Recently, the birther movement has gained greater notoriety, with CNN’s Lou Dobbs promoting the discredited myth and right-wing activists confronting members of Congress. Though the conspiracy theory has been thoroughly–debunked, some Republicans continue to feed “the wacko wing” of the party. For instance, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) recently told Politico that he thinks the birthers “have a point”:
But as if to illustrate the touchiness of the subject, Hoekstra quickly added: “Not that this isn’t important.”
Sen. Jim Inhofe has also tried to find the elusive middle ground.
“They have a point,” he said of the birthers. “I don’t discourage it. … But I’m going to pursue defeating [Obama] on things that I think are very destructive to America.”
It’s unclear why Politico characterizes Inhofe’s decided support for the “birthers” as an “elusive middle ground” stance.
Update:
Inhofe spokesman Jared Young sent another statement to Greg Sargent on the birther issue:
The point that they make is the Constitutional mandate that the U.S. President be a natural born citizen, and the White House has not done a very good job of dispelling the concerns of these citizens. My focus is on issues where I can make a difference to stop the liberal agenda being pushed by President Obama.