Are there really that many tea partiers out there to pander to???
After the embarrassment of his “Yellow Girl” video ad and numerous other faux pas over the years, Senate candidate Pete Hoestra dialed the “Whack-a-Doo” machine up to eleven recently by suggesting that there a department in Washington, D.C. with the sole purpose of investigating the birth certificates of presidential candidates.
Answering questions at a Lapeer County Tea Party Patriots forum recently, Hoekstra said that it’s too late to investigate President Obama because, well, John McCain screwed that all up. But, he wants to be sure it never happens again.
Sure. I mean, I think — you know, I think, throw something at me if you want, I think with this president, the book is closed, all right? It’s kind of like, I hate to say it, but I think the debate’s over — we lost that debate, and we lost that debate in 2008, when our presidential nominee said, ‘I ain’t talking about it.’ OK, I’m sorry.But I do now believe that I’d like to establish a three-person office in Washington, D.C., OK — knowing it, we’ll go to five. But there’s no reason why we should have this kind of question, you know, for the president of the United States. So that at any future election, all right, that someone would have to walk into that office, and prove that they meet the minimum qualifications to be president of the United States.” […]
And so, but you know, this is not brain surgery — it should be an FBI person, maybe a CIA person and one person managing those two people, and just if you want to run for president, you’ve got to go with the right, proper documentation, you go to that person, and get it certified that you meet the qualification to be president of the United States. You are the right age, you were born in the United States, or of U.S. citizens. And it’s done.
You know, it’s embarrassing that we are at that point where that ever became an issue. Sorry, I’d love to give you an answer, I’m gonna fight, and we’re gonna beat it, and we’re gonna win it. I think it wasn’t fought, and we lost. Sorry.
You can watch the video HERE.
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer said this in a press release:
You can’t get much further outside the mainstream than calling for the creation of a birther office staffed by the CIA and FBI. Our leaders should be focused on creating jobs, not on creating a new federal bureaucracy to comb through birth certificates. Hoekstra’s radical plan to appoint a Birther Czar shows just how far he’ll go to win the support of Tea Party radicals like Donald Trump.
“Birther Czar”. That’s perfect framing, kids.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was equally outspoken:
“Pete Hoekstra’s idea for a federal birther office shows how extreme he would be in the U.S. Senate,” said Shripal Shah , spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “As a former Congressman turned lobbyist, it’s clear that Hoekstra would do the bidding of the extreme right wing in the Senate, even if it means calling for more federal bureaucracy in order to investigate every presidential candidates’ birth certificate. There is no doubt that Pete Hoekstra will support any proposal, no matter how ridiculous or dangerous to Michigan voters, in order to advance his extreme right wing agenda.”
Meanwhile, Senator Debbie Stabenow is cleaning Hoekstra’s clock in the fundraising department, raising $10.2 million for the election cycle and with $7 million on hand. Hoekstra raised only $2.7 million with just $1.5 million on hand.
Probably most importantly, a recent PPP poll has Stabenow up over Hoekstra 53 to 37%, a decisive 16-point lead. She’s up over the other Republican candidate Clark Durant 53 to 31.
Keep it up, Pete. I like those numbers.
