Donald Trump is the Republican Party’s Frankenstein. They could have come out early and said this birther nonsense was crazy. Instead they let it fester, and now the party elites are scrambling trying to convince their own base that it is actually crazy.

Adam Serwer is a writing fellow at The American Prospect and a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also blogs at Jack and Jill Politics and has written for The Village Voice, The Washington Post, The Root, and the Daily News. Follow @adamserwer