Conservatives argue about birtherism at Tea Party convention

Two high-profile conservatives duked it out on the topic of birtherism at the National Tea Party convention this weekend.

The Washington Independent's Dave Weigel stumbled upon the argument between WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farrah and conservative media entrepeneur Andrew Breitbart.

Birtherism was somewhat of a hot topic at the gathering. Some in the grass-roots want to abandon questions about President Barack Obama's citizenship while some would like to continue to raise questions.

Obama hit at the issue this week, calling for the attacks to stop.

"Birthers" who question whether Obama is a natural U.S. citizen have raised questions about his birth certificate since the 2008 campaign. Even after proof has been offered of Obama's birth in Hawaii, some critics have questioned its legitimacy. Most mainstream politicians have dismissed questions about whether Obama is a citizen.

Here is his account of the spat:

    I told Farah that his speech was getting negative attention already, and that Breitbart, who’d taken the stage after him, had criticized the “birther” parts of the speech. Farah shook his head and walked over to Breitbart in what seemed like an attempt to debunk my question.

    “Andrew is my friend,” said Farah. “He has the right to disagree, and he has the right to say anything to a socialist newspaper that he wants. And if he wants to criticize his friend to you, and he’s dumb enough to do that…”

    Breitbart raised his eyebrows. “I’m dumb to do what?”

    “Criticize your friend to this socialist newspaper.”

    “I was talking to her,” said Breitbart, pointing to Schilling. “I was talking to you. And I was saying that I disagreed on the birther stuff.”

    “OK, well, did you know that Dave Weigel from The Washington Independent was”–

    “I was talking to her,” said Breitbart. “She was asking me if I thought it was was to bring it up, and I said, no. We have a lot of strong arguments to be making, and that is a primary argument. That is an argument for the primaries that did not take hold. The arguments that these people right here are making are substantive arguments. The elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts were all won not on birther, but on substance. And to apply to this group of people the concept that they’re all obsessed with the birth certificate, when it’s not a winning issue–”

    “It is a winning issue!”

    “It’s not a winning issue.”

You can find audio here.

h/t Hot Air via Wash. Independent