When Ann Coulter Calls You "Cranks," You’re Probably Fringe

The Arizona Legislature is eight months late on a balanced budget, and while the public school system collapses, four southern Arizona lawmakers are somehow finding the time to wade out into the fringe of the "birther" counter-culture.

State Reps. Frank Antenori, David Gowan and David Stevens have joined Sen. Al Melvin in sponsoring legislation that would now, for some reason, require a presidential candidate provide a copy of their birth certificate in order to be placed on the ballot in Arizona. The bill just got voted out of a state House committee.

This issue has never come up in the 98-year history of Arizona, through 25 presidential elections.

What changed? The birther movement erupted, declaring President Barack Obama is an illegal immigrant smuggled into the country as an infant, without the proper documentation.

Even right-wing hater Ann Coulter has dismissed this movement as just "a few cranks."

“Whatever Antenori, Gowan, Stevens and Melvin think they are doing, they are only making themselves look like tinfoil-hat-wearing whackos,” said Pima County Democratic Party Chair Jeff Rogers. “The state is on fire. They need to start doing their job and stop passing meaningless legislation putting themselves to the right of Coulter, turning our state into a national embarrassment.”

Matt Benson, a spokesman for Republican Secretary of State Ken Bennett told Captiol Media Services that the bill invites a challenge that states cannot impose their own standards on candidates for federal offices.

"Is there an outbreak of illegal immigrant presidents that we don't know about?" Rogers asked. "Because our schools are in last place, university students face a possible 31 percent tuition increase and Arizona must confront the biggest budget mess in America because the Far Right's business plan exposed us to the economic storm more than any state in the country. Get us out of the mess you've gotten into or step aside so Democrats can start repairing the damage."

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