Blunt Assessment: "Blushing With Embarassment"

From Blunt's hometown newspaper, The Washington Post:

[Rep. Louie] Gohmert is in the same company as Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the former No. 2 House Republican who is running for Senate in 2010. Blunt, though not an official co-sponsor of the birther bill, was videotaped this week on Capitol Hill by a reporter for the liberal blog Firedoglake questioning Obama's birth creds.

"What I don't know is why the president can't produce a birth certificate," Blunt said. "I don't know anybody who can't produce one. That's a legitimate question - no health records, no birth certificate."

(Never mind that Obama has produced a birth certificate, a copy of which you can find here.)

[...]

Some Republicans are blushing with embarrassment over the birther movement, which forced the White House to address the issue anew this week.

The conservative National Review shudders to think that conspiracy theorists may be overshadowing what the party stands for. "Much foolishness has become attached to the question of President Obama's place of birth, and a few misguided souls among the Right have indulged it," the magazine editorialized this week, warning that the birthers are no different than the left-wing fringe 9/11 "truthers."

"There is nothing that President Obama's coterie would enjoy more than to see the responsible Right become a mirror image of the loopy Left circa 2003," the National Review said.

Which may explain why there are so few Republicans willing to put their names to the birther movement.

Asked why he thought more Republicans hadn't signed on to the bill, Congressman Gohmert said, "Maybe it's because the press goes after them and calls them nuts or something."