More On Rick Santorum's Birther Flirtations

In case you missed it, here's Lil Ricky at a recent event in Florida:



The woman's voice in the clip says a number of things, among them:

I never refer to Obama as President Obama, because, legally, he is not.

And:

And my question is: why isn’t something being done to get him out of our government? He has no legal right to be calling himself President.

Two obvious birther references.  Neither of which Rick refutes.


And here's how he explained himself to CNN's John King:

KING: But do you feel any sense of responsibility to say, whoa? Senator McCain repeatedly in 2008 would stop people who went down that line, saying, look, let's fight him on policy, let's not go there.

SANTORUM: I have repeatedly done that.

I don't feel it's my obligation every time someone says something I don't agree with to contradict them. And the president's a big boy. He can defend himself and his record. And I'm going to go out and talk about the issues that the president and I disagree on and try to defeat him, because I think that's the best thing we can do for the future of our country.

KING: I understand on every point, but something like that, standing up and saying he's an avowed Muslim, you don't feel any obligation to say, ma'am, let's fight him on taxes, let's fight him on spending, let's fight him on size of government, but let's not do that?

SANTORUM: I think I have repeated that many, many times throughout the course of this campaign.

I don't really feel an obligation to go out and repeat it over and over again as people bring that up. My position's clear. The president's position is clear. I don't think the president's a Muslim, but I don't think it's my obligation to go out and repeat that every time someone who feels that way says something.

KING: Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, former senator, Senator, good luck in Florida. Appreciate your time today.

While Rick goes out of his way to point out that he doesn't think President Obama's a Muslim, there's no discussion of Obama's legitimacy as president.  To put it another way, Rick counters the Muslim charge but is absolutely silent on the birther charge - on CNN.

At that rally, he was silent on both.

Then there's this from The Nation:

On Friday night the Santorum campaign sent out a press release boasting that “OVER 30 NATIONAL CONSERVATIVE LEADERS ENDORSE SANTORUM.” Just who were these leaders? Some were utterly obscure figures who do not actually qualify as national conservative leaders. (For example, “Ken Campbell, California Conservative Leader” does not appear anywhere on the Google search results for “Ken Campbell.”)

A few were legitimate, if polarizing, national conservative leaders, such as Gary Bauer, Richard Viguerie and James Dobson. (All are more precisely described as social conservatives rather than just conservatives generally.)

But one name in particular stood out: Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND.com and WND Books. If you don’t know about Farah, you should. He edits World Net Daily, an extremely nasty, conspiracy-minded cesspool of far-right fear-mongering. It may sound marginal, but it has a surprisingly large reach and readership.

What has made Farah more widely known outside the margins of the conservative movement is his relentless advocacy of “birtherism,” the racist lie that President Obama was not actually born in Hawaii.

The whistle's been blown.  Rick Santorum is a secret birther.