In a post about Media Matters founder David Brock this morning, Politico notes that "Obama has faced a range of attacks from the right, including the belief, championed in some conservative quarters, that he was not born in the United States."
This is interesting, inasmuch as Politico has previously noted the theory that Obama wasn't eligible to serve as president "first emerged in the spring of 2008, as Clinton supporters circulated an anonymous email questioning Obama's citizenship." (Emphasis mine.)
To be fair, some on the right have, no doubt, "championed" this theory. But the irony, of course, is that Brock — whose group was ostensibly created to fend off attacks such as the "birther" charge — is supporting the very woman whose supporters were responsible for spreading them.
This isn't the first time conservatives were blamed for dredging up something like this. It was Al Gore who first attacked Michael Dukakis over "weekend passes for convicted criminals," and pace Jay Carney, it was a liberal blogger who first alleged that Michelle Obama had railed against "whitey" at Jeremiah Wright's church.