…then everything begins to look like a nail.

What, you may ask does this have to do with today’s reported exchange between our Lt. Governor here in Tennessee, Ron Ramsey, and Maclin Davis, former attorney for the state Republican Party at the Nashville Republicans First Tuesday Club? Well, when Mr. Davis asked Mr. Ramsey about his stance on the notorious, conspiracy-driven Birther Bill and President Obama’s US Citizenship, Mr. Ramsey professed that he simply “didn’t know” if the President was indeed a US Citizen (and thus a legitimate occupant of the Oval Office).

Perhaps by parsing his answer this way, Ramsey thought he could have it both ways-give a wink and a nod to the conspiracy theorists who refuse to let go of this offensive nonsense (think Gollum in Lord of the Rings) like his fellow GOP member and my opponent Marsha Blackburn, herself, a co-sponsor of “Birther” legislation in Congress, while still pleading ignorance. Wrong. This type of blind, misguided partisanship is not only offensive to President Obama, the man, it offends everyone who also respects the office of the president and all it stands for and represents both to we, Americans and to our friends and foes abroad. Don’t these “Birther” enablers like Congresswoman Blackburn see that by continually calling into question the man that our nation duly elected it only serves to potentially weaken his standing as a president abroad and by association, the office of the president? Really, do some folks have no shame at all?

For someone like Mrs. Blackburn who claims to be an ardent foe of less nor more government, “Birther” bills such as the one she has sponsored would only serve to create more not less government, spend more not less of our tax dollars and create more not less bureacracy. Besides, is this really where we want our leaders to be focused?

Putting aside this type of destructive and polarizing nonsense is what we need to do and the sooner the better. I applaud Republican leaders like Mike Huckabee who has rejected the kind of blind, destructive partisanship folks like Mrs. Blackburn and others seem to embrace without question or reason.

But then again when the only thing you seem to have in your tool-box is a hammer then everything really does begin to look just like a nail.