GA-Gov: Nathan Deal, birther

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Friday November 06, 2009 · 6:46 AM PST

2009/11/06 · 06:46

The Georgia Republican congressional delegation is probably the looniest in the entire former Confederacy, except for maybe South Carolina. One of its members, Nathan Deal, who represents most of the northern part of the state (Dalton, Gainesville) is running for governor. As if he needs to burnish his winger credentials, yesterday he joined the ranks of birthers asking, "Where's the birth certificate?"

The occasion was an online chat the congressman had with supporters this morning. And the question came from Tom Crawford of Capitol Impact.

Do you believe that Barack Obama is a native-born American citizen who is eligible to serve as president? I am asking because your comments on this issue have been a little ambiguous. I would appreciate your clearing this up.

At 9:17 a.m., Deal tapped out this:

I am joining several of my colleagues in the House in writing a letter to the President asking that he release a copy of his birth certificate so we can have an answer to this question.

Now get this--earlier this year, Deal was smacking down birthers in his district.

Deal's district is, according to the Cook Political Report, the most Republican district in the Eastern Time Zone. So not surprisingly, he got bombarded with letters and emails after Obama's election. His response to them then?

Back in August, my AJC colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin asked much the same question. This was the response he received from Deal campaign spokesman Harris Blackwood:

"He began receiving letters and e-mails about this long before the president took office. He has maintained in response to each one that he believes the president was born in the state of Hawaii two years after it became a state, is an American citizen and therefore is fully qualified to be president of the United States."

This kind of flip-flop is nothing new for Deal. He was elected in 1992 as a typical Blue Dog Democrat. However, in the spring of 1995, he became a Repub. Even if you allow for the nature of his district, which was already turning nasty red, his morph was opportunistic as all hell. His ACU ratings were in the 60s during his first term, but for most of the time since then it's been 90s and up.

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