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.
The funny thing is that the writers and talking heads who hate Tancredo the most have done the most to publicize him.
And evidently he gets paid by the paragraph.
So Littwin, what did he say that was wrong? Don't just indulge in ad Hominem attacks.
The fact is that Tancredo's comment was as no more extreme than the comments made on a daily basis by Islamic clerics trying to spawn hate against Americans.
What I didn't like is that he fails to realize that the majority of the country, approx. 75% according to every poll, agrees with tancredo's position on illegal immigration. I do, however, admit that he should not have made the statement about Mecca.
Amen!
RINOs hate Tom Tancredo....
That's the truth! What are we supposed to do, roll over and play dead???
Mike Littwin has moved back to writing a news column. He came to the Rocky Mountain News as a sports columnist from the Baltimore Sun, where he wrote a sports column for seven years and a general column for five. Before that, he worked at the Los Angeles Times as a sports and national news feature writer. Mike has contributed to many magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Esquire, TV Guide and Capital Style.
No one can lay claim to being an embarrassment to Colorado as long as Ward Churchill is on the scene.
Why?
Because, through his antics, he makes immigration critics and anti-terrorism hardliners look like morons.
No one likes us -- I don't know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens
We give them money -- but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us -- so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them
Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us
We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too
Boom goes London and boom Paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me
They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now
Where is dane and the other quislings?
Not so... he makes them look like wimps..
Morons follow Moderate immigration critics and Moderate anti-terrorism hardliners..
The time for moderation ended about 1992...
The only moderates left are overt and covert leftists..
"Moderation" is the new progressivism thats why progressives spout the mantra of moderation like dogma.. or the inverse of moderation, extremism.. Tancredo is an extremist and NO moderate.. Admittedly hes not too smart like all extremists.. thats why us extremists love him..
Is being moderate SMART.?.
I am talking about sanity.
Yes you are.. thats exactely what you're talking about..
You answered my question too.. Moderation is NOT smart..
Tancredo could be relegated to the "congressional fringe"
Except for his hyperbole.. Hyperbole is smart..
In the America today to express the political climate accuratly you must use hyperbole.. Not to use hyperbole is simply to be inaccurate and WRONG.. The America political climate today "IS" hyperbolic..
Tancredo sees that, you evidently do not.. Same with Ron Paul.. Be ignored... or make them "gasp" by speaking the truth.. which by the way IS HYPERBOLIC.. Moderation is very conservative but cowardly.. Radical change is whats needed in Washington D.C.. thats why "conservatives" are spineless.. cowed by progressive pleas for moderation and faux outrage at extremism.. When the progressives are the most extreme of all.. they don't want any competion..
Littwin must be Dane's real name.
Enjoy talking to yourself.
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