I had thought the "He's a Muslim" canard had long since been dead and buried--until seeing Jed's front-page post about Gale Norton not even blinking at someone calling President Obama a Muslim. It reminded me that there's a lot more to this canard than just pushing some born-again buttons. Nope--by calling him a Muslim, these people are saying that he isn't eligible for office.
At first glance, the "he's a Muslim" smear appears to be a way to peel off born-agains who are on the fence about Obama. But then I happened on an article Roy Moore wrote three years ago for WorldNutDaily. Moore claimed that Keith Ellison should not be allowed to take his seat in Congress because in his view, a Muslim cannot honestly take the oath of office.
Conventional wisdom has it that Andy Martin--better known as vexatious litigant Anthony Martin-Trigona--is solely responsible for the "he's a Muslim" smear. However, Martin's infamous press release had gone into the ether after Obama was elected to the Senate, only to crop up again in 2006 when (as we now know) he was greasing the wheels for a presidential run. It's hard not to think that Moore's article about Ellison was fresh in the minds of the winger fringe.
Consider the final graph of Moore's screed about Ellison:
Enough evidence exists for Congress to question Ellison's qualifications to be a member of Congress as well as his commitment to the Constitution in view of his apparent determination to embrace the Quran and an Islamic philosophy directly contrary to the principles of the Constitution. But common sense alone dictates that in the midst of a war with Islamic terrorists we should not place someone in a position of great power who shares their doctrine. In 1943, we would never have allowed a member of Congress to take their oath on "Mein Kampf," or someone in the 1950s to swear allegiance to the "Communist Manifesto." Congress has the authority and should act to prohibit Ellison from taking the congressional oath today!
He could have easily been writing about Obama, in light of what we know about the nature of the smears against him:
Enough evidence exists for Congress to question Obama's qualifications to be President as well as his commitment to the Constitution in view of concerns that he embraces the Quran and an Islamic philosophy directly contrary to the principles of the Constitution. But common sense alone dictates that in the midst of a war with Islamic terrorists we should not place someone in a position of great power who shares their doctrine. In 1943, we would never have allowed a member of Congress to take their oath on "Mein Kampf," or someone in the 1950s to swear allegiance to the "Communist Manifesto." Congress has the authority and should act to not count Obama's electoral votes today!
There are numerous reasons why the prospect of Roy Moore in the Alabama governor's mansion should scare us. But the possibility that he is indirectly responsible for one of the pernicious smears in American political history is probably the biggest reason of all.