McCain throws down the birther gauntlet

by David Safier

Now things should get interesting. Marlene Phillips points out the weird birther triangle forming in Arizona's Republican party.

Side one: Hayworth is anywhere between a semi-birther and an outright birther, calling for Obama to show his birth certificate.

Side two: McCain is not a birther and, what's more, put out a video calling Hayworth a weird conspiracy theorist for siding with the birthers (video below). [To be completely accurate, the video was put out by "Friends of John McCain." But it's on the JohnMcCain.com youtube channel, which sounds pretty official to me.]

Side three: AZ Republican legislators agree with Hayworth:

[O]n Tuesday the state House approved a bill demanding presidential candidates show them, the Arizona state legislators, a birth certificate before they're allowed to appear on the Arizona ballot. While the bill says 'all presidential candidates' it's obvious target is President Barack Obama. The birther bill was sponsored by 40 of the 90 Arizona legislatures, all Republicans.

So, by extension, McCain just called the majority of Republican legislators (40 of 75) weird birther conspiracy theorists.

I can't wait — can't wait! — to see the next move.