Betting on ignorance

I don't have much to add to this takedown of Alabama Senator Richard Shelby. Yes, he has less than no credibility on the alleged porkiness of the stimulus bill, his own record considered. Yes, he is and was a huge backstabber, throwing the Democrats over when the class of '94 already had a GOP majority.

As to his stance on Pres. Obama's eligibility for office:

During a community meeting at the All Steak Restaurant on Saturday, a local resident asked Shelby if there was any truth to the rumor, which appeared during the presidential campaign.

“Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate,” Shelby said. “You have to be born in America to be president.”

Well, if he hasn't seen the birth certificate, it's his own lack of initiative. Websites both hostile and friendly have posted pictures of it, in an inane fight over whether it's genuine. Which the state of Hawaii backs to the hilt. Quick, Dick, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were born in Birmingham.

But it's really not about that, is it? The distinguished gentleman knows that to many of his constituents, it wouldn't matter if there were videotape of Barack Obama being birthed at a Tuscaloosa Denny's. A black man with that name just isn't who they want in the White House thankyouverymuch. And this is not just an Alabama thing certainly. But is it more prominent in Alabama than a lot of other places? Probably.

All of which makes Shelby's statements not so much outrageous as dull and craven.