If there is one Religious Right figure through which any and every fevered right-wing conspiracy theory can gain exposure, it is Janet Porter.
Hate crimes legislation will throw Christians in jail? Check.
The Department of Homeland Security report was really an attack on conservatives? Check.
Barack Obama was not born in the United States and is ineligible to hold the office of President? Check.
In fact, in most of these instances, Porter has not only been avidly spreading these falsehood but has actually played a leading role in their propagation, having been behind WorldNetDaily’s effort to inundate Congress with faxes opposing the “Pedophile Protection Act,” having led a coalition that called for DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano’s resignation, and regularly hosting leaders of the Birther movement on her radio program.
Case in point: yesterday she hosted Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, the Army reservist who filed suit challenging his deployment to Afghanistan on the grounds that Obama is ineligible to serve as president of the United States and commander-in-chief, and his lawyer Orly Taitz , the “queen bee of people obsessed with Barack Obama’s birth certificate.”
The interview was pretty much what one would expect from a discussion among a trio of right-wing conspriacy theorists, with Cook asserting that he was concerned that obeying his deployment orders would be illegal and that, in turn, any orders he issued while on duty would likewise be illegal and that he and all his soldiers would therefore be in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
The most fascinating part of the program, in my opinion, came when Cook handed to phone over to Taitz and Porter welcomed her back to the program, saying that America is a safer place because of her efforts. The two discussed Taitz’s work in a manner that suggests extreme familiarity between the two women, as if the two have been working together closely on this effort and, at the end of the above audio clip, Taitz explains that she is representing both Alan Keyes and “somebody that you know really well, Pastor Wiley Drake” to which Porter responds affirmatively.
As it turns out, Porter does know Drake, as she hosted him on her program back on April 28th.
Drake is the man who recently declared that the murder of Dr. George Tiller was an answer to his prayers, literally, and that he is likewise that he is praying for the death of President Obama.
On a similar note, Porter also recently hosted Bill Keller on her program, the man best known for his crusade to convince America that a vote for Mitt Romney was a “vote for Satan.”
It’s not really a surprise that Porter would have people like Keller and Drake on her program, considering that she clearly shares their rabidly right-wing views, as demonstrated by the fact that she declared ahead of the November election that anyone who voted for Barack Obama was going to hell.
But was is surprising is that people like Mike Huckabee, who tapped Porter to co-chair his presidential campaign’s Faith and Family Values Coalition, and Rep. Michele Bachmann would agree to headline the How To Take Back America Conference in September which is being co-chaired by Porter even though she had made a career of promoting the worst rhetoric that the Right has to offer.
Even by the standards of the Religious Right, Porter inhabits the fringe of the movement and has, since the election, ventured further and further out to sea, wallowing in conspiracy theories and Christian victimization, claiming that Obama’s election was the result of a communist conspiracy twenty years in the making and calling on God to prevent him from taking office, while warning that “AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN” to this nation because we deserve God’s judgment.
And yet, when she co-hosts an event, instead of running for the hills out of fear of ever being seen with her, Huckabee and Bachmann jump at the chance to address it.
It boggles the mind.
