Pol said "If Obama's mother was American, what does it matter where he was born? Isn't the question that he was born an American citizen? Would not the fact that his mother, an American citizen, make him an American citizen?"

My nephew is a natural born US citizen married to an Australian woman living in Melbourne. They had a daughter two years ago, born in Melbourne. And at that time he explained to me that there are rules about how recently the US citizen had lived in the US, how long they'd been away, etc. etc. "Inheriting" citizenship isn't absolutely automatic.

Try to remember, Republicans include people that think the fossil record was fabricated by God to test the faith of those who might be inclined to think it was evidence for evolution.

Fabrication of a birth certificate isn't hard to doubt if you're ready to swallow that whopper, now is it?

Shelby and the GOP lie like they breathe. Why we take these cretins seriously is beyond me. They aren't well, they don't do well, and we don't need them. So, please GOP. Go away and take your mouthbreathers with you.

Let's be clear about what Shelby,Limbaugh, and Keyes are up to. What they are doing is not politics, it's incitement to treason and murder. They are spreading scurrilous lies to deligitemize the results of the election. The Senate should censor and expel Shelby.

Republicans who are afraid to denounce them deserve the same condemnation.

Of course, the Republicans are in the denial stage of grief.

Republicans are stunned that the American people would elect a president who would rather spend taxpayer money on creating or saving middle class jobs than cut taxes on the affluent nobility.

Their banker friends are shocked that President Obama would have the temerity to suggest giving their failed companies more tax dollars than their current market valuation gives voters the right to expect them to lend the money and to influence their executive decisions.

Their financial friends are dismayed President Obama's stinulus plan does not simply pay their bad debts with taxpayer money. Stock markets fall because investors have lost faith that the trillions of taxpayer dollars they receive will come with strings attached.

Free market laissez faire believers have lost faith their great party will roll on. They know Americans and the world at large have lost faith in their cherished system in which unregulated greed, fraud and corruption has brought us to disaster.

John Kennedy extolled us to "ask not what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country." Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamed of the day in which people "would be judged by the content of their characters...." The Republican party does not measure up favorably to either of these American values.

The remaining elected Republicans are betting on the failure of American. No one has ever won that bet.

Let's not forget the media's complicacy in this nonsense. How could Senator Selby's support by omission of the ridiculous allegation that President Obama is not a natural-born American go unchallenged? Non-responses are not newsworthy.

Where were the skeptical reports' sharp questions or their carefully written incredulity at Selby's innuendo by silence? Why was Senator Selby quoted at all, if he would neither clearly support nor clearly refute these rumors?

Why didn't some reporter simply ask, "Senator Selby, do you believe the birth records showing President Obama was born in Hawaii are accurate, or do you believe there is a valid reason to doubt whether Barrack Obama is Constitutionally eligible to be President of the United States?" That would have forced Selby either to take a clear position or evade the question.

And why did so much of our media report Alan Keyes absurd tirades against President Obama without the including the obvious observation that Mr. Keyes appears seriously deranged, as Steve Benen did?

The First Amendment guarantees the press great freedoms because it is responsible for keeping the American people informed about things that affect our nation and its democracy.

Reporting the subtle innuendoes of partisan politicians, the uninformed ranting of the lunatic fringe and malicious rumors from coward who hide behind deep background does not meet that responsibility.

So glad to hear that Shelby really doesn't question Obama's eligibility to be POTUS. Unfortunately, Shelby has demonstrated without a doubt his own ability to be am asshat.

It isn't just political maturity that Republicans lack, it's any vestige of maturity, period. Just watch a Republican congresscritter like Marsha Blackburn say "Democrat party" with that little contemptuous smirk on her face and you can see an alleged adult with the emotional maturity of a first grader. And they want to be taken seriously?

I'm enjoying Obama's "cut the crap and get serious" tone with them right now, I think it'll play well with the majority of Americans who want to see adults in charge of the important stuff.

I don't know whether the Senator's statements are merely off the cuff political jive talk or were derived from insidious intent. Either way it is an instance of falseness that should be vigorously opposed. I read about it yesterday and was moved to email Senator Shelby himself:

"Hon. Senator Shelby,

I read this article and am deeply disturbed:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/22/richard-shelby-alabama-se_n_168913.html

Public questioning by no less than a member of the US Senate of Barack Obama's legitimacy to hold the office of President of the United States could encourage psychopathic violent behavior against our President.

Sir, you are in a position of grave responsibility. Not a talk radio blowhard who can easily be dismissed.

Failure on your part to decisively retract these statements, at worst, may leave your fellow Americans with the belief that you wish to encourage harm against President Obama, and at best cast doubt on your respect for truthfullness.

As a fellow American, I urge you to make a speedy public retraction of these statements or if you truly believe Barack Obama has no legal right to hold the office, take your case to the courts or the appropriate Senate Committee.

These are difficult times in America, Sir. And, with regard to the esteem of your office, I hope that you realize this sort of dangerous, rank political hackery is never appropriate.

Respectfully,

Eric Rommel"

The right seems to have crafted a cheesy alternate reality of comforting little lies and to some degree, perhaps they can be left to it. This is an instance, however, where the lie, if left to stand may indeed be dangerous.