Lunatics, Imbeciles and Saboteurs

Arizona, Arizona, Arizona.  What did you do to deserve this?

The Arizona Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, is making threats to remove Barack Obama's name from the election ballot unless the State of Hawaii provides proof of Barack Obama's birth there.  He says he's doing this because "1,200 constituents" have emailed him expressing doubts about the validity of Obama's birth, citizenship and eligibility.

In short, he's acting as an enabler for the Birther Conspiracy folks.

At this point, after every so-called-fact and objection and fantasy the Birthers present has been disproven, again and again and again, the only sane reaction to Birthers is to call them what they are:  Lunatics, imbeciles, and saboteurs.

Saboteur, one who engages in sabotage.  The term purportedly inspired by Netherland workers in the early Industrial Age who would throw their wooden shoes (sabots) into the gears of machinery to break and jam the machines that were threatening to destroy their jobs and livelihoods.

Leaving aside the genuine lunatics and imbeciles among the Birthers, sabotage is precisely what the remaining Birthers are trying to accomplish.  They're trying to subvert the political process, overthrow the results of the last Presidential election,or failing that to distract their opponents's time and energy away from real issues and problems.

The Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA, produced a manual of sabotage methods.  Besides actual physical damage, those methods also recommended ways to slow down efficiency and production via more passive methods.  And one of those recommendations was to always keep raising irrelevant issues.

So, is Ken Bennett a lunatic, an imbecile, or a saboteur?

If he's a lunatic or an imbecile, he's unfit to hold his office, and should be removed.

But if he's a saboteur, why?  Why would he threaten to remove Obama's name from the ballot?

Hmmm, gee, I don't know.  It's almost like he's trying to throw the election Mitt Romney's way.  He's acting almost like he's the co-chairman of Mitt Romney's election campaign in Arizona.

Oh, wait. He IS the co-chairman of Mitt Romney's election campaign in Arizona.

At this point, you really have to sit back and take a deep breath.  The magnitude of the conflict of interest here is so amazing that the audacity is breathtaking.  The state offical in charge of elections is a partisan and offical campaigner for one candidate, and is threatening to remove the other candidate's name from the ballot.

A decent Secretary of State, an ethical Secretary of State, an honorable Secretary of State, would never have accepted that co-chairman position in Romney's campaign in the first place.  (For that matter, an ethical candidate would never have offered such a position to someone in Bennett's office in the first place.)

Let's cut to the chase here:  Ken Bennett's actions have proven that he's morally and ethically unfit to hold his office.  He should either resign, or be removed.

Oh, and one more thing from that OSS sabotage manual.  Among all those passive methods of sabotage recommended, they pretty much boiled down to one simple technique: "Act stupid."