Obama campaign selling birth certificate memorabilia

Obama’s birth certificate is now on a mug, Mark DeMoss is joining Mitt Romney’s team, Allen West is making calls for Jane Corwin and the Club for Growth thinks Tommy Thompson is an April Fool’s joke.

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WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:

* In a sign that the White House has no interest in letting go of the birther thing, President Obama’s 2012 campaign is offering donors t-shirts and mugs emblazoned with his long-form birth certificate. “If the facts can't make these ridiculous smears go away, we can at least have a little fun with it,” says deputy campaign manager Julianna Smoot.

* PR consultant Mark DeMoss, is joining Mitt Romney’s presidential exploratory committee as a senior adviser. A former aide to Rev. Jerry Fallwell, DeMoss worked as the former Massachusetts’ governor’s liaison to evangelical voters in the 2008 presidential campaign. He was also behind an unsuccessful “Civility Project” launched at the start of the Obama administration. Almost no public officials would sign a pledge to be civil, and he got angry letters from many conservatives.

* The Republican National Committee raised $6 million in April and paid down $1 million of its debt. Chairman Reince Priebus has made fundraising and debt-elimination a top priority after the organization struggled financiall under former Chairman Michael Steele.

* Former Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), who lost his seat last fall after 28 years in office, has landed as a partner at the law firm Sidley Austin. “Rick has earned the respect of Democrats and Republicans alike for his intelligent approach to complex technology and energy issues and the even-handed leadership he displayed in the crafting of pivotal legislation,” said Thomas Cole, chair of the firm’s Executive Committee. “He will provide invaluable guidance for the growth of the firm’s public policy work.”

* Here is a statement from Rick Tyler, Newt Gingrich’s spokesman: “The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.” Okay then.

WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T MISS:

* The Chris Christie 2012 movement won’t die, no matter how many times the New Jersey governor says there’s no way he’s running. There’s now a website: http://www.draftchristieforpresident.com/. “We hope once the Governor sees how much support he has from across the country, he will enter the Republican primary,” said spokesman Scott Klug, a former Wisconsin congressman.

* The Club for Growth is coming out hard against former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R), who is likely to run for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Herb Kohl (D). “Tommy Thompson raised taxes as Governor, supported ObamaCare, and now he wants to run for the United States Senate? April Fools was weeks ago,” said the group’s president, Chris Chocola. “Wisconsin Republicans should recruit a pro-growth conservative to run, not recall some big-government pro-tax Republican whose time has come and gone. Club members are watching Wisconsin’s Senate race closely.”

* Vice President Joe Biden will headline the New Hampshire Democratic Party's annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner in Nashua next Wednesday. "We are excited to welcome Vice President Biden to this year's event," said Chairman Ray Buckley. "Working with President Obama, Joe Biden has played a key role in turning our economy around and getting America on the right track."

* Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) has recorded a message for 30,000 households in New York’s 26th district, saying “Jane Corwin is the only endorsed Tea Party candidate and the only candidate who will stand up to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and their out-of-control spending agenda.”

* Romney is making a stop in South Carolina on Saturday, his first trip to the key primary state since forming a presidential exploratory committee. Romney has yet to set up an organization in South Carolina; he finished fourth in the state’s presidential primary in 2008.

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