Top Dem Warns: GOP Poised to Take up Birther Argument

Obama, beware.

That's the warning from the House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC). In an interview with TheGrio.com, Clyburn said that should Republicans retake the House this fall, Congress will be "gridlocked" and the White House will be busy responding to subpoenas from Republicans.

Clyburn is refering to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight panel, and his statement that he will issue "subpoenas everywhere" should Republicans prevail. But Clyburn goes a step further and speculates on the content of those subpoenas:

The White House will be full-time responding to subpoenas about where the president may or may not have been born, whether his mother and father were ever married, and whether his wife's family is from Georgetown or Sampit.

The question of Obama's citizenship is usually referred to as the "birther" argument. The Hillreports that Issa's office calls Clyburn's hypothesis "ridiculous."

"The Democratic Caucus doesn’t take Jim Clyburn seriously -- Americans shouldn’t take his ridiculous claims seriously either," said Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella in an e-mail to the Washington-based paper.

A call to the Majority Whip's office seeking comment about what Clyburn is basing his claim off of was not immediately returned.

In his interview, Clyburn insists that the birthers are a creation of Conservative media personalities who refuse to repudiate such ideas. He adds that if the Fairness Doctrine was still in place, requiring broadcasters to give both sides equal time on political programs, there wouldn't be an issue.

"Twenty-five years ago, we didn't have Rush Limbaugh spewing hate all day, every day, and others on the radio, and we didn't have a TV station dedicated to misrepresenting the facts and people making $20 million to go out and say what they know not to be true," Clyburn said in the interview. "This has created an atmosphere of toxicity."

In a recent interview with author Dinesh D'Souza, Glenn Beck did speak out against the birther idea: