Everyone's been talking about these crazy insane "Birther" folk, and their amazing, generations-spanning, bipartisan super-conspiracy to get a Kenyan elected President. But only Rachel Maddow went out and got The Washington Independent's Dave Weigel to talk about it, for the win. Weigel has been extensively documenting this particular strain of the lunatic fringe like he was Lewis Thomas writing The Lives of a Cell, and he deserves to be known as the go-to guy on this topic.
Weigel did his best to explain the current thinking in the "Birther" community, if you can call it thinking. (And no, one cannot.) "I don't know what they want anymore, because every time Hawaii verifies something, or a reporter verifies something, or a witness verifies something--that witness, that state, that reporter is lying, and their evidence must be thrown aside." Weigel notes that the "birther" community sprung from the Obama administration's attempt at transparency: The campaign took the extraordinary step of posting his birth certificate online, and, proving the axiom of good deeds and punishment, managed to spawn a "cottage industry" of people determined to prove the certificate was a forgery.
Weigel also got off a great line about "Birther bill" supporter Rep. John Campbell, and his appearance on yesterday's Hardball, "It looked life he was auditioning for the Jack Lemmon role in Glengarry Glen Ross. Trust me. You need to follow Weigel on Twitter.
[WATCH]
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
I'd like to toss in a thought, about Lou Dobbs, and his comment: "There's a lot of questions remaining, and seemingly the questions won't go away, because they haven't been dealt with, it seems possible, to straightforwardly, and quickly."
First: Lou Dobbs, you hear that word salad pouring forth from your mouth, making you sound like that beauty queen who couldn't explain our nation's map deficit? That's the functioning part of your brain, rebelling at the thought of promoting this nonsense. IT IS TRYING, VAINLY, TO HELP YOU, LOU DOBBS. Second, Lou, you say that there are "questions remaining" that "seemingly won't go away." Well, Lou Dobbs, there is this stuff, called "journalism," and these things, called "telephones." As Weigel says, "Calling Hawaii and getting this verified should be enough for any sane person to put this to bed." So, why don't you pick up a phone, and call the nice people in Hawaii who manage these birth records, and do some journalism, maybe?
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]