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."
Nonliberal corrollary: Except when thy fellow republican is wrong.
It wouldn't suprise me a bit if McCain would refuse to go along w/ Tancredo. McCain is soft on border issues. His feeling, as he stated on a live from AZ O'Reilly show last year, was he felt the US Border Patrol was (paraphrasing) not qualified to defend our borders....anyone remember what he said specifically? All I remember that it drew a LOUD boo from the crowd, and the movement to recall him here started.
Congratulations on leading Republicans to victory in the last election. However, there are many of us, who voted straight Republican, who are Conservatives FIRST. Your primary job is the defence of our country. This starts at the borders. I know Hispanics represent a large new voter class, but we are being overrun by ILLEGAL aliens. Your re-election is not more important than the defence of the country.
Please take a look at this thread on the Conservative website, Freerepublic.com. This is a website with it's finger on the pulse of YOUR BASE. Tom Tancredo is right about illegal immigration, and if you don't start acting on it, you will drive your base elsewhere. If we are attacked again, by illegal immigrants, YOU will be blamed next time because it happened on your watch. For your sake, and the sake of your country and party, please stop the invasion. The country you and I both love is being lost. You can save it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/792473/posts
Regards,
Bush can work with Hillary? Tancredo a loose cannon?
With comments like this, there is no need to identify or introduce yourself. You've shown your hand.....
LOL. Please how is Tancredo a loose cannon? You are saying that he should not represent the people that he represents and the issues that he was elected on? What is the point of our representative govt if the will of the people is considered a loose cannon? Most Americans want immigration brought under control and the borders made secure.
If our govt and elected representatives are going to ignore the rule of law, the constitution and the will of the people then is they who are the loose cannons.
McCarthy was right btw.
Or at least when the liberal media frames things a certain way, moderate republicans buy into it everytime.
LOL that was stupid. IMHO.
I think Dane's message is that independent thinking is not allowed in the GOP anymore. We all have to drink from the same Kool-Aid punch bowl.
Tancredo for President of the United States in 2004!
Yes, Tancredo broke his pledge and was overwhelmingly re-elected to Congress. Go figure.
Do you consider "Bagdad" Bonior and McDermott loose cannons? Case closed.
Now Bush said he would secure our borders in this war on terrorism? So when exactly is he going to start doing something about it? How many more people do we need to see die before the govt gets serious?
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