and then there were nine.
nine real-life walking-talking currently-serving natural-born™ elected officials, that is. and with the latest addition of richard shelby of alabama, the defenders of the constitution can now claim a full-grown senator for their cause!
well, his father was kenyan and they said he was born in hawaii, but i haven't seen any birth certificate. you have to be born in america to be president.
which is, i suppose, yet another very good reason why hawaii should renew its demands for statehood.
barely a week ago, eric swafford, a state representative from tennessee, enlisted as a plaintiff in yet another promised lawsuit against obama. reportedly five more of eric's tennessee colleagues will be joining him aboard the certifigate love train. tim comerford, a state rep. from new hampshire, added his signature a few days ago and state rep. tim jones reportedly adds missouri to the developing metastasis. finally, thanks to perennial also-ran alan keyes' well-publicized tirade against the not-just-communist-but-radical-communist in the white house, certifigaters' dreams of prime-time coverage of the constitutional crisis seem to be coming true.
... that is, if you believe that (ahem) any coverage is good coverage.
so has certifigate finally hit critical mass? why are more republican lawmakers erupting like tumors to question the usurper at this late date? do they really believe a fraud has scammed his way into the oval office?
or could it be that, as much as they hate to admit it, even they can read polls too?
after having nauseated the independents and exiled their moderates, who else beside the feverish leftovers can they turn to in their hour of need? especially when their long-standing silence on certifigate threatens their hold on even the wingnuttiest of wingnuts? after all, when it came down to the moments when they could have actually affected the course of events, they said absolutely nothing. when the electors cast their votes, they said nothing. when congress counted and certified, they said nothing. in fact, along with every single one of their colleagues, they applauded, which only further alienated their last leg of support:
there is now no way to deny that the GOP has joined with the rats to form one big happy party.
this was the design all along. now we have witnessed it.
and they all just took an oath to uphold the constitution.
they have no intention of ever doing so.
so these are dregs that the republicans are left with, and in order to keep them they have to sign onto a cancerous and self-destructive movement that is speedily going nowhere but into the footnotes of history.
among those idly preparing those footnotes, fellow certifigate watcher dr. conspiracy has launched his obama conspiracy theories docket project, which plans to catalogue all "lawsuits against barack obama or others alleging conspiracies about obama". i've reproduced his table below, omitting cases not posing an eligibility challenge.
thus far the the good doctor's running count of the eligibility portion of cases is up to 31, with 22 denials or dismissals. and contrary to what patriotic usurper-hating certifigaters want to tell themselves, successfully filing a application doesn't count as a win. they remain ever determined, however, to get their big vindicating victory in the courts, even if they have to roll their own.
update: from 4fx in the comments, politico is reporting that shelby is already beating a retreat:
the cullman times article contains an incomplete account, and therefore a distortion, of sen. shelby's comments regarding president obama's citizenship. at the town hall meeting in cullman, sen. shelby laid out the constitutional qualifications for the presidency and said that, while he hasn't personally seen the president's birth certificate, he is confident that the matter has been thoroughly examined.
and then there were eight.