Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., is managing some damage control after an Arizona newspaper erroneously reported that he was considering a lawsuit to challenge the natural-born citizenship of President Barack Obama. In fact, Franks says in a statement that he did consider a lawsuit last year when the question about Obama’s eligibility was first raised. But Franks’ own research into the matter convinced him that Obama was born in Hawaii and always was eligible to be president:

“…the fact that we found [the evidence that Pres. Obama is a natural-born, American citizen] made it impossible for me in good conscience to go into a big lawsuit.”

Franks explains the flap started when a reporter for the Mohave Daily News misinterpreted his comments at a local town hall meeting. Franks doesn’t beat up the reporter for this “honest mistake” and gives the reporter credit for writing a follow-up story explaining his actual position.

However, the original story was picked up instantly across the nation by news sites and political blogs, in part because the conspiracy theorists known as “birthers” refuse to go away. Politico’s version was one of its top 5 stories on Monday because of the novelty of a member of Congress suggesting that the current president should have been barred by the Constitution from running for election.

But Franks says it’s false, all false. Franks might be “terrified” by Obama’s policies, but he no longer doubts that Obama is a red-blooded American.

Of course, this doesn’t explain why Franks couldn’t communicate his views clearly last week when confronted with a “birther” question, or why he believes Obama still needs to produce a different birth certificate.