More heat for Tancredo. Rep. Cannon doubts whether Coloradan should be in GOP

WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Tancredo ought to reconsider his membership in the Republican Party, a Utah congressman said Wednesday after the two GOP lawmakers put an intraparty rift over immigration policy on full public display.

"I think he ought to consider his views and decide whether they're consistent with the Republican Party," Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said of the Colorado congressman after the two clashed repeatedly during a forum sponsored by the Latino Coalition, a Hispanic business group.

Cannon, a leading proponent of President Bush's proposed guest- worker program, has had a running feud with Tancredo, an opponent of the plan and outspoken advocate of tougher immigration enforcement. Last year, a political action committee founded by Tancredo targeted Cannon during his primary election challenge.

The two men sat side by side on stools at Wednesday's event inside Washington's J.W. Marriott hotel, and the rhetoric got so emotional that at one point they had a comical tussle over who would get to hold the microphone next.

The debate began with a third panelist, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., denouncing unnamed people he said were exploiting the immigration issue because of bigotry, hatred and prejudice.

"If not for the undocumented workers in this country, I'd say that this room would not have been as clean and well-organized this morning," Gutierrez said.

"We certainly would not want to pander to anyone on this issue, would we?" Tancredo said. "What I just heard was not that, was it?"

Tancredo repeated his long-standing call for the country to close its "porous borders" before it considers a new guest-worker program.

"It is crazy to suggest this nation should not do everything possible to secure the border," Tancredo said, saying a desire for cheap, immigrant labor could leave the borders open to terrorists or narcotics traffickers. Tancredo equates Bush's proposal to "amnesty" for illegal immigrants, saying it would reward people who entered the country illegally.

When it was his turn, Cannon immediately endorsed Gutierrez's earlier statement. He said the vast majority of Americans believe that undocumented immigrants should have "a path to citizenship" as long as they have willing employers, have not committed crimes and already are contributing to society.

Cannon said only a small minority of people "truly believe we should kick out" all illegal immigrants. He cited one of Tancredo's political allies, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, who got about 1 percent of the vote after he left the Republican Party and ran for president in 2000 as a third-party candidate.

"I don't think there's a place in the Republican Party for racism, for xenophobia, for ideas that are fundamentally un-American," Cannon said.

Tancredo clapped quietly, saying he also sees no place in the debate for racism or xenophobia, which refers to a fear of foreign people or things.

Still, some observers - including a Tancredo staff member - interpreted it as an indirect reference to Tancredo, since he has recently toyed with the idea of following in Buchanan's footsteps and mounting a presidential campaign in 2008.

Asked after the event if he thought Tancredo was racist or xenophobic, Cannon said: "I don't know what motivates him."

In an interview, Tancredo fired back at Cannon, pointing to his primary election challenge by Republican Matt Throckmorton in 2004. The Team America PAC, founded by Tancredo and chaired by Buchanan's sister, Bay Buchanan, backed Throckmorton. Another group, Project U.S.A., placed billboards saying "Congressman Chris Cannon wants amnesty for illegal aliens. Do you?"

"Of the two of us, Mr. Cannon is the only one who has had a primary (challenge since taking office)," Tancredo said. "Evidently, there are a lot of people in his district who believe he is not Republican enough."

Tancredo has recently started traveling to early presidential primary states like New Hampshire, saying he wants to make sure the "serious candidates" put the immigration issue front-and-center in the 2008 race.

He has said it is unlikely he would actually run in - or win - a presidential race, but that he would consider a campaign if other candidates ignore the issue.

"As long as that's the case, I frankly can't think why I would change. In the Republican Party, more people agree with me than with President Bush and Mr. Cannon (on immigration)."

Tancredo was facing a polite but generally skeptical crowd at The Latino Coalition event. Before he appeared, an opening speaker, while listing the VIPs invited to speak, added, "I'm sorry, but we also have Congressman Tom Tancredo."

About 30 minutes after Tancredo, Cannon and Gutierrez left the stage, President Bush appeared for a presentation on Social Security. He got huge applause when he diverged to talk about his guest worker plan, which could go before Congress later this year.

What I was talking about: From "Truthout.com":

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger may have made a major political blunder when he called the California Nurses Association (CNA) a "special interest" and sought to block the independent union's successful sponsorship of legislation to reduce the RN-patient ratio in the state's hospitals.

Schwarzenegger infuriated CNA members when he pointed at a group of protesting nurses in the audience at one of his fund-raisers and told the crowd they were "special interests" and he was always "kicking their butts." His remarks were also meant for the state's teachers, police and firefighters who have good reasons to oppose him.

The governor's plan to link teacher salaries to test scores has created an all out war with the teachers' unions. His proposal to privatize the state's pension system aroused the indignation of police and firefighters unions.

CNA has led the fight against the "Great Arnold" by using guerrilla tactics that caused his public approval rating to plummet from 65% to 43%-and it's still dropping. RNs have dogged each of some 40 of the governor's fund raising and media events, evoking his anger and frustration.

For example, at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco on April 5, some 5,000 RNs, teachers, firefighters and police circled the hotel and made it a media circus that dominated the news for three days and left 500 to 600 seats at the fund-raiser empty, while creating beautiful footage of the governor sneaking into the back of his own event. At various fund-raisers, a light plane has been a frequent uninvited guest, towing a banner through the skies that read "California is not for sale."

Schwarzenegger's fund-raising events for big drug companies and hospitals has netted him close to $100 million since he took office. His payback to his wealthy donors is to attempt to rescind a California law requiring a safe ratio of registered nurses to patients in the state's hospitals. His plan to reform the pension system for state employees included a provision that would remove death and disability benefits. Under pressure from the state's public unions, Arnold has withdrawn his pension plan.

Leading the CAN's fight against the governor is its long-time director, Rose Ann DeMoro, 56, who is not hesitant about taking the fight to the streets on any issue involving her union. Republicans have called her a "very hard core liberal," but they acknowledge that she can be effective.

DeMoro has never worked as a nurse, in her 19 years with the CNA. She became involved in the labor movement after leaving a UC Barbara graduate program on women's studies and then worked for the Teamsters in Hollywood. Under her 12-year leadership, CNA has tripled in size and now has 60,000 members, with a high percentage of political activists. The union has won 65 National Labor Relations Board elections and lost only about a half dozen, a win-lose ratio that is better than most, if not all, AFL-CIO unions.

CNA represents about 45% of hospital nurses in California, a high rate of density that gives it substantial leverage in organizing and collective bargaining. Three-fifths of the 297,000 licensed nurses in the state work in hospitals.

DeMoro says the union's triumphs flow from the strong resolve of the union's 30 part-time directors, all working nurses, as well as a "women's culture" that emphasizes collaboration, rather than competition, within the association hierarchy. The membership is more than 90% female.

The CNA has a cooperation agreement with the Service Employees International Union in California, but has shown no interest in merging with SEIU. Our weekly LaborTalk and The World of Labor columns can be viewed at our web site: www.laboreducator.org.
Harry Kelber's e-mail address is: hkelber@igc.org. -------

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