Some Georgia lawmakers couldn’t backpedal fast enough Thursday on a “birther” bill supported earlier this week by a majority of House members.
First to block out his name with a heavy black marker on House Bill 401 was John Meadows, chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee.
A steady stream of legislators followed all day. By 5 p.m., at least 23 of the original 93 backers were gone from a proposal requiring presidential and vice presidential candidates prove they were born in the United States. Among them was the bill's lone Democratic supporter, Glenn Baker of Jonesboro.
Seventy sponsors is still a sizable chunk of the 180-member chamber, but is an abrupt about-face from just 48 hours before. Why?
“We’ve got state problems we’ve got to take care of,” said Meadows, R-Calhoun, who said he heard complaints from constituents.
Many of those removing their names said they hadn’t read the bill and disagreed with how far it goes in making a candidate prove eligibility. Others simply said they’d been told to take their names off but declined to say by whom.
The move comes less than two days after Speaker David Ralston hinted he didn’t want the proposal to make it to the floor for a vote. The speaker said he did not ask anyone to remove their name but had been blunt that issues such as the budget, water reservoirs and tax reform were more important.
"What we have to do is make a decision where we're going to put forth our energy in the remaining days of the session," Ralston said. "I am clear this is not on the ‘A-list' of priorities."
Bill sponsor Mark Hatfield, R-Waycross, found a more receptive audience with most of the members of a government affairs subcommittee in pushing the issue for nearly an hour on Wednesday.
Only Democrats on the committee objected. Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan, D-Austell, called it racially and politically divisive.
Speaking Thursday afternoon, Hatfield said those concerns missed his point of addressing the issue for any candidates for the nation's two highest offices.
“There is a lot of innuendo thrown around that this is about our sitting president. It is not,” Hatfield said.
Still, Hatfield has said he has never seen documentation that President Barack Obama is eligible to serve, a sentiment held by the "birther" movement.
Hawaiian birth records and documentation revealed by Obama confirm the president was born in the United States, but some lawmakers who still support Hatfield’s proposal said the controversy alone gave merit to the bill.
“I have no question of Obama’s legitimacy. He’s our president,” said Sandy Springs Republican Wendell Willard, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who remains a backer. “My point is, it’s become an issue so let’s address it.”
Mike Jacobs, R-Brookhaven, had never signed the bill over concerns it gives Georgia a black eye .
“The appropriate place to address issues with this president is at the ballot box in 2012,” Jacobs said.
Still, the proposal is far from dead, despite the flight of so many co-sponsors. An elections subcommittee is scheduled to take the issue up at its next meeting, which has not yet been set.
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