Thread: Dunn's new conservative rival: a 'birther' who says Obama wants to impose Islamic

January 20, 2012 at 2:32 PM

Dunn's new conservative rival: a 'birther' who says Obama wants to impose Islamic caliphate

Posted by Jim Brunner

In today's Seattle Times, I wrote about the backlash against Metropolitan King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn -- the GOP's presumed candidate for Attorney General -- over his support of gay marriage.

In addition to being disinvited to some GOP dinners, Dunn now faces a conservative opponent, Everett attorney Stephen Pidgeon.

Pidgeon is known for representing Protect Marriage Washington, an anti-gay marriage group, in efforts to block the release of signatures on the unsuccessful Referendum 71 campaign to overturn the state's expanded domestic partnership law.

But if some conservative Republicans are looking for a viable alternative to Dunn, they may want to check out Pidgeon's other views.

Pidgeon has also been a figure in the widely discredited "birther" movement that peddles conspiracy theories alleging that President Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen of the U.S.

In 2009 he filed a petition in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking a grand jury investigation of those claims. (The case was quickly dismissed.) He's also self-published a book detailing some of his theories, called "The Obama Error."

Pidgeon takes birtherism to its most extreme ends, claiming Obama is a secret Muslim who literally wants to recreate the Ottoman empire and impose an "Islamic caliphate" on the U.S.

Listen for yourself. Here is an interview Pidgeon did with a conservative radio show (scroll to about 32:00 on this YouTube video to hear him talk about Obama's scheme to close the borders and create an Islamic "iron curtain" around the U.S.):

Politics Northwest | Dunn's new conservative rival: a 'birther' who says Obama wants to impose Islamic caliphate | Seattle Times Newspaper

Stephen Pidgeon will make a good state attorney general,
if the state of Washington will have him.