By Clarence Page
As congressional lawmakers return to their home districts for August recess, they could find a creature from Washington's silly season waiting for them: the "birthers."
That's the nickname given to the odd activists who refuse to believe that President Barack Obama qualifies as a "natural-born citizen."
The birther nickname is half-adapted from the Sept. 11, 2001, "truthers," who hounded the previous administration, blaming shadowy home-grown conspiracies for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
I have my own nickname for both groups: sore losers.
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What's with these suspicious minds? Why is there such an insistence, even after his birth certificate is produced, to have Obama produce even more?
I am hardly alone in my impression that part of the birther movement is a new hood under which racism can hide its ugly face. But, looking at history, I also detect a broader illness: xenophobia, a distrust of people who come from somebody else's crowd.
That's why I call them sore losers. Unable to challenge his vote, they challenge his legitimacy. The birther challenges to Obama remind me of the bad old days of Jim Crow segregation in the South, with "literacy tests" (Sample question: How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?) and other outlandish challenges to black voter eligibility.
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