Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (file)
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett is back! Don’t remember him? Think unicorns...
Last month, Bennett made headlines after threatening not to include President Obama on the Arizona ballot. For Bennett, the President's long-form birth certificate wasn’t enough proof that he was an American citizen. Arizona's top election official wanted Hawaii officials to verify its authenticity. After days of mocking and a unicorn campaign, Bennett eventually apologized for embarrassing the state of Arizona and dropped the issue.
But now, Bennett, who also co-chairs Mitt Romney’s campaign in Arizona, has a new conspiracy theory. At a recent meeting with fellow Arizona Republicans, Bennett said:
"I know there's a lot of people who...are very skeptical of whether the president was born in Hawaii. Personally, I actually believe he was. I actually think he was fibbing about being born in Kenya when he was trying to get into college and doing things like writing a book."
Bennett believes President Obama lied to get into Harvard and spent millions of dollars to seal his college records because:
“If you're spending money to seal something, that's probably where the hanky panky was going on.”
Leave a Comment:
Another AZ nut!
Ditto.
Another Ditto.
No prizes for guessing what religion Bennett is... I have a new theory the reason the crazies in Arizona are getting more coverage is that they're further from "control central," which has managed to put the muzzle on a lot of the total gonzos...
I think Utah Senator Mike Lee's handlers only permit him to talk to the press once every month or two...
Hello!
President Obama did not "seal off his records via executive order."
Executive Order 13489 only affects presidential records, and by the definition in the executive order, records made prior to being elected president are NOT "presidential records". In fact, the executive order in question states that the archivist must give the incumbent president notice before disclosing presidential records, and must consult with the administration before releasing the presidential records of former presidents.
Presidential records must have been created during the course of being president and by the president or his staff or advisers and created pursuant to official duties as president.
As such, school records and birth certificates and such are NOT covered by this executive order. Even campaign records are not covered.
Just sayin'!
Richard, you should know better than try to talk sense do birthers. Wait! I should too. Never mind.
I would add that the Obama executive order actually makes the release of records easier than it was under Bush, and restores the process back to where it was under President Reagan.
well I just want to say I think it's appalling that the Secretary of state is allowed to run the campaign for a presidential election. No hanky panky going to go on there is there?
Last I looked, the Secretary of States are elected, partisan candidates in their own right, James. Not holding non-partisan appointed positions.
I see your point, Keith, but I do agree with James that Bennett should not be overseeing elections/ballots and be a co-chairperson of a campaign. There is, however, a difference between ethical and legal.
For what it's worth, James, Bennett claims authority/power that he doesn't actually possess, and that part hasn't been widely reported in the press. Bennett does not have the power to eliminate the president's name based upon his personal whim or sole decision. That power only resides with the court.
Last year there was a 'birther' bill passed through the Arizona legislature giving the Secretary of State that power, but Gov. Brewer vetoed it. One of the reasons she vetoed that bill was because she didn't think that kind of power should reside in one person, fearing that it could be used for political reasons.
I am glad this got picked up outside the state...we have no shortage of wacko's in leadership in Arizona.
I'm glad someone is distracting us from Orly Taitz.
When you have nothing and are desparate, you make things up. And considering the entire repulbican platform is delusional, this unfortunately is par for the course
Gee, you must be clarvoyant, Tom from Philly, as the 2012 Republican National Convention is still some months away at which their platform will be presented fromt he committee and voted on by the delegates.
You know, it's really hard to get out The Truth, no matter how hard I try. WMR is a MEXICAN!!
Everybody here in the Southwest knows: Born on the family estate in Mexico. Smuggled in and given a faked-up "birth" certificate by his politically connected family.
We need to see HIS original birth certificate. The one with handwritten data. The one in Spanish! (Very clever how he fakes French to hide his Spanish/Mexican roots.)
Willard Mittens Romney: El candidato manchuriano. El agente de la reconquista. America: BE WARNED!!
I've seen copy of Mitt Romney's Mexican birth certificate on the Internet. I know it is authentic because it says on the bottom "Genuine Etch-a-sketch."
This Google query will get you to the image:
allintitle: "el presidente Romney?" obama
Just another right-wing-nut-job goober. The republican party is full of them.
Petition/Student Loans....the Teapublicans haven't yet done a single thing to help this country. What a bunch of SLUGS! If the bill isn't passed by June 30th its time is up!
http://www.defendstudentloans.com/?sc=x2
Petition/Issa....Be SURE to uncheck boxes that you don't want.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hold-darrell-issa-in-contempt-of-congress-and-fire/
Edward Murdoch is to FOX is what Joesph Goebbels is to Nazi propaganda!
Petition/End FOXs Propaganda machine!
http://civic.moveon.org/fox//
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/hold-them-accountable/
Petition/Hold Bush/Cheney accountable for war crimes!
Are you aware that the Republican's in the House have passed a bill to extend the current interest rates on Student Loans, and that the Senate won't take it up because their bill calls paying for this bill out of the recapture of the huge slush fund set up to implement Obama Care between now and 2014 (even though the Supreme Court is yet to rule on the constitutionality of that law, and will be soon considering the many Catholic Church dioceses that are suing the Health and Human Services for violating their constitutional right to freedom of religion in the First Amendment also, xxx?
As to the contempt of congress petition, that is so laughable; Holder is going to be in court after next wsek facing the Full Charge of Contempt of Congress, and so will be the President over his misuse of the Executive Powers act, unless he admits that his advisors or staff in the White House were involved a coverup discussion with the Justice Department officials on the investigation findings of the gun running "Fast and Furious" program 2009 t0 2011, a Watergate with a body count scandal, xxx.
Move on is funded by Hungarian born George Soros who made a huge amount of his fortune by organizing manipulative shorting campaigns of investors to profit by taking down the US Dollar, causing huge disruptions in our financial markets. Were you aware of that, xxx?
Peddle your petitions amongst your ignorant closest associates, and spare us your nonsense!
Well, I guess if it is the last word, this guy is either a nut, or NBC is distorting the facts yet again. Something NBC is very good at, but I guess the only way you will know is if their lips are moving. I would say we boycot GE until NBC can report the news without their political distortion of the facts. There is so much wrong with this country, and it is a result of both parties fighting, it is a shame our news centers (well I am not sure NBC qualifies for that title after three times of altering the facts) join in on the bias and become a dividing influance rather than trying to help bring us together.
How about you offer some documentation for those charges...
I'm in need of some new comedy material...
You were right the first time; this guy is a nut... And the folks who've been caught repeatedly distorting the facts, editing and cherry picking sound bites, and otherwise engaging in wholesale lying are the folks at Murdoch's Mansion of Mendacity (a honk of my horn to Martin Bashir for that one).
GE spun NBC News off just after Jeff Immeldt took the Chair of Obama's Business Advisory Committtee, so that they didn't have any semblance of crony News manipulation.
Ten months afterwards is hardly "just after" Grandpa, and GE still owns a 49% stake in NBC..
As for Immeldt winding up an adviser to the President on how to orchestrate an economic turnaround. I note that GE stock is trading at twice what it was at the end of the Bush 43 Administration. And from the horse's mouth...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/business/media/04nbc.html
In some respects, G.E.’s decision to sell reflects a desire to exit a business that never quite meshed with its industrial side. “It’s something I always thought about,” said Jeffrey R. Immeldt, G.E.’s chief executive, in an interview. “In some ways my thinking gets shaped by the totality of G.E.”
He said that the economic recession also affected his thinking, adding, “you never have an epiphany.”
Right Wing Rule of Thumb Number Five: Never pass up the chance to smear the opposition with a good conspiracy fantasy...
GE is making its profits abroad, not in the US Cab Driver. And they are keeping the profits overseas; major reason why they, like General Motors, the other big US Corporation tied to the Obama Administration, pay absolutely "0" taxes in the US.
Why can't we have the Supreme Court look into it and settle this once and for all.
How about we save the money and use it to pay a few extra teachers or firefighters or maybe buy some lunches for some needy schoolchildren?
Just some common sense; radical stuff, I know, but judging from the crazy beliefs encountered, there's a crying need for this sort of thing....
The court decisions on the Contempt charge that will be voted on in the Full House will come this next week, and then Obama's Attorney General's lawyer and the President's own U.S. tax payer paid lawyer will be in court on that. Don't expect to see the Supreme Court deal with it before the election, and after that there will be no need to pursue it as Obama and his Attorney General will be leaving the D.C. area by January.
Stay on topic instead of trying to get your 15 seconds of fame.
Darsha, what the freak do you think the topic is, little brained fool?
nbc distortes the facts sure u aren't thinking about fox news
You only have to listen to the Democrat Party Congressman speaking on this issue with their calls for "gun control" legislation to know that where there is smoke, there is fire on this issue. But the Republican leadership is simply pursuing this as a cover-up investigation, as Eric Holder lied to them in a formal written denying that he had any knowledge of the gun running "Fast and Furious" program, after he lied to them that there was no "Fast and Furious" program at his Justice Department. What are they so anxious to coverup that they would lie twice already on this, and now stonewall the investigation into how those lies came about?
Too much time in the Arizona Sun... Brains were cooked...
Of course he is Romney's Arizona Campaign co-chair.
When reporters realized how dumb Sarah Palin appeared they tried to get her academic information from the University of Idaho, obviously to no avail. GOSH, she must have gotten President Bush to seal her academic records when she was running for Vice President!!! Bennett's claim is even more laughable.
I decided a long time ago that Arizona is being taken over by a bunch of uneducated "nuts." We have a governor with a GED who couldn't make it through a two-year X-ray technician program, Pearce who was fired as head of the DMV and involved in Fiesta Bowl corruption but still manages to run for office, and now Bennett whom you would think would have something of a brain to have graduated from ASU. Not sure what it takes to get into office in the state but apparently intelligence, common sense, decency, and honesty are not factors. I always respected Mormans for their family values etc and really admired several Morman doctors who exemplified what I thought a great physician should be. It's sad that individuals like Pearce and Bennett are giving Mormans such a bad name.
Good stuff, DD, and if it's okay to indulge myself, I'll use your post as a bit of a barricade for the next time Grandpa accuses me of religious bigotry when I offer some accurate reporting of LDS history and how it ties to the culture of the Romney camp. You're absolutely correct about thoroughly "decent and dedicated Mormons." In many cases they are, if anything, just a bit "too nice" and reluctant to raise their voices against the nutwads in their midst (Glenn Beck being one of the chief squirrels who holds that calling). And the leadership usually tries to focus discussion elsewhere, ever ready to "play the persecution card" which they use as a "power device." They play the PR game really well, despite the losing hands that history invariably deals them.
I spent an hour yesterday with a Mormon with a PhD. He's a Democrat who's horrified at the publicity this stuff is drawing, pretty much knows the score historically, and is equally horrified by the prospect of a possible Romney Presidency.
Hard to believe, I know, but that one's true...
Gee, one moment pea brained Darsha admmonishes people to "stay on topic" and the next he is off on a tangent with the bigot crowd on anti-Mormonism. I question if this blog would have all these bigotted assaults on the Mormon faith if it were not for the fact that the Republican Party Presidential Candidate is Mormon? Too convenient!! The bigots like Darsha and Cab Driver have a motive, no doubt, and its not traditional religious purity that drives them!
Secretary of State Harris in FL was Bush's head for the Florida election in 2000 and responsible for removing tens of thousands of eligible voters from the roles.
I'd also like to add about sealing records. You mean like GW's SEC records about his insider trading? His DWI records? His AF Reserve AWOL records?
I also served in the USAF for 27 years. Knew a lot of good, patriotic LDS airmen. None of them would even have considered using their mission time to avoid the draft like Mitt did.
The Mormon faith doesn't need you backhanded complements, Fool. And show me your sources for the claims that Bush used Executive Privelege to seal records. When they asked for his Yale records (where Bush was an average student, a frat boy, and a cheerleader and a member of the Slull and Bones society), they were forthcoming. But Harvard and Columbia will not release Obama's. What's up with that? Hiding his affirmative action scholarships arranged by the Nationalist-Socialist Sol Lewinsky Chicago Crowd?
Bush didn't release his college transcript. They were released by accident, attached to other documents and not by Bush.
Oh and you liberals just believe everything Obama says??? He didn't belong ont he ballot in AZ just like how he cheated in South Bend Indiana with fake signatures on his petition which were debunked after he became President!!! Hey MORONS, it's easy to debunk anything and intimidate people to make fake birth certificates AFTER you're President of the United States. That's why they should show it before running. I have to show mine to get a driver's license and passport!!! It's amazing how you liberal cattle won't even for a moment entertain the remote possibility that a guy who's father was Kenyan might not have been born there considering he never had to show his birth certificate in his political career and didn't have for handy for years after he won the White House!!! I swear, I'm a Republican, but, if my candidate was an imposter, I would NOT back him. You liberals are such soul selling sell-outs!!! It's just AMAZING!!! Oh and HEY, WHAT A GREAT WAY TO PUSH ATTENTION AWAY FROM SOMETHING YOU DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO QUESTION THAN TO MAKE IT UNPOPULAR TO QUESTION IT BY CREATING A TERM LIKE "BIRTHER" AND HAVING YOUR LIBERAL PRESS CIRCULATE IT!!! BEAUTIFUL!!! MORONS!!!
so why did obama tell us he was born in Kenya?
Ken Bennett you are a ASS. To spend that much time verifying what has already been verified you are certifiable. And who ever voted for this dude needs to go see a psychologist its amazing that in my short life I can't recall any President in the history of Presidents ever going through this kind of scrutiny. Ken Bennet listen and listen well Obama is going to win and you will have to work with this President like it or NOT. The question will be what are you doing to make Arizona better.