Philip Berg Interview Hits YouTube

Yesterday, I spoke with Philip Berg about a number of issues, chief among them the progress in media attention, any possible ties with Obama Nation author Jerome Corsi, and his feelings on the lack of decision so far from the Hon. R. Barclay Surrick.

Berg mentioned that he had been on Independence Mall earlier shooting video and still photos, the former to advance his arguments via avenues such as YouTube, the latter to provide to television stations and the like who interview him via telephone and require some sort of visual.

In fact, just such a telephone interview will run on the local Fox News station in Toledo, Ohio on Monday at 4:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts. With any luck, Berg said, this will be among other local programming picked up by Fox News Channel in New York. While the local station in Toledo may not be doing a satellite interview now, he said, "if I win, it's going to be just about every satellite truck in the nation parked outside my office."

"And if I lose," Berg said, "I'll appeal and there will likely be satellite trucks out there anyway."

Word is indeed getting out, Berg said. He has received phone calls from the Associated Press, the Washington Post and more, all conveying that they'll likely do a story after Judge Surrick comes down with an order. Furthermore, Thursday brought five radio interviews, and yesterday six more. His Web site, Berg claims, has had more than 27.5 million hits -- including 1.6 million on Wednesday alone.

"People know about this case, regardless of attention from the media or lack thereof," Berg said. "30, 40 million people know about this, and more and more people know every day. Sooner or later, Obama is going to need to face reality."

I asked him as well about Jerome Corsi, the author of The Obama Nation who was just this week detained in Kenya as he attempted to hold a press conference detailing the relationship between the Illinois senator and Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister who assumed power under a cloud of voter oppression and fraud. In his most recent pleading, Berg mentioned for the first time with specificity his belief that Barack Obama was born in Coast Hospital in Kenya, something which sounded awfully familiar and I think had been mentioned before by Corsi.

However, Berg maintains that he has had no contact with the controversial author, while the two did appear on the same Colorado radio station on Thursday, though an hour apart.

"He's got the information connecting Obama with Odinga, with the people who incited race riots and burned people alive. This whole thing is connected on some level with Obama," Berg said. "No, I haven't had personal contact with Corsi, but we do have something in common ... we both know Obama is a bad guy."

The Coast Hospital reference is in one of only six pending pleadings, not even counting the pair of motions filed by intervening parties. While my sources within the courthouse tell me that a decision could very well come down next week, many people feel that Judge Surrick is somehow stalling, or somehow kneeling to the altar of politics with regard to adjudicating this matter.

He is not.

These things take time, my friends. Judge Surrick is well within his discretion to take this amount of time -- and more. By all accounts, he is extremely deliberative, endlessly fair, and likes to do his own research and write his own opinions. Personally, I expect that when an order does come down, it will likely address each of the half-dozen outstanding pleadings. Of course, with Election Day looming, we'd all like to see this case resolved on this level one way or another. Berg would too.

"While of course I wish he would come down quicker on this matter," Berg said, "this is a very serious case and he is taking appropriate time to review it. He is a meticulous judge."

"Listen, this is in many ways a case of first impression. Nobody has asserted these claims on these grounds before," he said. "We're trying to make it so he has a difficult time ruling against us. No judge likes to be overturned. So, we're trying to give him as much as possible, countering generalities with specifics, crossing our fingers and hoping."