Last month, I mocked two especially stupid bills in the House of Representatives. The first opposes the US dropping the dollar and the second opposes creation of a NAFTA superhighway. Unfortunately, both bills are based on misperceptions (see here and here, respectively). At the time, I dubbed the members of the House who sponsored or cosponsored both bills “The Congressional myth caucus.” Well, it’s time to give nine of them a promotion.

As Jon Stewart pointed out on the Daily Show, Rep. Pete Hoekstra has introduced a constitutional amendment to protect parents’ rights based on the supposed threat posed by the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been signed by every country except the US and Somalia. The supposed threat to parents’ rights posed by the treaty is, as Stewart puts it, “Sh*t that’s never going to happen.” Here’s the clip:

When we compare the cosponsorship list for Hoekstra’s amendment with the list of supporters of the other two bills, we can construct a new list of nine representatives who sponsored or cosponsored all three bills. Here they are — the elite members of the Congressional myth caucus:

Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)
Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)
Paul Broun (R-GA)
Mary Fallin (R-OK)
Trent Franks (R-AZ)
Phil Gingrey (R-GA)
Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)

Zach Wamp (R-TN)

However, the list has at least one notable exception — Rep. Bill Posey, a freshman member from Florida. In addition to cosponsoring the phony dollar-protection resolution, Posey has introduced legislation that would
require presidential candidates to provide their birth certificate. The bill is inspired by the misperception that Barack Obama has a forged birth certificate and is not an American citizen, a topic on which Posey refused to express an opinion, saying he hadn’t “looked at the evidence.” Stephen Colbert provided an amusing response to Posey’s insinuations during a segment in March and a followup segment in April:

Incidentally, Posey’s bill is so outlandish that it has attracted zero cosponsors — not even Michelle Bachmann, the sponsor of the dollar resolution who was last seen trying to insinuate that Democratic presidents are somehow responsible for swine flu. When a bill like this doesn’t attract Bachmann’s support, you know it’s bad.