Tonight on his Fox Business show, Freedom Watch, Andrew Napolitano said that President Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate closed “a particularly ugly chapter in the politics of personal destruction.” Fox News political analyst Kirsten Powers mocked birthers who are “claiming that [the birth certificate] was Photoshopped,” saying that “you can't reason with people who believe this kind of stuff.”

Whether they knew it or not, Napolitano and Powers were talking about their colleagues at Fox Business. Last night, Eric Bolling devoted considerable time on his show Follow the Money to precisely such conspiracy theories, hosting noted birther Pam Geller to analyze the birth certificate's “green border” and concluding that it “had to be Photoshopped in.” Geller simply concluded that the president's birth certificate “is actually not a birth certificate.” Bolling also spun an absurd theory around the wife of the doctor who delivered Obama being unaware that her husband delivered a future president. The fact that the doctor passed away in 2003, before Obama achieved national prominence, explains why he was unaware of the fact that the child he delivered became president.

While Napolitano seemed unequivocal in his condemnation of the birther movement, he has not hesitated to associate closely with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones has pushed birther conspiracy theories on his radio show and called the long-form birth certificate released yesterday a “horrible, fake forgery -- on purpose.” Additionally, Jones' website Prison Planet is filled with stories questioning the location of Obama's birth and the authenticity of both the first birth certificate Obama released, as well as the long-form version. Napolitano considers Jones a "dear friend" and has appeared frequently on Jones' radio program.

And finally, there's another person who should be mentioned as having dabbled in birtherism -- Napolitano himself. Napolitano, discussing the detainment of Jose Padilla, said that Padilla's “birth records are better known than the birth records of the present president of the United States.”