Birther Queen to win GOP nomination for California Secretary of State?

by: Chris Bowers

Mon Jun 07, 2010 at 20:00

Orly Taitz is an Israeli émigré who has spent the past two years filing lawsuits challenging President Barack Obama's right to be president on the grounds that he was born in Kenya. In the process, she has earned herself $20,000 in court fines.

Now she's running for the GOP nomination for secretary of state, and with her establishment-backed primary opponent mounting a less-than-stellar campaign against her, operatives say there's a chance she could win.(...)

"For professional Republicans right now, the main tactic in regards to Orly Taitz is prayer," said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College and a longtime observer of California politics.

Taitz may well win, simply because the birther movement is so rife within the Republican Party.  In 2009, Research 2000 found a plurality of Republicans thought Obama was not born in America (42-28%), while PPP found Republians closely divided on the issue (38%--44%, PDF, page 18)  This election is thus a major referendum about the acceptability of loud and out birthirsm in the Republican Party.  If she wins, other Republican candidats might become more willing to go public with their own, likely watered down, brand of birtherism.

Amid ongoing voter disenfranchisement in Arkansas, the Taitz campaign is also an election integrity issue story worth noting.  While many Open Lefters are not too thrilled with Obama's presidency, Taitz overtly stating her desire to bend the law in any way means necessary to help defeat Democrats, but during and after elections, should send a chill down your spine:

"Barack Obama is a terrible president, and we have to get him out of office by any weird loophole we can make up," she said on an appearance last summer on the Colbert Report.

This is a starkly anti-democratic statement.  Tomorrow, we will find out if it is the majority opinion of the Republican Party.