Sean Hannity has a habit of dipping his toe in the birther waters. On the March 23 edition of his show, he pretty much dove right in.
Apparently taking inspiration from Donald Trump's full-on birtherism, Hannity asked his “Great American Panel” about the issue:
HANNITY: What do you think about this birth certificate issue? I mean, it has not been my main issue, but it kind of does get a little odd here after a while. Can't they just produce it and we move on?
REP. MICHAEL BURGESS (R-TX): Well, obviously, there's some value to the White House not producing it. I don't know what that could be. This easily could be ended, could have been ended a couple of years ago. I don't know --
HANNITY: Jerry, that's a reasonable position. Is he right?
JERRY SPRINGER (talk show host): Well, no. I'll tell you why.
HANNITY: Release -- do you have your birth certificate?
SPRINGER: No, I finally -- well because I was born in England, and it was during the war, and really, I had to go through a whole process for my Social Security -- because I'm on Medicare now. I had to finally get --
LEEANN TWEEDEN (model and Fox Sports host): You had to track it down, and you did, right? And you had to produce it, right?
SPRINGER: But i found it. I found it. I found it. But because I was born in England, I can't be president anyway.
As Springer was about to make the point that no previous president has faced such questions about his birthplace, Hannity freaked out and immediately tried to shut him down by claiming he was trying to “bring up race”:
SPRINGER: But you know what, I understand why there's a resistance to it.
HANNITY: Why?
SPRINGER: Because isn't this interesting? Of all our 43 presidents, of the 43 presidents --
HANNITY: Don't bring up race. Do not bring up race. Do not bring up race. It is a constitutional requirement.
SPRINGER: I understand, but why have not of the 43 people we had run -- be president of the United States, never once were you asking, “Where is your birth certificate? ”
BURGESS: It was an issue -- it was an issue for John McCain.
Hannity then invoked one of the hoarier birther tenets - that Obama is somehow not a real American because he spent a few years of his childhood in Indonesia and said the sound of the Muslim call to prayer was pretty:
HANNITY: Because he lived in Indonesia as a kid. He talked about, you know, the prayer at sunset being one of the most beautiful things he's ever seen.
SPRINGER: And?
HANNITY: So, so, he grew up in a foreign country. So some have said, all right, you grew up in Hawaii, it's a constitutional requirement, show us. What's the big deal?
SPRINGER: Well, I might do it -- I would do it. But I'm not going to be angry at him because he doesn't. And I -- you know --
HANNITY: Isn't it odd? The whole issue goes away.
SPRINGER: You know very well -- this is an issue for all those people that would love to -- that keep making, “Well, his name is Hussein” --
BURGESS: It has nothing to do with his name.
HANNITY: He said it! Barack Hussein Obama. We weren't allowed to say it until he said it.
On top of the aforementioned nibbling around the edges, Hannity has already had WorldNetDaily-affiliated birthers like Jerome Corsi and David Kupelian on his show, so he's quite familiar with that fever swamp. Now, seems he has decided to let his birther flag fly for all to see. So when can we expect Donald Trump to get the fullHannitization treatment as the two commiserate over their birtherism?