I would agree you with you about not denigrating birthers, but the truth of the matter is many of them are verbally abusive toward anyone who disagrees with them on any issue, even when factual refutation is presented.
I have repeatedly seen conservative blog owners pushed to exasperation by birthers, who are not regular posters, swarming onto a blog and making long, rambling, often nonsensical, repetitive and sometimes verbally abusive arguments.
There are also birthers who are regular posters who can't resist going OT on every thread to talk about eligibility, annoying everyone in the process.
On FR, there's been a concerted effort by a group of Freepers to get other members banned for disagreeing with them, even going so far as to keep a "secret" list of those they want banned, continually pinging moderators, and trying to goad those posters, by means of name-calling and ridicule, to retaliate with a bannable post.
The so-called birther "leaders," such as Orly Taitz, also indulge in rude, disrepectful and outrageous accusations against those who disagree, and allow of no dissent on their own blogs.
In short, the birthers, by denigrating others, have made themselves and their so-called "eligibility cause" into pariahs, not the other way around.
The idea that these television personalities can hang the most toxic allegation, racism, on the birthers and then by extension liable the tea party movement is 1000 times more outrageous than what I have personally seen done by the birthers. Racism is still the ultimate taboo in America, even worse than dead girls and live boys.