[C]onsider a case filed by one of the most prolific birther litigants, Philip J. Berg, that went all the way up to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. In November the court dismissed the appeal and ordered Berg to pay the legal costs for the defendants, which included the Federal Election Commission. Here was the government’s big chance to recoup its millions. But when the FEC submitted its bill, the grand total came to $20.40.

Basically, birther lawyers and exploiters like to cite the entire legal bills paid to law firms that defend against these lawsuits and say “that’s how much Obama has spent to thwart us.” They’ve willfully decided not to investigate further.

I don’t have any issues with his birth certificate, and I really don’t think it’s really something that is an issue in the governor’s race. None of these folks serve in Congress. None of them get asked the questions that I get asked by constituents, “tell me what the status of the president’s birth certificate is.” I have simply asked the president, “tell me where I can refer these constituent inquiries to, to a source that you think is credible so that we can answer their questions.” I think that is a reasonable proposition and certainly something that I think the president should respond to. Although at this point, he has not.

Audio here.

I’d add that Limbaugh played a pivotal role in elevating “birtherism” from the very far fringes of the discourses into a sort of dog whistle for right-wingers. On his Oct. 23, 2008 show, Limbaugh responded to the news that Obama would travel to Hawaii to visit his grandmother on her deathbed by speculating whether the candidate was trying to cover up the truth about his birth certificate.

Who announces days in advance they’re rushing to the side of a loved one who is deathly ill but keeps campaigning in a race that’s said to be over, only to go to the loved one’s side days later?  See, I think this is about something else.  You know what’s really percolating out there?  I’ve been laying low on this because it hasn’t met the threshold to pass the smell test on this program. This birth certificate business, this lawsuit that a guy named Philip Berg filed in Philadelphia in August for Obama to produce his genuine birth certificate and he still hasn’t replied. You’ve got a deathly ill grandmother, you are going to rush to her side a few days from now, when you first announced this, you’re going to rush, you’re going to hurry, you’re going to make tracks, you’re going to get over there because you don’t want your grandmother to die before you got there like your mother did, but somehow you keep campaigning, you take three days to get over there, if he’s left yet, and this birth certificate business, I’m just wondering if something’s up.  I have no clue, and folks, I’m telling you, this has not reached the threshold until now, and it’s popping up all over the place. There are a lot of people now that are starting to speculate and be curious about this.

Still, the big takeaway from WND’s list is that it really did manage to catapult stories from the web to Fox News. For example:

WND was the news agency that broke the first major story on Obama’s “green” jobs czar Van Jones and it was the dogged reporting of WND’s Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein that helped bring down the first high-ranking member of the Obama administration.

I’d agree with that. Few people admit to reading WND but there’s no doubt that its relentless reports on Jones, coupled with Gateway Pundit’s blog posts, provided the grist for Glenn Beck’s attacks.

As I told you a thousand times if I told you once: you had re-awakened in my heart, body, and soul a hunger that I had allowed to die, a hunger for life and love and a woman’s companionship and touch. Without your voice, without your touch, without the feel of your beautiful smooth pale “blue-blooded” skin and the brightness of your eyes like bright flickering candles, ORLY, my life has gone dark indeed—very dark. I sit alone in the dark at night and miss you.  I wake up in the mornings and wish you were coming through the door again as you did so many amazing mornings here.  I want to hear you say you love me again, even if you say it in the softest whisper like you used to.

I am a total wreck without you (physically, emotionally, and yes, financially and professionally). And even if I hadn’t gotten sick, I couldn’t have faced you at court on Wednesday.  Do you really want me to get that strength?  I miss you too much, I love you too much, I need you too, too much.  And really and truly, I need you in court even more than I need you in bed or in my life generally.  I just need YOU Orly.

There’s a lot here, the most, uh, newsworthy of which are Lincoln’s accusations concerning Taitz’s shoddy legal work and penchant for crazy and baseless claims.

Somehow, somewhere, there are lawyers who will help me, but my association with you has tainted me for life, especially if this is the last chapter, if you dump me here after making my name almost inextricably intertwined with yours.  Is this fair?  I am tarnished by you forever when you promised to build me up?  When you promised you would do everything you could to build up my life again?  Why are you deserting me this way after building up my hopes so very much?

Lincoln also accuses Taitz of setting up lodging for him, and possibly even picking her cases, in order to continue their affair.

You promised me a free place to live and free medical care so long as I lived in Rancho Santa Margarita and would be your “boy toy” even though I resisted that, and said you should tell your husband about us, and that I preferred to live by the beach in San Clemente….which at 20 minutes is not that far from Rancho Santa Margarita except in the very worst of traffic jams. You promised in particular first to protect, then to save, and finally to recover my house at 4 Via Corbina only in part because you wanted it to be our long-term “love nest”—4-5 minutes away from your office, again depending on traffic.

The Aliso Viejo dentist and attorney was sanctioned by one court, accused of suborning perjury in another, and saw all her lawsuits dismissed without going to trial. Taitz has responded that the judges are part of a Soviet-styled conspiracy to protect Obama.

Last week, Lincoln went on his personal blog and filed a lengthy, emotional post confessing that he had fallen in love with Taitz — who is married — and been used by a “disloyal and treacherous person.”

By mid-October, when we were in New York together and Lucas Smith published his “declaration”, I had wrapped my life around Orly’s and I guess I honestly believed she had wrapped hers around mine and she said over and over again how much she was committed to me and how she never wanted us to separate. Three weeks later she had abandoned me, and yet some people have the nerve to call ME mentally unstable!  I am honest about where I come from. Orly is not. Orly used her words and promises to induce me as long as she wanted and then she dumped me with no regard to her promises whatsoever.

Lincoln attacks Taitz as an incompetent attorney who makes rash, stupid decisions, and has wasted the time and money of the “birther” movement — whose cause, he still believes, is just.

Orly’s lack of judgment in the handling of our relationship exactly paralleled her lack of judgment in handling the constitutional eligibility litigation. She needed me and probably still needs me in every possible way, but I don’t have her husband’s money and so she chose to DUMP me, to DUMP real love, for the illusion of piles of federal reserve notes and other credits, and she goes on with her reckless rage and fire.

Read the whole thing, and understand why I’ve been less concerned with Taitz than with the elected Republicans who have been willing to jump on board with this conspiracy.

“I commend Rep. Bill Posey for taking the lead in introducing and securing co-sponsors for important legislation that enforces the presidential qualifications outlined in Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution,” writes WND’s Joseph Farah in his introduction to the email. “It is critical that we begin enforcing the Constitution before the 2012 election with regard to the eligibility of presidential candidates.”

In his appeal, Posey asks donors to help him fend off an attack from Democrats–an attack based on his brave quest for presidential birth certificates.

“My bill (H.R. 1503) that would require all candidates for President in the future to provide documentation (such as a birth certificate) to prove they are natural born citizens of the United States, has resulted in the national liberal left making me Top target for defeat in the 2010 Congressional elections,” writes Posey. “As I said before, I’m being lambasted by the media and late-night comics and Nancy Pelosi’s team has already paid for tens of thousands of automated phone calls in my district and are raising a multi-million-dollar campaign war chest to defeat me.”

Here’s Farah’s introduction:

And here’s the fundraising splash page for Posey.

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask… which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

A glance at the comments suggests that many Palin fans didn’t want her to back down.

Gene Bland:

The question of his birth certificate must be resolved now, otherwise he is a fraud. Those he associates with are tax cheats, and criminals. His actions violate the principles he professes to believe in.

Bill Stapleton:

What passport did he use when he was traveling between New York, Jakarta, and Karachi in 1981? There are only three possiblilities a U.S. passport, a British passport or an Indonesia passport. Pakastan was on the U.S. State Department’s “no travel list” so he couldn’t have travelled with a U.S.passport. So, what passport did he travel with? The answere to this question will clear all this up.

Ian Gratton:

I tell ya, if it turns out that he doesn’t have a birth certificate, I would not be surprised one bit. This guy is a bad dude and just as he has said several times now, he wants to “fundamentally change” America.

Dave Happe:

This one is pretty simple. If a birth certificate existed, they would have produced it already. How can they show something they don’t have? Even a visit by Obama to Hawaii, complete with some shaved ice photo ops and an off camera visit to the hospital — couldn’t get one done after the fact. Doesn’t exist. Every single natural born citizen in America – excluding our president – could produce a birth certificate.

Wayne Winchell:

I wonder then, why he’s spent so much money hiding his birth certificate from the public if there’s nothing compromising in it?

Tom Burley:

I’m not a conspiracy junky but surely as a general rule ANY presidential candidate should be required to provide proof of birth as a US citizen? I had to provide my birth certificate to become a legal permanent resident and apply for US citizenship and to get a passport and yet an incoming president is not required to? I don’t need to see it myself but I would like to be assured that the Chief Justice who swears in a President has verified candidate eligability.

Tracy Jayne Keckler

Why is not asking for his birth certificate a bad thing? I’ll grab a anything to get this creep out of office!

Larry Diurba:

You See —- I think you should have asked him to produce his birth certificate, health records and college records.

No Birth Certificate – Shouldn’t be President (Constitution)
No Health Records – Could still be on drugs (put that finger on the launch button)
No College Records – Might show where the money for his college came from, and what citizenship was declaired.

Jim Tischler:

The simple way to shut up all the birthers is to show them the original birth certificate. So why doesn’t he? The inability to put this claim to rest only fuels the fire that he wasn’t really born in HI. You almost have to believe he’s hiding SOMETHING by faililng to comply with a simple request every other candidate has complied with.

This is the problem with dipping a toe into the fever swamp.

Another point I’d make: While Palin’s whining and martyr complex about the attacks on her son — which don’t seem to have come from anyone more powerful than blogger Andrew Sullivan — there’s an obvious difference between those attacks and a sustained, yearlong fringe campaign that has produced dozens of junk lawsuits from lawyers who encourage members of the military to disobey their commander-in-chief.