Political beat with Emma Harger

This is a new weekly column similar to the AJC's Political Insider column by Jim Galloway. I will focus on Georgia politics or national political issues that directly relate to the state.

After a tumultuous primary season came to an end earlier this month, with former congressman Nathan Deal emerging from a crowded Republican field to take on former governor Roy Barnes in November, his comments regarding President Obama's citizenship rose again to the forefront of discussion.

Sam Stein of the Huffington Post even asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs about Deal having "dabbled in birther conspiracies" in the Aug. 11 daily press briefing. When something like this gets all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., it's deserving of a closer look.

Calling someone a birther is the shorthand way to say that they are unsure of whether or not President Obama was born in the United States. A related group of people are the "tenthers," who interpret the Tenth Amendment's clause about powers not granted to the federal government being directed to the states or to the people. Some tenthers go so far as to suggest secession.

Birthers often publicly ask to see Obama's birth certificate, although a simple Google search will call it up, but then they also point out tiny details about said certificate to prove that it is supposedly a fake. For example, the document is called a certificate of live birth, not a birth certificate, although most states (including Georgia) refer to the document this way. Obama also has a United States passport listing his birthplace as Hawaii.

Last year, California dentist, lawyer and birther Orly Taitz represented two soldiers in Columbus who sued the government and questioned military orders because the Commander-in-Chief is, to them, supposedly not an American. The judge sanctioned her and fined her $20,000 for "abusing the right to practice law." She has appealed to the Supreme Court after an unsuccessful try with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to remove the fine. As of this writing, the fine still stands.

But, as mentioned above, the very root of the birther conspiracy was denounced as far back as during the 2008 election. Many politicians will not even discuss it. Yet, Deal has "dabbled" in it, according to Stein. In this case, what does "dabbled" mean?

Last December, when Deal was still in Congress, he sent a letter to the President requesting that he release a copy of his birth certificate. In the letter, he writes about joining "several of my colleagues" in this request, but no one else co-signed. In January, someone on Deal's staff leaked information about the letter to The Post & Email, a pro-birther website, but a copy of the letter itself was not released until recently.

In the full text of the letter, he proclaims his respect for the president and his personal belief that he is legitimately president. His constituents—in the Ninth, the reddest of the 13 Georgia House districts, up in the mountains around Gainesville—were concerned about his citizenship and he just wanted to clear things up for them, not for himself, he explains.

But in a different interview with blogger Mike Stark, Deal said "I have no idea where he was born at…I take his word for it. He's the President and he's sworn to tell the truth, so I assume that he has."

He has further clarified his position by saying that he simply wanted to refer skeptical constituents to a credible source of documentation. However, by not making this clear back in December, he allowed birthers to presume that he was one of them.

Deal may not be a birther himself, but Stein's description of him as dabbling in birther conspiracies is apt.