On Thursday, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow took on the “birther” movement, warning viewers not to Google “Obama born” lest they find themselves plummeting down an online rabbit hole of “crazy.” She pointed out several attempts in Alabama to take Barack Obama off the ballot in that state on the grounds that he’s not really a U.S. citizen.

In Georgia, meanwhile, a judge ordered President Obama to appear in an Atlanta court, where the plaintiffs were to be represented by none other than birther movement poster woman and “astonishing Russian dentist” Orly Taitz, as well as by State Representative Mark Hatfield

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“You don’t want to dignify this nonsense,” said Maddow, describing the cases as “dividing by zero.”

President Obama did not, obviously, attend yesterday’s hearing in Atlanta, nor did his lawyer, who called the case “baseless” as well as a “sanctionable abuse of our legal process.” Georgia’s Secretary of State wrote back saying that if “you and your client choose to suspend your participation in the OSAH proceedings, please understand that you do so at your own peril.”

Maddow invited Georgia’s Democratic party chairman Mike Berlon to the show. “Do you think that Georgia Republicans realize,” Maddow asked him, “how — I’m sorry to use the phrase — but how backward and racist the birther trip seems?”

“I think the mainstream Republicans really do understand that it’s way beyond the pale,” said Berlon. “I think most Republicans in Georgia would just like to get on to addressing the issues.”

So would Georgia Republicans come out and support their Democratic brethren in keeping Obama on the state ballot should the case go against the President? “You know, I’d like to think that’s the case,” said Berlon, “but I’ll tell you the truth: when it comes to politics, I don’t think that would happen. I think that if the Secretary of State made the decision to take the President off the ballot, no one’s really going to jump up to help us.”

Watch, via MSNBC:

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