Posted on 11/20/2002 7:21:40 AM PST by nonliberal
GOP Targets Pro-borders Tancredo
Rep. Tom Tancredo, the nation's most outspoken opponent of the invasion of illegal aliens, is being targeted for defeat - not by the Democrats, but by the GOP establishment.
Just last week Tancredo, R-Colo., crushed his Democrat challenger by 37 points. But the moderates and liberals see him as a conservative loose cannon packed with ammo.
His "criticisms of President Bush's immigration policy bought him a 40-minute rebuke earlier this year from Bush adviser Karl Rove, who, in the Congressman's own words, warned him 'never to darken the door of the White House again,'" Roll Call reported Monday.
"I'll be surprised if he doesn't have a primary" in 2004, said Floyd Ciruli, an independent Colorado pollster. "It's a given."
Possible Republican rivals in '04 include popular state Treasurer Mike Coffman, state Sen. Jim Dyer and former Arapahoe County Commissioner Steve Ward. Democrats have given up on the conservative district south of Denver.
Tancredo's other capital crime, in addition to urging that the U.S. actually maintain its borders, is violating his pledge to serve only three terms. (Note that Democrats didn't raise a fit - publicly, at least - when the late Sen. Paul Wellstone made the mistake of breaking his word not to run again.)
Roll Call says "Tancredo is not one of the president's favorite people. Earlier this year, the Congressman accused Bush of pandering to Hispanic voters and trying to prop up Mexican President Vicente Fox by offering amnesty to certain undocumented immigrants. That declaration brought an angry 40-minute phone call from Rove, and Bush pointedly failed to introduce Tancredo to the crowd during a political rally in Colorado in September."
Ciruli said Tancredo's views on immigration were in line with his constituents'.
"Nobody who's going to argue the soft side of immigration is going to beat him in the Republican primary, or even in the general," he said.
Oops: Tancredo, founder of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, was embarrassed earlier this year when it was revealed that a house contractor he had hired employed illegal aliens, Roll Call reported.
But as the congressman said at the time: "I hired a reputable company, I did not hire the labor. It is the government's responsibility to enforce our immigration laws, and if the INS were doing its job, no illegal immigrant would be available to violate our labor laws."
TARGET: Tom Tancredo (Warned "never to darken the door of the White House again.")
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/791503/posts
As for the Roll-Call article, they contacted the Whitehouse and Rove did not deny the story.
You can't necessarily judge anything by that. Despite the tempest, FR is really a teapot and it's a nothing story nationally, but denying it puts the story on the front burner. Tancredo does not offer the "darken" statement as a direct quote. It doesn't sound like the White House. After all, he's a very minor one out of 435 in an ultra-safe district, I doubt he's on Rove's radar screen.
I'd like to know how they verified that it was a pointedly failure to introduce by President Bush... I wonder who was the one to verify that as I'd think only President Bush would know if he did indeed do that.... but IMO he didn't
Another view from a freeper who was in attendance and I believe is in Tancredo's district..... ff, using your post and pinging you to it. Hope you don't mind.
I was at that rally. Tom was one of the warm-up speakers for the President. Tom was not on stage with the president, to my recollection. The only folks on stage were the Governor, and the two national candidates in tight races, Beauprez and Allard. So it would have been weird for Bush to introduce someone not on the stage. It would also have been strange for Tancredo to be on stage but not the other Repub congressional candidates like Musgrave and Chlouber. Why? None of them were in tight races and the stage wasn't big enough for everyone.
The point of that rally was to rouse the troops for Allard and Beauprez, not to snub Tancredo.
Until this article, noone who attended the rally, mentioned to me that they had noticed a snub--and I have talked to a lot of folks about that rally.
143 posted on 11/18/2002 10:02 PM CST by ffrancone
Hispanic voters were Democrats long before Wilson came around. Before you decide to castigate Pete Wilson, he WON that election, as did the ballot initiative he was pushing. The electoral record in California is that only Republicans who take a hard line on immigration win. Lunghren and Simon were soft on immigration.
The message Republicans must get out is that we offer economic and social opportunity to all citizens and legal immigrants. Republicans do believe the defense of America includes secure borders. Illegals of all nationalities should be found and deported.
This was exactly Pete Wilson's position.
Framed that way, legal Hispanics will vote Republican
In your dreams.
The problem with Tancredo and the lemmings who fling themselves over the cliff is, no one will pay attention to any of them when a real threat appears.
Thanks for using my post to ping folks. I might have missed it.
The story is bullshit. Read post #47 and learn something.
Still no named sources. Still nothing credible.
Can you possibly post the EXACT QUOTE where that was said to Tancredo, and WHO said it to him?
And I do not mean what Tancredo SAID they/whoever said to him. I mean post something to PROVE that allegations.
Where is the direct quote from ANYBODY at the White House telling Tancredo "not to darken the doors of the White House ever again?"
They(the Tancredo cultists on FR) are our little Tom Daschles, IMHO, the only difference is that they aren't elected to leadership like the daschles, mcauliffes, pelosis, and hillarys as in the suicide party.
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