Anderson Cooper effectively excoriated the spurious and outrageous claims behind the "birther" movement in an interview with Texas State Representative Leo Berman on his show last Monday.
Berman is sponsoring a bill to require that all presidential candidates produce a valid birth certificate to get on the presidential ballot in Texas -- a clear reference to the claim that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States, and has falsified his birth records.
Cooper and Rep. Berman sparred for over 12 minutes, and Cooper methodically and factually "refutiated" each claim Berman made, from the validity of the birth certificate that the Hawaiian state government released to the dates in which Obama traveled to Pakistan, in which Rep. Berman misrepresented the origins of his claim. Most of his information came from a Rightwing blogger which he tried to pass off as legitimate congressional committee.
Cooper visibly astounded by the incredulous Berman exclaimed:
"I mean, you're basing legislation on stuff that's basically just rumors and -- and stuff that's been proven to be false"
What's most troubling and irritating is how seemingly pleasant and persistent Berman is. He's really nothing less than a purveyor of lies, fear and distortions, but he remained polite with his racist and hateful agenda. Racist because he all but admitted that he didn't hold George W. Bush to the same standards that he holds Obama to. He admitted that he never saw Bush's academic record and he never saw his "long form" birth certificate or John McCains medical evaluation, yet he demanded all of those documents from Obama.
Now with all the problems in Texas and the problems facing this country, this is the kind of racist crap that consumes Republicans. Take heed, maybe the people of District 6 in Texas will remember the time this repugnant man wasted on this ridiculous expedition the next time he runs for office expounding on how he represents "them".