Orly Taitz, who emigrated from Israel to the United States in 1987, has made a name for herself in the last two years as a leading figure in the birther movement. She has taken the lead in filing lawsuits, including ones on behalf of members of two 2008 third-party presidential tickets, that relate to her fervent belief that President Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen.

Taitz, who is running for the nod against former Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Damon Dunn, even used her love of litigation in a failed attempt to get Dunn disqualified from the ballot. Despite her notoriety, Taitz is benefiting from Dunn’s lackluster campaign skills — and as Politico reported yesterday, that has Republicans worried her possible nomination could drag down their candidates for governor and senator.

“It’d be a disaster for the Republican party,” says James Lacy, a conservative GOP operative in the state. “Can you imagine if [gubernatorial candidate] Meg Whitman and [candidate for Lt. Gov.] Abel Maldonado — both of whom might have a chance to win in November — had to run with Orly Taitz as secretary of state, who would make her cockamamie issues about Obama’s birth certificate problems at the forefront of her activities?”

If Taitz won, she would have control of the state’s electoral process — including certification of the state’s vote in the 2012 presidential election. She already told Politico, “I would demand identification and eligibility from all voters to make sure there is no fraud. Also they must have eligibility to be elected.”

The Washington Post’s David Weigel hypothesizes how voters would give Taitz the nod:

Republican voters, brought out in sizable numbers by the contested primaries for governor and U.S. senator, fill out the rest of their ballot with progressively less information about their candidates. They know Taitz’s name from… somewhere. And she’s listed first on the ballot, thanks to the state’s randomized ranking system. (Some of these voters, of course, will know and avidly support her.) She’s identified on the ballot as an attorney, while Dunn is a real estate agent. They check off her name, and she wins.

Weigel also notes that there’s really no way to tell who led in the race before the polls opened — no polling organizations survey the Republican primary for secretary of state. We will know soon enough — polls close at 11 p.m. Check back with TWI tonight to see what happens in this and other races.

Update at 11:13 a.m. on June 9: It appears the California Republicans’ worst nightmare is over — Taitz will not be their nominee. In fact, the race wasn’t even close — Dunn beat her 74-26. He even won every county, though there was a surprisingly close 58-42 result in Lake County.

Among the allegations was that Dunn was registered as a Democrat within the last 12 months, which would disqualify him to seek the GOP nomination, [Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal] Kelley said. Candidates must be registered for three months with the party they are running for, and cannot be registered for a different party for 12 months.

Kelley said that Dunn has been registered as a Republican in Orange County since March 17, 2009. That’s just short of the 12-month mark given the March 12 filing deadline, but meets the three month requirement.

In what looks to be a good year for California Republicans, this could become a sizable embarrassment. Voters don’t typically pay much attention to downballot races, and name recognition can deliver wins — hello there, Scott Lee Cohen.

“We have fully considered Taitz’s arguments,” the court finds. “We find them unpersuasive and therefore affirm the district court’s sanctions judgment.”

Taitz is currently a candidate for the GOP nomination for secretary of state in California.

The only reason he was endorsed so far, is because he is an African American, and Republicans want to have an African American to show diversity. He admits to having no knowledge or experience with law, elections or election law.

Second, Taitz has accused Dunn of being registered to vote in Florida. As Spencer Kornhaber discovered, he was once, but he isn’t now. Still, there are obviously no racial overtones to the “birther” crusade.

I didn’t investigate it personally, but we know she’s disliked by a large number of people, some of whom are organized. It’s certainly plausible. And therefore, because it is a serious allegation, it would merit an investigation.

Why the UN? Because no one else will listen!

It has the appearance that there is something wrong here. And that’s why she would take the extreme measure of going to the U.N. Because where else is she supposed to go?

The irony of Taitz appealing to the hated organ of world government for this really goes without saying.

ORLY TAITZ APPEALS TO UN FOR PROTECTION FROM PERSECUTION IN U.S. – 27277636 Immediate Release February 22 2010

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.

The plaintiff  in Berg was seeking Declaratory and Injunctive Relief  under Article 2 Section 1 Natural Born Citizen and under 42 USC §1983, seeking determination of  eligibility for presidency of Barack Husein Obama. In his opinion judge Sloviter finds that though the election is over, the court has jurisdiction to hear it as it “fits squarely” as an issue “capable of repetition yet evading review”.Merle v US, 351, 3d 92,94 (3d Cir 2003)  Based on this argument there is Article 3 jurisdiction to hear the case as long as the plaintiff can show standing with specialized injury.

While Berg’s holding finds that a regular voter does not have standing, Presidential and vice presidential candidates such as plaintiffs Ambassador Alan Keyes and Gail Lightfoot have standing.

Judge Sloviter proceeds by arguing that both parties with actual and imminent injuries would have standing in this case. Nearly 40 plaintiffs in this case are members of the military. A number of them are either active military or in active reserves. For example plaintiff  Lita Lott is in active drilling reserves. Within only a few days of notice she will be required to leave her family behind and deploy, this can happen any day. This satisfies the imminent injury prong for the purpose of standing.

In other words, she’s sticking to the discredited and ridiculous arguments that have been laughed out of courtrooms on both coasts. The more interesting question right now is how her confrontation with the U.S. Attorney is going to go.