Birther 2: "Coverup" Boogaloo

So by an amazing coincidence, various conservatives who proclaim themselves utterly detached from the Obama birthplace theories have, on the same day, hit upon the idea that there might be something to it because of all the coverups that seem to be going on, with demands for college transcripts forming the Trojan horse for their birther endorsements.

First, we have The Anchoress who blogs at the neocon Catholic journal First Things --

I’m not a birther, myself, but it’s not a bad or unfair question. Why, instead of simply producing the paper, does Obama fight inquiry about it? Why can’t we see his transcripts?

And then National Review's Mark Krikorian says he's getting e-mails --

The real problem, however, is not the president's place of birth (it is highly unlikely that he was born anywhere but where he claims) but the Nixonian secrecy with which he has chosen to surround himself. Has Obama released his transcripts from Occidental College and Harvard? (we know all about Bush's mediocre grades at Yale).

Weird how Bush's Yale grades -- about which he repeatedly boasted -- are such a sore point.

One element of the supposed coverup is the US House resolution which happens to mention Obama's birth in Hawaii. Here's a recently signed resolution that passed in Texas (HCR 168) --

WHEREAS, George W. Bush was the first Texas governor to become president of the United States, and as he takes up residence once again in the Lone Star State, it is indeed a pleasure to welcome him home; and
WHEREAS, The eldest child of former president George Herbert Walker Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush , George W. Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 6, 1946; he grew up in Midland and Houston and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University and a master of business administration degree from the Harvard School of Business; after returning to Midland to enter the energy industry, he met Laura Welch, who became his wife on November 5, 1977; three years later,the couple were blessed with twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara; and WHEREAS, This dynamic Texan continued his career in energy (cont'd p94)

Now just about everything in there could be contested but no one complained that by Texas giving legal weight to such a text that it was trying to turn the claims into facts. Although it could have come as news to some of Bush's more deluded followers that he wasn't actually Texas-born. So in a sense there once was a crazy liberal birther movement claiming that Bush actually wasn't from Texas. Except that they were right.

But we digress. The main point is that there's now a new movement: the closet birthers. They believe the birthers, or at least want to believe them, but just don't want to say so. Hence the contortion of the "cover up".