Michael Medved takes on 'birthers' and his fellow conservatives

Michael Medved, the nationally syndicated talk-radio host, joined On Point this morning for our show on the "birthers," and he had strong words for his fellow conservatives who aren't speaking out against "this incredible stupidity." We thought these two clips drove his point home.  Here's the audio, along with short transcripts of each.

http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2009/07/onpoint_0727_med2.mp3

MICHAEL MEDVED: Look, I am a strong conservative. I am a strong Republican. And I think it’s important for people like me to speak up against this. And I would fault my colleagues on talk radio, and I would fault the congressmen, for not speaking up clearly enough against this. But what they’re doing is sort of sleazy. What they’re doing is they’re saying, "Well, we don’t know, we’re just asking the question." It is indecent and wrong and destructive for the conservative movement and the country to even ask the question right now. This is about as clear a moral issue in politics as I can remember.

TOM ASHBROOK: You think it’s wrong for Republicans to even be raising this issue now, is that what you’re saying?

MICHAEL MEDVED: Absolutely. It is destructive of our party, it is destructive of the conservative movement. Right now we are just beginning to get traction on some of the real issues in the country. The question of the overspending, the question of the takeover of medical care, the question of what people call cap and tax. All of these are important issues that should be debated, and instead we are dissipating energy, with a lot of the most passionate people in the conservative movement, with this incredible stupidity.

http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2009/07/onpoint_0727_med1.mp3

MICHAEL MEDVED: Look, I host a show that reaches 4 million listeners, and we’re [on] more than 200 stations, and there is now a very strong, outspoken -- well, first of all, in 13 years of doing radio I’ve never done anything that has provoked such hostility from a segment of my audience.

TOM ASHBROOK: Meaning when you say this is disgusting, this is wrong, they come back angry?

MICHAEL MEDVED: Correct. And conservatives need to speak out against it and be clear, and not play games — not play games like Liz Cheney was doing. It’s completely inappropriate. You have to be heard from and let our movement sound credible and responsible. And there’s now an organized effort, or a somewhat organized effort, to get me dropped from stations, to shut me off because I’m, quote, not raising the appropriate questions about President Obama’s birth. One thing that I think is fascinating here is that one of the themes that you hear from people is what you heard in that tape that very disturbing tape of Congressman Castle, who by the way is a potential senate candidate in Delaware.

TOM ASHBROOK: And this is the town hall meeting where the woman stood up -- "I want my country back," she’s saying.

MICHAEL MEDVED: Right, but that’s the same sort of thing that people on the left chanted about George W. Bush. I think we should drop that. That entire mantra that somehow, when the opposition party takes over, that you’ve lost your country. You haven’t. You may disagree with President Obama, but for God’s sake, we desperately need in our politics a focus on real issues and a recognition that you can disagree about stuff but it doesn’t make the other person an undocumented alien or some kind of conspirator or some kind of an evil Hitler-like figure.

Listen to the full show here, and join the discussion.