Birther believers in Arizona will have to find another place to congregate later this month, after Tea Party organizers announced late last week that they were canceling an upcoming event due to a lack of ticket sales.
The event was set to be headlined by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and another member of his "Cold Case Posse," both of whom have been outspoken proponents of conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama's birth certificate being a forgery. 78-year-old singer Pat Boone, who was taped last year speaking out about Obama's alleged Kenyan birthplace, was also set to make an appearance. Rounding out the bill was Terrence Lakin, a former Army doctor who was dismissed from the service and sentenced to six months in a military prison after refusing to deploy to Afghanistan over his birther beliefs.
While organizers admitted that the confab had "been cancelled due to inadequate ticket sales," Talking Points Memo points out that supporters aired ideas of their own about the failed endeavor on Facebook:
One theory could be found on the Facebook page of Linda Bentley, an Arizona tea party activist who had been promoting the event. A visitor to her page wrote that it had been doomed because Arpaio was unwilling to take his probe even further and investigate the president for murder.
“The REASON the EVENT by Sheriff Joe & his Cold Case POSSE was CANCELLED is because the Sheriff & others are TOO DUMB to SEE the MURDERS Barack Obama had his Security Adviser John Brennan commit on Obama’s Gay Lovers in Chicago,” the visitor wrote.
Arpaio remains one of the most prominent figureheads of the birther movement, even as polls suggest that his crusade on the issue is damaging his approval rating. Not all birthers are satisfied with his de facto leadership role, however. Orly Taitz, self-proclaimed "queen of the birthers," criticized Arpaio's seeming hesitance to get more deeply involved in the cause, expressing a sentiment that appears to be shared among some of the most dedicated members of the movement.
"As you know, Sheriff Arpaio and his investigator Mike Zullo do a lot of press conferences, interviews and raised reported 7 million dollars for Arpaio’s reelection campaign. However, they never filed any charges against Obama and his accomplices with the District Attorney or Attorney General, they refused to appear in court and testify under penalty of perjury, when I subpoenaed them 3 times in cases challenging Obama in GA, IN, MS. According to this latest interview by Arpaio’s investigator Mike Zullo, they never even filed a complaint with the FBI," Taitz wrote last week, going on to urge her supporters to pressure Arpaio into further action.
"Talk is cheap. Time is of the essence," she concluded.
Before You Go
