Shelby says remark was "distorted"

[Jackeens]

Says remark "distorted"

By JONATHAN MARTIN

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said today that he has no doubts about President Obama’s citizenship and that a news account from a town hall meeting last weekend that suggested he did was erroneous.

....dismissed a report in the Cullman (Ala.) Times in which he was captured as indulging a constituent’s question about whether the president was born on American soil, a widely debunked rumor held over from the presidential campaign.

“Someone asked me that in a meeting and basically what I did is paraphrase, you know just quote for the crowd, what they said and I said that has been settled,” Shelby recounted today, calling his remark “distorted.”

In the Cullman Times, Shelby was quoted as saying: “Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate. You have to be born in America to be president.”

Shelby’s staff quickly said the paper had offered an incomplete account of the senator’s remarks. No video or audio tape has emerged from the meeting.

Shelby, who as the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee was appearing with Obama and other members of Congress to discuss financial regulation, made clear that he believed the president was a citizen.

“ never had any doubts,” he said. “I didn’t raise the doubt. They raised it in a meeting.”

Shelby, who was captured on television Tuesday night chatting with Obama before his address to Congress, said he had not addressed the issue with the president.

“No, he didn’t bring it up. He wouldn’t dignify it.”


http://www.politico.com/politico44/

[H2O Man]

1. His mind is distorted. n/t

[billybob537]

2. Senator Shellgame! aka:Forest Gump!

Denial is deep and flowing fast!

[eleny]

3. These idiots are stepping all over their own tongues these days

Watermelon patches at the White House, the Wash Post geniuses, Shelby. They're hopelessly lost in this era of email, YouTube, Twitter and liberals who aren't going to take it anymore.

[rasputin1952]

4. Amazing...the man got caught in the headlights, and still refuses

to accept that he is little more than a a 2-cent liar.

A question for Shelby, minor in it's own way, "was one of your ancestors born during the Confederacy, or, did they secede from the Union or fight for the Confederacy?"

"Would that make you ineligible to be a Senator from AL?"

As an aside Senator, "how did someone as stupid as you get elected in the first place?"

[opihimoimoi]

5. If ya can FOOL....ya can ROOL

:hi:

[CATagious]

6. he could be telling the truth....

the reporter might have left out some of the context... I know it happens to our side all the time.

[CitizenPatriot]

7. In alabama?? hmmm...

I think he had plenty of time to set the record straight -- and wolf blitzer said he deliberately let this sit out there to feed fear mongering to his base and then never set the record straight.

Do you hear him saying "Obama is a citizen"? There's a huge difference between this non statement and setting the record straight.

[rasputin1952]

9. Possibility...but knowing Shelby and his history, he's little more than

piker, and a stupid one at that...;)

[rucky]

8. It was distorted, alright.

and pretty fucked up, too.

[Orsino]

10. "That has been settled" is not an affirmation of Obama's American birth.

He couldn't just say that President Obama was born in the United States? He's ducking the essential point for no good reason that I can see.

This is a non-denial.

[Jennicut]

11. I have detested Shelby since his days as a Dem when he gave Clinton trouble

over all sorts of things. I cannot stand him and there was no "distortion" he is just a lying pig of a politician.