Republican Leaders Back Bill ‘Birther’ Posey

The strange thing about the birther bill is that it probably won't have the slightest effect on the more radical birthers. The text of the bill requires only that a presidential candidate provide "a copy of the candidate’s birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under section 5 of article II of the Constitution."

As Janice Okubo has stated to David Weigel, the Certification of Live Birth IS Hawaii's birth certificate. Yet, from what I could tell from Chris Matthews' interrogation of Rep. John Campbell on Hardball last night (a sponsor of the birther bill), Campbell appears to believe that an official copy of the COLB would be sufficient evidence of Obama's Hawaiian birth. This won't sit well with the "Where's the Birth Certificate?" crowd, who think the COLB isn't a legitimate birth certificate.

So what we see is the groundwork for a future battle between "moderate" birthers who seek to cater to the fringe of the conservative movement without alienating mainstream conservatives, and the militant birthers, who see anyone not firmly in their camp as a traitor, conspirator and a fraud.