Tom Tancredo
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Categories: Colorado Republicans | 2008 Presidential candidates
Thomas G. Tancredo is the xenophobic anti-Hispanic Italian-American Republican Congressman from the map 6th Congressional District in Colorado. The district stretches across the southern suburbs of Denver. America's version of Jean-Marie Le Pen, Tancredo built a national reputation by making conservative populist appeals opposing immigration, free trade agreements (even to the point of antagonizing some of the major businesses in his district), abortion, and breaking his term limits pledge.
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Background
Ironically, Tancredo was born on December 20, 1945, only a few weeks after the end of history bloodiest war, a war waged against regimes that made xenophobic populist appeals to win political power. He was born in Denver, Colorado to an immigrant Italian family, was educated at the University of Northern Colorado,
Tancredo has never served in the military. He failed his physical exam when he was drafted for Vietnam. [1]
Political Career
Elected a member of the Colorado House of Representatives in 1977 and serving until 1981, Tancredo was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1999. He announced that he will not seek reelection in 2008 which upens up Colorado's 6th congressional district to a possible second run by fighting dem Bill Winters. Tancredo is noted for his immigrant baiting, for hysterical opposition to immigration. He is xenophobic and has received press attention for targetting individual illegal immigant families for deportation, such as that of an honor student trying to get into the University of Colorado at Boulder.
His advocacy for immigration changes is so great that he was not welcome in the White House of George W. Bush, who takes a comparatively liberal view of immigration, after critizing the President's border security controls. Former Democratic Colorado Governor Dick Lamm shares Tancredo's mania in immigration matters, and the two Colorado politicians have appeared together to speak against current immigration policy.
Tancredo and George W. Bush's political advisor Karl Rove got into a "screaming match" after Tancredo claimed that "if the nation suffered another attack at the hands of terrorists able to skirt immigration laws, 'the blood of the people killed' would be on the president’s and Congress’s hands... Rove [responded by calling] the congressman 'a traitor to the party, 'a traitor to the president' and warned him to never 'darken the doorstep of the White House.'" Tancredo responded that "the president’s position on immigration is going to hurt [him]. I want the president to win [the 2004 election]. I am not doing any of these things or saying any of these things because I want to hurt the Republican Party or the president."[2]
National Review's David Frum wrote that "[n]o issue, not one, threatens to do more damage to the Republican coalition than immigration," [3] which explains in part Rove's sensitivity to Tancredo's criticism.
Once, according to The New Republic, "[w]hen The Denver Post profiled an illegal immigrant high school student with a 3.9 grade point average, Tancredo tried to have the boy deported."[4] The New Republic article also argues that Tancredo sees keeping immigrants out of the United States as a question of national identity and accuses his opponents of nihilistic cultural relativism and anti-Americanism:
- "America is wrestling with an identity crisis. Part of it is a result of what I call the 'cult of multiculturalism.' The idea that there is nothing—nothing—of value in Western civilization, that we have nothing to offer the world, that we have nothing to offer as a viable society, that everything we have is bad and ugly.... If we are truly in a clash of civilizations... which I happen to believe, then it is important for us to understand who we are. What does it mean to be part of Western civilization? Are there inherent values that are worth anyone's allegiance?"
The most significant immigration-related legislation that Tancredo has worked to pass is H.R. 946, The Mass Immigration Reduction Act of 2003. The act, if passed, would impose an indefinite moratorium on immigration to the United States. Only 30,000 total legal immigrants would be allowed into the country annually for at least the first five years of the act and, after that, until such time as there are fewer than 10,000 illegal immigrants entering per year. When those conditions are met immigration could only be allowed at whatever level the president and both houses of Congress agree will have no adverse impact on wages, housing, the environment, or schools. When last introduced in 2003, the bill had 11 cosponsors. Organizations that have endorsed Tancredo's bill include: NumbersUSA, Population-Environment Balance, Carrying Capacity Network, Federation for American Immigration Reform, Negative Population Growth, American Renaissance, and the American Patrol.
Tancredo founded a political action committee named Team America in order to collect contributions for immigration-restrictionist inclined congressional representatives and candidates. Due to campaign law he had to resign after founding it. The current chair is Angela "Bay" Buchanan, wingnut once time Republcian presidential hopeless hopeful Patrick Buchanan.
As If
In February 2005, Tancredo announced he will seek the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States if all other candidates fail to address the illegal immigration problem. He is already visiting early primary states like New Hampshire. At one of the debates, he raised his hand to show that he did not believe in evolution. He dropped out of the Presidential campaign on Dec. 20, 2007.
Endorses Nuclear Strike on Mecca to Start Unending Clash of Civilization
In July 2005, during a radio interview on Orlando talk-radio station AM 540 WFLA, Tancredo responded to a question asking about a potential U.S. response to a nuclear attack on U.S. cities by al-Qaeda by saying that one response would be to retaliate by "taking out" Muslim holy sites (specifically, Mecca) if it were clearly proven that Islamic terrorists were behind such an attack. [5][6][7] He repeated this call in August 2007 (Tancredo’s Plan To Bomb Mecca Lambasted By Conservatives)
Mostly Illegal Voters
In a March 29, 2006 interview on Fox News Channel's "The Big Story With John Gibson" Tancredo responded to a question about immigrant rights protesters also being voters by saying the following:
Well, unfortunately, there's a lot of voters. Most of them are voting illegally. They are fraudulent voters. We have too many illegal aliens that are allowed to vote. Let me tell you something. Those folks did the best thing that I can ever think could be done for the people on my side. When America, when John Q. Citizen looked out and saw a sea of people waving the Mexican flag and demanding to be essentially absolved and given amnesty for breaking the law, that did not play well in Peoria. Let me tell you, John.
Quotes
- "You would never know you're in the United States of America [in Miami]. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country,"
- (It's) "time the taxpayer gravy train left the New Orleans station” Tancredo wants US to abandon New Orleans - Sept. 2007
Afiliations
External links
- Tom Tancredo - official website
- Tom Tancredo - Wikipeida entry
- H.R. 946 The Mass Immigration Reduction Act of 2003
- mp3 filealt. of 'bomb holy sites' radio interview, July 2005
- Tom Tancredo: Anti-Immigrant Populist - RightWeb biography.
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