Republican
Senator Says He Backs Birther
Lawsuits
Republican Sen. David Vitter of
Louisiana
says he supports conservative
organizations challenging
President Barack
Obama's citizenship in court.
Vitter, who
is running for re-election, made
the
comments at a town hall-style
event in
Metairie, La., on Sunday when a
constituent asked what he would do
about
what the questioner said was
Obama's
"refusal to produce a valid birth
certificate." Such claims about
Obama's birth certificate have
been
discredited. But with the crowd
applauding
the question, Vitter responded
that
although he doesn't personally
have legal
standing to bring litigation, he
supports
"conservative legal organizations
and
others who would bring that to
court," according to a video of
the
event. "I think that is the valid
and
most possibly effective grounds to
do
it," Vitter said, although he
later
cautioned that the matter could
distract
from policy issues. "I think if we
focus on that issue and let our
eye off
the ball ... I think that's a big
mistake," he said. "I'm not
dismissing any of this. I think
first and
foremost, we need to fight the
Obama
agenda at the ballot box starting
this
fall."