Perry not backing off Obama birther issue

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry appears to be doubling down on the President Obama birth certificate issue.

"It's a good issue to keep alive," Perry told CNBC in an interview. "It's fun to poke at him."

Perry said, "I don't have a clue" about "what that (Obama) birth certificate says."

The comments came after a weekend interview in which Perry said he has no reason to doubt Obama is a U.S. citizen -- but he noted that he had dinner recently with Donald Trump, who says he doesn't think Obama's Hawaii birth certificate is real.

"Well, I don't have a definitive answer, because he's never seen my birth certificate," Perry told Parade magazine.

Perry's apparent flirtation with the "birther" issue drew criticism from some fellow Republicans who called it an unnecessary distraction from other issues (such as Perry's flat tax plan, the subject of the CNBC interview).

"You associate yourself with a nutty view like that, and you damage yourself," said former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove.

Rove told Fox News that "there's a simple answer" to the Obama birth certificate question: "Yes, he was born in the United States; yes, he is eligible to serve, and don't associate yourself with sort of this nutty fringe group."

In April, Obama released his birth certificate showing that he was, in fact, born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961.