No less than Republican conservative firebrand Michele Bachmann, flirting with the idea of a presidential run, last week said the time has come for even the most ardent conservatives to lay to rest the entire “birther” controversy involving President Barack Obama. Amen to that already.

As faithful Tribune-Herald readers know, we have little good to say of Obama. We vigorously attacked the health care reform legislation he forged, his insultingly tepid plan for debt reduction and his incongruent decision to involve us in a civil war in Libya when we’re involved in two other wars in the Middle East.

But the idea of forever questioning his legitimacy as president due to conspiracy theories must stop. Now.

Even Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, another archconservative, signaled this business can go too far when she vetoed legislation by her Republican-led Legislature requiring a birth certificate from presidential candidates before their names can be put on the ballot. Actually, the bill required a long-form birth certificate or multiple documents such as a baptismal record or “circumcision certificate.” She quite correctly said the bill was a distraction from more important matters. Speculation is business interests were tired of the scorn heaped upon Arizona.

Yes, multimillionaire Donald Trump has shot to the top of Republican polls by demanding Obama’s birth certificate. Trump attacked Karl Rove, who dismissed Trump as a serious candidate because of this birther nonsense. (You can read what Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer thinks of Trump in his own column below.)

That said, we don’t think requiring the birth certificate of a presidential candidate is unreasonable.

The one office cited in the Constitution in which native-born status is required is president. And while Brewer may be right regarding her specific reservations with the Arizona bill, the basic idea behind such legislation is not unreasonable.

But we must recognize, too, that each state has its own way of handling such matters. Anyone who believes in states’ rights must also acknowledge Hawaii’s right to call its birth certificates “certifications of live birth” and deem them acceptable and legal.

It’s high time Americans quit this business of questioning the legitimacy of our presidents, whether George W. Bush or Barack Obama. We can think of plenty of reasons (and have) for opposing the latter without resorting to silly and irrelevant scenarios about his being born in Kenya or Mars or anywhere else besides Hawaii.