Ellington

United States Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., found himself defending President Barack Obama against some of the more conservative elements of the tea party during a forum last night. The Central Mississippi Tea Party town-hall meeting and Republican fundraiser at Northwest Rankin High School attracted about 100 attendees, most of them over the age of 50. Organizers invited the senator to the event to promote the importance of a Republican majority in the House and Senate after the November elections, and to raise money for Republicans defending congressional seats.

Seven audience members queried the senator after he spent 30 minutes blasting the "hyper-liberal agenda" promoted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. One audience member asked if Wicker believed Obama was committing treason by being a foreign-born person holding the office of U.S. president.

"I received a very credible (e-mail) about a birth certificate of Obama being from a hospital in Kenya. It had a copy of it, and it was very, very credible," the woman said. "And (the e-mailer) said his goal was to deliver—and he did—a copy of this birth certificate of Obama being born in a hospital in Kenya to every member of Congress. And we've never heard anything more about that. I wonder if you received a copy of it, and if that is a treasonable offense."

"I have not seen (the e-mail)," Wicker said, "and I would just say to this: This case was brought before a federal court. It went up through the appeal process, and the Supreme Court ruled that they would not take the case up—essentially upholding the decision of the lower court. In our rule of law, that settled it."

"Birther" proponent Orly Taitz filed the Kenyan birth certificate in federal court this year, claiming the certificate belonged to Obama. The judge tossed the motion on procedural grounds, however, saying the document was filed, according to Salon.com "in the wrong format" after Taitz failed to list her California State Bar identification number, among other things. Salon said in August that an anonymous person came forward to take credit for forging the document.

Wicker added, however, that it was still up to the voters to ultimately decide on Obama's policies by sending more Republicans to Congress. Wicker predicted a high chance of Republicans taking control of the House after the elections if the polls are accurate, and promised more blockages in Congress if voters installed more Republicans in the House and Senate.

"There are three states where the election will be immediate, so if we win Delaware, Illinois and West Virginia, 10 of those senators will take office immediately," he said, speaking to the upcoming lame-duck session. "But whether they do or not we're going to put up every roadblock, use every procedural avenue available to us under the Constitution of the United States to stop them from ramming through a liberal agenda."

Recent history backs up Wicker's prediction. Under current Senate rules, any lone senator can use a filibuster to hold open debate on potential legislation until a total of 60 senators vote to close debate. Republicans have used the method as an effective stalling tactic on everything from health-care legislation to the military appropriation bill. The method comes easy, considering a senator doesn't even need to actually invoke the filibuster—they need only to threaten to invoke it.

"[T]he use or threat of the filibuster is increasing: Cloture motions were filed a record 139 times in the 2007-2008 session, up from 68 times in 2005-2006," USA Today reports.

Previous Comments

ID

160348

Comment

Oh for goodness sakes! The person sending these letters and 'credible' sounding emails is Lucas Daniel Smith. You only have to google 'Lucas Daniel Smith' to find out he's a convicted felon. One of his convictions was for forgery. I do belive people can redeem themselves and become productive members of society, but it seems this guy is just 'producing' more of the same.

Author

Tresco

Date

2010-10-14T16:48:15-06:00