Rep. Deal wants Obama to prove citizenship

By Bob Keefe

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

WASHINGTON -- Republican gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal says he wants the president to prove he is an American citizen.

Deal says he has "no reason to think" that President Barack Obama is not a legal U.S. citizen but enough questions have been raised that he plans to write a letter to the president asking him to produce a birth certificate showing he was born in the United States.

"I have looked at the documentation that is publicly available and it leaves many things to be desired," Deal said in an interview Friday.

Deal's statement came a day after he noted in an online chat that he would join other U.S. House members in writing the president and asking that he release a copy of his birth certificate.

The position is a reversal for Deal. In the past, he has said he was assured that Obama was born in Hawaii two years after it became a state, and therefore was fully qualified to be president.

Friday, Deal indicated his change of heart was the result of continued questions about Obama's citizenship. He stopped short of saying he was a proponent of the so-called "birthers" movement that has questioned the legitimacy of Obama's citizenship.

A spokeswoman for Obama said the White House had no comment on Deal's statements other than what it has said in the past when refuting claims questioning Obama's citizenship.

In June 2008, Obama's campaign office released a digitally scanned image of his birth certificate -- a "certification of live birth" -- that shows he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961. Government officials in Hawaii have verified that the document is official, as have several news organizations.

Yet Deal and others say they still have doubts.

"What I have seen -- and I think it is the only thing that has been put out -- is a certification of live birth, and it just does not contain the type of information that most state birth certificates would contain," Deal said. "It obviously does not have the signature of a doctor. Most birth certificates or even certificates of live birth have those kinds of verifications."

Some of Deal's colleagues in Congress said they are disappointed and puzzled about why the Gainesville Republican is raising the citizenship issue.

"I'm sorry to hear that Nathan, who's a very decent person, is raising that question," said Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta, a strong Obama supporter. "I don't think there's any question, any doubt, that the president was born in America, in Hawaii."

Deal's opponents in the race for Georgia governor also criticized the congressman's comments.

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine said he believes Obama is a legal U.S. citizen.

"Any serious adult running for governor of Georgia needs to understand that we have a responsibility to do business with the president of United States," Oxendine said. " Questioning his citizenship after he has been elected to the highest office in our land is disrespectful."

Ben Fry, a spokesman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Johnson said, "We take the government of Hawaii at its word when they say the president is eligible to serve."

Said Republican candidate Karen Handel's spokesman Dan McLagan, "I think its pretty kooky and probably not very helpful for our water negotiations and other issues with the administration."

Chris Carpenter, a spokesman for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Barnes characterized Deal's statements as "great silliness."

In Washington, Lewis said he thought it was time to end questions about Obama's citizenship.

"This is an issue that needs to be put to rest," he said. "I don't believe the president of the United States of America, knowing you must be a citizen born in America, would even consider, even think of running for president," if he were not a citizen.

Ralph Ellis, Jim Galloway and Aaron Gould Sheinin contributed to this report.