Birther Conspiracy Reaches the Mainstream

Several years ago, I tried a case with a Texas lawyer who used a code to track potential jurors that he wanted to eliminate from his jury during courtroom jury selection. Next to each potential juror, he put letters and numbers that described his attitude about that potential juror. I noticed that next to some names, he wrote the words, "googly eyes!" Every lawyer uses their special codes in trial, but I had never run across the term, "googly eyes." He explained to me that a potential juror with "googly eyes" is someone who probably believes that Elvis Presley is still alive. They are the ones who have seen a UFO and probably know someone who has been abducted by aliens. In casual conversation, they are likely to tell you that the Apollo moon landings were staged on a Hollywood movie set. Today, it is likely that potential jurors are making it onto that lawyer's "googly eye" list if they attended more than one Sarah Palin political rally or if they dressed up like Paul Revere or Martha Washington during a tea-bagger protest. People probably qualify for his "googly eye" list if they spend 10 minutes a week watching the Glen Beck crazy hour. Beck, after all, is the King of "Googly Eyes."

Here is a standard I'm going to use to add names to my "googly eye" list when I ask potential jurors questions these days. It is this; Are they Obama-Birther conspiracy theorists? Do they believe Lou Dobbs who tells them that Obama is a citizen of Indonesia who has lived in the U.S. for 48 years with a forged birth certificate? Do they seriously accept the idea that Obama is not eligible to be president?

Fringe Democrats looked equally ridiculous when they suggested that John McCain was not eligible to be president because he was born in Panama. Fortunately, the grown-ups in Democratic leadership put a quick end to that self-humiliation process and the issue disappeared along with the few wing-nuts who raised the issue.

But there are too few grown-ups left around the GOP House to gain control over the Glen Becks and the Lou Dobbses who now control dialogue for Republicans. Because of that, completely sane Republicans have repeatedly fallen victim to these "googly-eyed" messages that surface as their political party talking points. The Obama birth certificate issue originated with a racist anti-Semite named Andy Martin. Martin, who characterizes himself as an Internet populist, has such a creepy background that Fox News apologized for allowing him to appear in their programming. They were as appalled as anyone would be when they read his blogs characterizing a hugely respected federal judge as a "crooked slimy Jew who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race." So in the end, a head case like Martin launches the "Birther" message and a TV personality like Lou Dobbs gives it credibility to where is sounds like a legitimate Republican talking point.

At the same time, you can bet there is a Texas lawyer using his "googly eye" code to make certain that anyone goofy enough to believe it never gets close to a jury box.

 

 

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Comments

[LMPE]

"The Democrats have moved to the right, and the Republicans have moved into a mental institution." - Bill Maher

[tompoe]

There is no mainstream. There's corporate media. Did you mean birther conspiracy reaches corporate media?

[1stTsar]

Ship Lou Dobbs to Faux News

[berkawoo]

If all of these "Birthers" are so fixated on Obama's actual birthplace and real birth certificate what is to stop them from launching a fact finding mission to Hawaii and Kenya. Limbaugh, Gingrich, Beck, Dobbs Hannity and G.Gordon Liddy should be able to get the Neocon think tanks to fund such a mission to Hawaii. They are also all rich enough to fund it themselves and can take off time from their careers to mount their own investigation in Hawaii. They should donate their time and money to this bogus issue if they are all so publicly passionate about it. I imagine that they want a federal investigation into the Obama Birth Certificate issue that they have brought up. I think that these birthers should put up or shut up. If it is so important to them then they should fund a fact finding junket to Hawaii, the whole viscous lot of them.

[NurseTina]

Is "Republican" becoming synonomous with "Whackjob"?

[MimiGardner]

It think it's more like being captive to a far-right base.

[BCubedReg]

I think you are being overly unfair to whackjobs by characterizing them as republicans.

[viewfromuphere]

I just read a piece by a "grown up" Republican who says that the whole birther thing is nonsense and bad for the Republicans because they can't talk the "serious" issues blah blah and I wondered...you know....where was this guy a few weeks ago when this all first arose. Where was this guy during those Palin rallies and some of those teabag rallies when some pretty darn ugly stuff was surfacing.
How about when a popular voice of the right was hoping for the failure of the duly elected president of the United States.

sometimes one reaps the whirlwind they sow.

tough noogies...pubs...you guys had your chance to get your lunatic fringe in line...

[alenaspoppa]

I don't think it was the "grownups in the Democratic party" who put a stop to the McCain birthplace issue. I think it was the fact that it was never an actual issue, but a response to point out the ludicrousness of the Obama birther movement. Unfortunately, crazy has a hard time detecting irony.

[klo]

Actually, it was senate dems who backed a bill specifically recognizing Mr. McCain as a natural born citizen. Happened last year with Sen McCaskill and Coburn, I think, putting it together with Clinton and Obama and a few others as cosigners. Passed unanimously, of course.
In BO's case, such a thing won't occur since he actually was born on American soil to an American mother unlike McCain who was actually NOT born on American soil since he was born in Panama (though technically born on an American military base, is considered American soil), but you know how the crazy birthers are. So the dem senators took it off the table and made it a non issue.
Nice of them, I'd say. .