Crank Trifecta: A Birther-Tea Bagger-Town Hall Crier Rolled Into One

Media Matters gets the scoop on this morning's Fox & Friends bringing together the living embodiment of the "grass-roots" Birther, Tea Party and Healthcare Town Hall movements--without acknowledging it, of course, because that would be embarrassing even to Fox News.

To prove that an ordinary "citizen" had created the bus tour making 35 stops around the country to revolt against out-of-control government spending, the morning show hosts introduced Mark Williams as the organizer of the Tea Party Express and vice chairman of the grass-roots sounding "Our Country Deserves Better."

But at the beginning of his live feed from Sacramento, Williams wanted to make it clear he is but one of many organizers all over the country, likening his work to herding cats and bemoaning those on the "unholy left" who dare refer to the growing tea bagger movement as a "fringe" group.  

What Fox and Williams did not mention was Our Country Deserves Better is a Republican political action committee aimed at derailing initiatives by President Barack Obama and Democrats. Guess Williams is right about it not being a fringe group.

Neither he nor the Fair and Balancers pointed out that Williams has compared Obama's mythical "death panels" to Nazi experiments--just like the fringy town hall criers. Nor did they divulge that Williams counts himself among those who say Obama lacks a valid birth certificate--just like those fringy birthers.

On the plus side, reporters now need only one phone number in their Rolodex when a quick quote is required from someone from the Big Three crank groups.

In other birther news, Mission Viejo attorney and "Queen of the Birthers" Orly Taitz filed a motion to have Magistrate Judge Arthur Nakazato removed from hearing her lawsuit aimed at getting Obama tossed from office because the jurist is being "hyper-formalistic,." writes the Orange County Register's Martin Wisckol. The Reggie's political reporter and columnist last week wrote about the Rev. Wiley Drake and another plaintiff in the case having dropped Taitz as their counsel because of all the fuck-ups she's making in court.