With citizenship bill, Rep. Bill Posey goes from obscurity to on-air scorn (From Olbermann)

WASHINGTON — It is safe to say that until last week, Bill Posey was one of Florida's least-known members of Congress, a freshman Republican who bears a passing resemblance to the mild-mannered Mister Rogers.

During 16 years representing the Melbourne area in the state Legislature, Posey was best known for being reasonable and low key, a staunch conservative who had a reputation for working with Democrats on tough issues.

That changed last week, after Posey quietly introduced a bill in the House that would require presidential candidates to submit their birth certificates to prove they are really U.S. citizens.

Now he's the butt of jokes on late-night TV and the target of considerable venom on liberal-leaning Web sites like Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo.

Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's liberal commentator, deemed him the "World's Worst Person of the Day" on Tuesday.

Posey has been portrayed as something of a nut for what is widely seen as an attempt to legitimize the fringe belief that President Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen.

"So, Congressman, what you should do is stop embarrassing yourself and take the Reynolds Wrap off your head," Olbermann scolded.

A day later, Posey leaned back in his chair in his spacious Capitol Hill office, pressed his fingertips together and turned his eyes toward the ceiling, a man trying to center himself in an unexpected storm. The classical music was turned up loud.

"You don't know me," he said slowly, leveling his gaze. "So let me give you a little background."

In the Florida Legislature, Posey was known for pushing government accountability. In 2001, following the troubled 2000 presidential election, he was tapped to lead the Senate committee responsible for overhauling state election laws. That yielded a bipartisan package that banned punch-card ballots, introduced early voting and created provisional ballots, so people whose names aren't on the rolls could cast a vote and have the dispute resolved later.

Since being sworn into Congress in early January, two weeks before Obama's historic inauguration, Posey said he has gotten calls and e-mails from folks back home questioning whether the president is really a citizen, or has a valid Hawaiian birth certificate.

"We routinely get calls from constituents, and every constituent who calls or writes about it has just discovered it," Posey said. "They just now heard about the issue, and they have no idea it's settled. They think it's new."

The Constitution requires the president to be a "natural born citizen." Rumors that Obama was born in his father's homeland of Kenya, rather than Hawaii, simmered throughout the campaign, fed largely by anonymous e-mails and conservative commentators on TV and talk radio.

Obama eventually posted his birth certificate on his campaign Web site. The Hawaiian health secretary vouched for it. Still unconvinced, critics called it a forgery.

Posey insists his goal was simply to put the rumors to rest, and ensure no future candidate faces the questions over a birth certificate that have dogged Obama.

"If he had filed that the very first day he filed for office, we wouldn't be having any problems right now," Posey said.

The birth certificate requirement would take effect in 2012, when Obama would be up for re-election.

Posey, 61, insists he's no partisan bomb thrower, and he names several prominent Democrats in Tallahassee who will vouch for him, including Sen. Al Lawson, the Senate minority leader, and Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres.

And they do, describing him as a friend and worthy lawmaker. But on this bill, they can't imagine what he was thinking.

"People are going to look at you peculiar if you're going to have a bill that kind of, somewhat, challenges the president of the United States on his citizenship," Lawson said. "I think that's inappropriate. I would think that he should withdraw that bill and maybe apologize to the public."

Posey seems genuinely baffled by the negative reaction. It could be a bit naive, given how widespread and divisive the controversy was during the campaign.

If a Republican had won the White House, he still would have filed the bill, Posey said. "I'm going to say let's do this, and there's nothing left to b---- about. … I assumed the other side would like that."

The other side is Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, a tweedy, energetic liberal who often greets people with "Aloha." Right now he is wearing a scowl.

"Why the hell would anybody do this?" he says of Posey's bill, adding angry comments about "black-helicopter people" and "the kind of sick politics that permeates a certain portion of the electorate."

Abercrombie was friends with Obama's parents when they were college students in Honolulu, back in the early 1960s, when Ann Dunham Obama was pregnant with the future president. He first met Barack Jr. as an infant.

"It's one thing to try to be responsive to your constituents, no matter how marginal," Abercrombie said. "I understand that. But to take it to the point of putting it into a bill — you open yourself up, then, to having your judgment questioned."

"What you do, generally, with legislation is you … address common issues or concerns," Abercrombie said. "The citizenship of someone who has reached the point of running for president of the United States is not really an issue."

Despite the heat, Posey said reaction from his constituents has been positive. Most tell him they figured you would need to file a birth certificate to run for president anyhow. So do the House colleagues he has discussed the bill with, he said.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2213538/posts

Biden’s Gridiron Humor- Is Obama Laughing? - ALAN KEYES
America’s Independent Party ^ | March 24, 2009 | Alan Keyes

Posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 9:55:04 AM by EternalVigilance

Loyal to Liberty

Today WND reports that Congressman Bill Posey is being jeered at and ridiculed by the leftist media and some of his colleagues in the US Congress. Why? He dared to propose a piece of legislation “that would require future presidential candidates to document their eligibility.” Apparently the idea that people in Congress would actually fulfill their oaths of office and seek the information required to assure respect for the US Constitution is now considered insane.

Ridicule is a standard tactic of deceivers trying to discredit anyone who draws attention to their dishonesty. With respect to the eligibility issue, however, it requires very little thought and just a modicum of common sense to see through the ploy. The reason for mobilizing the jeering section is also clear. Admitting that in future it would be appropriate to verify the eligibility of candidates for President strongly implies that it would be appropriate to do so now.

The partisan and media hacks desperately seeking to marginalize the issue of Obama’s eligibility (including Vice-President Biden) must deal with one hard fact: Barack Obama has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars paying lawyers to prevent access to his full birth certificate and any other records that might have a bearing on the question of his citizenship status.

Given this fact, let’s for a moment ignore the Obama faction’s mobocratic tactics, and apply some common sense logic.

Either Obama has a reason for his behavior, or he doesn’t.

If he doesn’t, the behavior is irrational. Irrational behavior is generally not taken as conclusive evidence of sanity.

If Obama’s behavior is rational, then it’s logical to conclude that he wishes to keep from public view something contained in his full birth certificate, or other records that may reflect its content. Some fact not otherwise known is being hidden from the public. It may have a bearing on the issue of his Constitutional eligibility to serve as President, or it may not. In either case, he is so concerned about its possible public impact that he would rather damage the perceived authority of the Constitution (a direct violation of his sworn duty as a public official of the United States) than let it be known. It’s hard to imagine anything contained in a birth certificate that would be matter for such personal embarrassment as to justify this dereliction of public duty. No sane person, and I think especially no right thinking American, would hold an infant responsible for the sins or views of his parents. But perhaps merely avoiding personal embarrassment is not the reason for his efforts to conceal.

Assuming that Obama knows the contents of his full birth certificate, he would also know whether or not they contradict public statements he has made, or that his campaign made use of, about his background. In that case, the issue is not about the views or sins of his parents, but about his own less than candid behavior. Has he lied to the public about himself? Has he fabricated elements of his background in order to garner sympathy and support? Do these lies have a bearing on the Constitutional issue? Whether they do or not, sustained, conscious and orchestrated deception must have a definite bearing on the public’s appraisal of his character, his trustworthiness and therefore his suitability for the nation’s highest office of trust. If the election campaign he conducted was based on fictions and lies, was the outcome a valid reflection of the public’s will, or a manipulated result achieved by dint of fraud and deceit?

Though it’s generally considered bad form to explain a joke, I’ll take the risk of offering a reflection on Vice-President Biden’s telling joke about the birth certificate issue at the Gridiron dinner last weekend. “You know, I never realized just how much power Dick Cheny had until my first day on the job. I walked into my office, and you know how the outgoing president always leaves the incoming president a note in his desk?” he asked rhetorically. “I opened my drawer and Dick Cheney had left me Barack Obama’s birth certificate.” Now, on the surface this seems to be a joke about Dick Cheney’s ability to get what nobody else has access to. Not far from that surface, however, the joke is not about the power Cheney had, but about the power Biden would have if the full birth certificate were in his possession. It’s an aging maxim in this information age that ‘information is power.’ In this case, the information Obama desperately seeks to conceal represents power over him and therefore over the United States of America. Here’s the question: Who has that power? Biden may joke about it. I somehow doubt that Obama is laughing. And neither should we.

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