Posted on 07/26/2005 9:44:45 AM PDT by Millee
They all hate us anyhow.
So let's drop the big one now.Randy Newman
Tom Tancredo is not a serious person.
And yet, there are many people who take him seriously. You can see them scribbling those campaign checks every time Tancredo's lips move.
Let's call it the Tancredo Paradox.
He has a serious job. He discusses serious issues.
But, in fact, he is about as serious as a carnival barker.
You've heard him. You can't not have heard him. No matter what the topic, Tancredo always sounds like he wants you to hand him five bucks to duck inside the tent to see the bearded lady.
And yet.
The Tancredo Paradox has gone international. This is what happens if you're a U.S. congressman, even if you're Tom Tancredo, and you try out your Dr. Strangelove imitation.
The next thing you know, you're topic No. 1 on the al-Jazeera version of Crossfire.
I tried to listen in, hoping to find out - and I hope this isn't too politically incorrect, Tom - the Arab expression for "nut job."
I heard about the Tancredo outrage when I got off the plane from London, where I had been covering the terrorist bombings, where things couldn't be more serious, where no one, it turns out, brought up the idea of nuking Mecca.
I wasn't surprised, of course, to hear that Tancredo was mulling the possibility of bombing Muslim holy sites.
I was surprised he wasn't proposing that we bomb them with illegal immigrants.
The temptation is to laugh. That's because Tancredo is not - see above - a serious person.
He's a crank. And a publicity seeker.
And, I promise you, he loves every minute of what some call controversy and what Tancredo calls a fundraiser.
There was a protest rally on the Capitol steps Monday in which the speakers - speaking of not being serious - were calling on Tancredo to resign or to at least apologize.
They might as well have thrown him a party.
There was logic, after all, in Tancredo's radio rant. Not that it had anything to do with Mecca, per se.
I mean, it's hard to believe that Tancredo, who is not a serious person, could be serious about bombing holy sites. I thought it was the people on the other side - the ones who recruited the suicide bombers - who insist we're still fighting the Crusades.
But here's the logic: Tancredo was on the radio. And he's willing to say whatever comes to mind, even if it's to bring back Richard the Lionheart.
He knows it's what the people writing the Tancredo-for-president checks want.
And he knows it's what the people who re-elect him every two years to Congress from the 6th District have come to expect.
At the anti-Tancredo rally, speaker after speaker stood up to say that Tancredo was an embarrassment to Colorado. I'd like to think they're wrong - and that Tancredo is just an embarrassment to himself.
It's a point worth arguing. Here's some of the evidence.
One day, he's addressing immigration by going to the Mexican border to tell the dress- up-in-their-night-goggles Minutemen that they are "real heroes." These real heroes, you'll remember, sit in lawn chairs, slathered in sunblock, hoping to block people willing to cross a desert to get a job fixing a roof or cleaning a toilet.
Then, to show he's got range and that there's more on his mind than Mexicans - and there was some question about that - he goes on a Florida talk-radio show to offer his war-on-terror strategy.
And what puts him over the top is not only the sheer audacity of the suggestion - at the anti-Tancredo rally, one guy had a sign saying "Nuke Mother Cabrini" - but how he phrased it.
This is Tancredo as faux tough guy, who didn't want to fight a war himself when he had the chance - but who now says he might "take out" Muslim holy sites in response to a major terrorist attack.
This is Tancredo in his Thirty Seconds Over Mecca moment. If only he could patch it up with the president - who is not, you'll remember, a Tancredo fan - maybe Tancredo could borrow his flight suit.
In any case, I'm definitely looking for Tancredo to mix in his send-the-nukes-to-Mecca message with the send-the-troops-to-El-Paso message the next time he goes to New Hampshire or Iowa for a pre-presidential run.
Tancredo admits the idea of him running for president is bizarre - a rare understatement - and says if he runs in the Republican primary, it would be simply as a message candidate.
I'm waiting for him to suggest - you know, just as a hypothetical message - that if we "take out" Mexico City, all potential immigrants would stop at Juarez.
I'm glad that Tancredo has refused to apologize for what he said about Mecca. He's ready to stand up for what he believes in - like drawing attention.
But, what I worry is, it's more serious than that. It's as serious as the person who drove in from Parker for the rally to hold a "Tancredo for President" sign.
It doesn't matter so much whether Tancredo believes everything he says.
What matters is all the people out there who do.
They will show up sooner or later :)
Thats what I did, take you, at your word..
Me being cynical, have no love for Count Von Bushula and the BushBats... who constantly reminds me that the number of the day is zero and the letter of the day is blank..
Thats not what I elected him for..
Especially the quislings...
Tancredo is using clumsy phrasing to express a non-trivial, very serious and important point.
It is very dangerous to assume that country which is the victim of a nucleur attack will repsond 'rationally" or as "expected" The anti-nuke protesters were dead wrong about just about everything except when they questioned the notion of "limited" nucleur war. The scale and horror of a nucleur attack is extreme.
All RINOs and most democrats are quislings..
A more than a few democrats are also insane..
They don't know what they are doing..
Has anyone here ever contributed to Tancredo's Team America PAC?
If I may offer a suggestion...
I don't know hardly anything about Tancredo except that he's the only semi-legitimate presidential candidate to take a strong stand against illegal immigration. Our insane level of Mass Immigration is the biggest single threat to whatever quality of living we have left in America. If you want to see this country turned into one more 3rd World cesspool right before your eyes, then go ahead and mock Tancredo. About 15 years ago I switched from a lifelong liberal Democrat to a Republic so I could vote for Pat Buchanan, almost entirely because of his strong position on immigration. I suspect theres a lot of people like me out there. Though that dunce Bush has ruined whatever constitiancy there was in the Republic party by his shameless sucking-up to the so-called "Latino vote." Good riddance to Bush. And lets only hope he gets booted off the stage before he ruins whats left of the party.
First, you need to know the mere whisper of the names Buchanan and Tancredo will bring the FR resident quisling contingent running, ready to dogpile you as an anti-illegal alien redneck/goober.
Then, you endanger yourself further by criticizing everyone's favorite "conservative", President Bush. That, unfortunately for you, will bring on the kool-aid guzzling GOP Big Tent RINOs/Liberals/Moderates to dump all over you.
You need to get yourself measured for a flame retardant suit, real soon. Like right now...
Fortunately, you're wrong. Bush is a lame duck and almost nobody is running to defend his lame-brained notions any more. Even most of the hardcore Republicans have gotten disgusted with that dunce Bush, and just hope he quietly slithers away before he inflicts any more damage on the Republican party. Just take a survey. You'll find that immigration is one of the most important issues to Republicans. And Bush has alienated almost ALL of them. Bye bye, Bush leaguer.
Guess I should have added a sarcasm tag.
Hi Czar. Yeah, I know you were being sarcastic. But would you agree that Bush's "supporters" are getting very quiet these days? How many people really want to stand next to this dunce and go down with his sinking shit. Hasn't he embarrassed you enough already? His latest stupidity: He met with House Republicans yesterday in a closed-door meeting and urged them to pass his "guest worker" (i.e. "amnesty-for-20-million-illegal-immigrants") bill by this Fall. On top of that, he said he wants even MORE legal immigration. Again I ask you faithful Republicans out there: Do you still stand with this utter moron George W. Bush?
Let me spell it out. I am a hard right rudder conservative. Although I think Bush is a good man with sincere intentions, I find that I disagree with him and the Republican leadership on damned near everything. So, no, I'm not one of the GOP lemmings. There are plenty of those around here though. Just observe--you'll see who they are soon enough.
No, I wasn't confusing you with the "Republican faithful." You seem like a REAL conservative, unlike this stinking liberal George W. Bush, and the lemmings that follow him unquestioningly, just because he has "Republican" after his name. I was addressing the "Republican faithful" in my previous post. I still say theres been a major shift since the last elections, and that that vast majority of Republicans are REAL conservatives like you, and are moving away from this fake G. W. in droves.
Yes, and will continue to do so. And vote for him if he should run for President.
See what I mean, Czar. Not a peep of protest from all the Bushies on this site. They've abandoned Bush like rats-fleeing-from-a-sinking-ship. I feel sorry for all the good, decent conservatives who were betrayed by this liberal Bush. About the only thing "conservative" about Bush is his stand on abortion, but abortion is about number 100 on my list of priorities. And look at the hopeless mess he dragged us into in Iraq, and under false pretenses no less (does anybody still remember "weapons of mass destruction"?). The country of Iraq has been a hopeless mess for centuries. It will continue to be a hopeless mess, no matter how many BILLIONS of dollars Bush wastes invading it, or however many American lives are lost defending it, or whatever stupid piece of paper Constitution he writes up to try and organize these hopelessly barbaric people. Iraq will be just as much a hopeless mess after we leave, if not moreso. Thats just the facts, people. You can figure that out now, or later. Theres no third option. Meanwhile, this dunce Bush spends BILLIONSs to secure Iraq's border, while at least 40 million illegal immigrants have invaded our OWN border. Which Bush has done nothing -- NOTHING!! -- to prevent. In fact, his "solution" is to give amnesty to these alien invaders. Bush has got to go. Even the Bushies on this site have realized that, sadly.
Having said that, I no longer have any illusions about him being a conservative. That's simply what he ran on. Unfortunately, the record he has compiled to date, though not entirely without some conservative progress, has been largely that of a moderate at best (and I am being charitable here)--some would argue a liberal. He has been a disappointment to me and to all loyal American conservatives. He is going to be leaving behind a GOP with virtually no conservative support in the years ahead.
Probably most of the morons on Liberty Post and the rest of the 1-percenters.
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