Mark Barrett

mbarrett@citizen-times.com

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, 11th District U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows backed away from 2012 remarks in which he said he would push for an investigation of where President Barack Obama was born and thus whether he is eligible to be president.

Meadows answered, "Yes," when asked at a Blue Ridge Tea Party forum in Hendersonville whether he would pursue an investigation, then said he hoped the question would be irrelevant because Obama would be defeated in his reelection bid.

"If we do our job from a grassroots standpoint, we won't have to worry about it," Meadows said then. "We will send him back home to Kenya or wherever it is. We will send him back home, and in doing that I believe what we will find is that we will get a new commander in chief who will hopefully honor the Constitution, respect our military and stop cutting it."

Joe Davidson, a Post columnist who focuses on issues affecting federal employees, asked Meadows about the, "Yes," quote in a recent interview.

He said Meadows, a Jackson County Republican, responded that he will not seek an investigation.

"I don't even remember that quote. Obviously I distance myself from that," Davidson quoted Meadows as saying. "That doesn't apply to anything I'm doing now."

The June 2012 forum was held during the runoff primary campaign for the Republican Party nomination for the seat Meadows now holds.

Meadows recently became chairman of the subcommittee on government operations of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. That puts him in a position to have a significant impact on legislation dealing with federal workers — or to push for an investigation of where Obama was born.

Davidson writes it is difficult to tell how Meadows will treat issues affecting federal employees, given his very conservative leanings but his repeated assurances that he will be inclusive.

He quotes Meadows saying, "I want to hear from everybody and every perspective I possibly can."

Last year, Meadows introduced a bill to spell out that disposing of emails federal law says must be saved is a firing offense for federal workers and to make more explicit prohibitions on workers viewing pornography at work. The latter bill was in response to a case in which an EPA employee caught spending several hours daily looking at pornographic websites on the job was put on leave with pay but had not been fired after several months.

Here is a link to the Washington Post column: