Posted on 11/22/2005 12:28:26 PM PST by Icelander
WASHINGTON - As Republicans look to the 2008 primaries in search of a candidate whose credentials and personality can triumph over Senator Clinton, one potential candidate has no expectation of winning on the basis of his personality or record - or of winning at all, for that matter. Instead, Rep. Thomas Tancredo, a Republican of Colorado, is hoping that his participation in Iowa's caucuses and early primaries will bring a victory for his signature issue: immigration reform.
He isn't waiting until 2008. Mr. Tancredo, 59, who has earned a national reputation for being an advocate for stricter border controls on Capitol Hill, has yet to make a firm declaration of his candidacy. But he is already making campaign stops from coast to coast and writing a book about immigration, tentatively titled "In Mortal Danger." It could serve as Mr. Tancredo's campaign platform and will be available in June, the congressman told The New York Sun yesterday.
In addition to laying the groundwork for his own bid, Mr. Tancredo is headlining campaign events for others who share his immigration philosophy. Reached yesterday by phone in Orange County, Calif., Mr. Tancredo was campaigning for the founder of the Minuteman Project, James Gilchrist, who is running for the congressional seat vacated by the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox.
Mr. Tancredo has also visited New Hampshire and South Carolina. Bay Buchanan, who is the sister and adviser of another opponent of illegal immigration and former presidential candidate, Patrick Buchanan, has helped Mr. Tancredo make contacts in such early primary states, the congressman said. This weekend, Mr. Tancredo was in Alta, Iowa, on his fourth visit to the crucial caucus state in the last six months.
Mr. Tancredo has said that he will throw his hat into the Iowa ring if no other Republican emerges who will "include immigration in their platform ... and do so with some degree of vigor, "the congressman said yesterday. So far, Mr. Tancredo said a former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich - who wrote in a recent report for the Center for Immigration Studies that immigrants' dual citizenship posed an "insidious challenge" - has come the closest to being satisfactorily strong on the issue.
Yet Mr. Tancredo appears to enjoy some advantages Mr. Gingrich and his likely 2008 competitors do not, principally the support of an influential Iowa Republican, Rep. Steven King. Mr. King is one of 91 members of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, of which Mr. Tancredo is founder and chairman.
"Tom Tancredo needs to keep coming to Iowa," Mr. King said. "I want him on the stage in this debate."
Messrs. Tancredo and King, and the executive director of the Iowa Republican Party, Cullen Sheehan, indicated yesterday that Mr. Tancredo will have a natural base of support among 2008 caucus-goers.
While Iowa is further removed from the issue of illegal immigration than border states such as California and Arizona, Mr. Tancredo said, it has been surprisingly receptive to his message of ending illegal immigration and reducing the number of legal migrants permitted to enter the country. His Iowa audiences, the congressman said, "are as concerned about it as any group I've ever spoken to in Arizona."
Mr. Sheehan said that illegal immigration is a matter of importance to Iowa's caucus-goers, saying that most "want people to obey the law, and they want our government to uphold the laws we have." Mr. King said jobs in the agricultural industry were also a factor, citing as an example the Farmland Foods packing plant in Dennison, Iowa. Ten years ago, Mr. King said, eight Hispanics worked at the facility compared to 850 today.
Iowans, however, are focused mostly on national security: "How can a nation have a border they don't defend?" Mr. King said. "If it's not really a border, then you're not really a nation."
Mr. King said he also anticipated Mr. Tancredo's message to resonate with caucus-goers because of his focus on the cultural effects of massive immigration. Mr. Tancredo said that today's immigrants decline to become Americans, leading to a "balkanized" society. Immigration, Mr. Tancredo said, fuels and reinforces the divisive multiculturalist ideologies propagated by American elites in academia, the press, and politics.
In fact, it was outrage at multiculturalism in American schools that first brought Mr. Tancredo's attention to immigration. The congressman is a former junior high school teacher, and the schools' insistence on bilingual education and hostility toward America in textbooks and classrooms, combined with his reading of Arthur Schlesinger's "The Disuniting of America" in 1992, served as his road-to-Damascus moment on the need for immigration reform, Mr. Tancredo said.
Mr. Tancredo, a Denver native, left teaching to take a seat in Colorado's House of Representatives in 1976, and later served in the federal Department of Education under Presidents Reagan and Bush. In 1998, Mr. Tancredo was elected to Congress.
After founding the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus in 1999, Mr. King said, Mr. Tancredo's "credibility is going up as the American public puts pressure on other members of Congress" on the matter of border security. When Mr. Tancredo first introduced amendments to restrict immigration, Mr. King said, the measures would receive 20 to 25 votes. "Three years ago, that same amendment got 60 to 70 votes. Now, that same amendment will get 100 or 110."
If Mr. Tancredo's star is rising among American voters and in the House, he may not be winning friends in the circles of Republican leadership.
The editor of RealClearPolitics.com, John McIntyre, said yesterday that Mr. Tancredo's candidacy poses "a real problem" for the GOP in 2008.
While the Colorado congressman's message might win votes as a hot-button issue in 2008 and 2012, Mr. McIntyre said, demographic trends suggested the position might prove electoral poison in 2016 and beyond as the American electorate becomes increasingly Hispanic, and if the Tancredo platform paints national Republicans as "anti-immigrant."
For Republicans to succeed in quieting Mr. Tancredo, satisfying the base's yearning for a serious immigration policy, and to avoid being tarred as nativist, it would be necessary for the GOP to nominate a popular candidate with a reputation for being a moderate-such as Senator McCain, of Arizona, or Mayor Giuliani - who would then embrace the issue in the 2008 campaign.
Willy was a pussycat compared to the Hildebeast and if you want to pi$$ away your vote because it makes you feel ideologically all warm and fuzzy go ahead. Personally I'll take the l4esser of two evils all day long.
Actually you have it backwards. She has none of his charisma. The Republicans would feel much more confident standing up to her than they did standing up to Bill, especially if a majority of the vote goes to conservative candidates.
None of us that has or will vote CP do it for a warm and fuzzy feeling.
The warm and fuzzy feeling we have to worry about is the slowly rising temperature of the jacuzzi that the USA is now simmering in ... and will soon be boiling in ... thanks to the combined effort of the Demos and the Rinos.
Or Hillary - it would only take 34% of the vote in a three-way race.
American Conservative Union's rating for John McCain = 72
Tancredo in '08!
If not now, then soon.
In the last election, the League of Women Voters, who sponsored the National Presidential debates, would not allow any third party candidates in the debates. They thought it would hurt Kerry. Now watch them allow the third party folks because they know that the vote needs to be split up -- only way the Dems can ever win again -- mark my word -- 34% of popular vote needed in a strong three way race.
And funny how the ERA HASN'T passed, which was the whole premise of the discussion, if you remember.
Whoopee! Gay men and women can't put on suits and say words in front of a preacher in a church.
But they can share medical benefits and lots of other bennies formerly limited to married couples.
Oh, and they can adopt kids.
This is truly a pyrrhic victory for conservatives.
The rationale was and will be that if three or more candidates are polling more than 5% in the polls, then three or more candidates will be engaging in debates.
No need for conspiracy theories.
All they have to do is pack the "town hall" meetings with NEA members like they did last time.
Nothing in this world is certain, except death, and that includes elections. I don't follow the polls or group-think. I vote for whoever I feel would do the best job. Not because others tell me someone may or may be popular or electable. It's that simple. I am a very independent minded person and generally don't allow others to do my thinking for me. I am not swayed by polls or anyone else when it comes to my vote.
Hey, I resemble that remark...
Good ole' Ross claimed that if the people that wanted him to win would have voted for him he would have been President...
Tancredo is as conservative on ALL THE ISSUES as anyone in the country...And if Bush and Kerry are qualified to run the country, then who isn't??? Anyone is electable, if we will just vote for him/her...
And I will vote for Tancredo...How about you???
Horse vomit. Tancredo doesn't need the GOP establishment or the liberal media. Grassroots (i.e. individuals) supply most of the money to real conservative Republicans anyway, and who cares about Big Media when you have FR and the blogs.
Tancredo has a right to run for Presidency, and I for one will definetly support him, among thousands of other conservatives who are sick and tired of the bones tossed to us from the GOP.
It's a matter of record that recently the Council on Foreign Relations went before Congress pushing this very agenda...And it's a matter of record that most Congress Critters as well as most all Administration staff members including Condo Rice and Dick Chaney are members of the Council on Foreign Relations...
I wish you were correct but the evidence points the other way...
Penchant for coming unhinged? As compared to McCain? I'll take the former teacher over the hacks every time.
Mike in Iraq: "Or any books that he or Buchanan will write. Don Quixote is alive and well..."
Thanks Mike who's no longer in Iraq. You've bought into the sock-puppet thing; noted. I met a guy who had no strings attached and continued to survive despite his Party cutting him off. He does this because he believes in what he's doing over what he's told. Soldiers who never question orders are fodder, Mike. So glad you escaped having to do so and thank you for your service.
Calrighty: Another misconception is illegals are only doing the work Americans are unwilling to do. Every time Bush utters this LIE I wanna puke! Tell that to the 250,000 white/black/brown middle class American construction workers who lost their family livelihood to illegals.
Truth be told the illegals have stolen all the "starter jobs" that youth of all races used to begin with. If any young person dares to attempt to get those jobs now they'll find an entrenched cadre of illegals there willing to sabotage and ruin his or her efforts as a matter of course, SOP. Another reason to kick the whole bunch out if we can shut their equally corrupt defenders up (and bring them up on long-earned charges).
Constantine XIII: The Conservative Party is the group that the Republicans should fear, as all true Conservatives are far better represented by them than a party that has betrayed Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan. It's true...it's damn true. Neocons are Liberals in disguise.
Barney Gumble: Did you know that many hispanics who come legally aren't exactly thrilled with illegal immigration either?! Do you honestly think a Hispanic that came legally, dealt with all the red tape, is going to vote for you because you turn a blind eye to illegal immigration? Do you think that Hispanic who now pays taxes, is going to love dolling out money for illegal healthcare and such? Why are Republicans heads in the sand over illegal immigration? Also a note: illegals can't (or shouldn't) vote anyway. So why are you pandering to a crowd that can't vote for you.
Barney just pointed at blatent corruption at the expense of our future. Anyone care to defend it?
Danabbit: The future is always yet to be written. You think long and hard but don't seem to factor positive trends. Humans have to hope or just suicide. Dagnabbit.
who_would_fardels_bear: Unlike the Democrat Platform, the Republican's will not support fisting. LOL!
Mulch: Either way, Tancredo will be wielding quite a bit of power over the election. People who want illegals deported, and thats about 99% of Americans, will vote for whoever Tancredo supports.
constipation party: 7beuties: True a few years ago, now people are angry.
Taxed2Death: Seeing that the CFR spells our assurred doom - too right. Only fools sign a suicide pact.
While I and most evryone else here agree with you we have to entertain the factions who still believe that we still trust this administration's goals. Don't carp about lowered wages, outsourced manufacturing and sweet deals for Communist countries. Look the other way while Americans of lesser skills are systematically displaced by illegal aliens for half the cost, unmindingly weakening the very infrastructure of our formerly proud nation.
I call out this batch of Neo-Conservative Republicans as outright traitors seeking to sell out any hope of their progeny's future success by squandering all available capital for their short-term enrichment. I say these people are scum who should be outed and strung up for their organized pillaging in the name of Conservatism. They have damaged the Republican name beyond redemption...we must insure that the general public knows that these criminals have nothing to do with Conservatives. This is why I say all true Conservatives need to back the Constitution Party now. The current Republican Party has indulged in so much wrong-doing that those of us who still believe in a God have to let them go. They didn't have to ape the Democrats nor sell out their base...yet they chose that path.
And despite Tancredo's support from Buchanon's sister one has to note that she supports Tom's agenda far more than her brother's. That's clean to me.
"America, **** Yeah!"
They're waiting for Dane...
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