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"As for the GOP nominee, I'd rather have Tom Tancredo run. We need someone who is willing to boldly address the problem of illegal immigration."

Kuksool, I have to disagree with you on this one. Tancredo would either (i) lose because of his immigrant-bashing or (ii) win and give the GOP a rabidly anti-immigrant Senator who will make it easy for the RATs to depict Republicans as intolerant extremists. I agree wholeheartedly that we need to crack down on illegal immigration, and that we need to implement immigration reform so that the number of legal immigrants coming in (which number is fine with me) are not so disproportionately composed of relatives of past immigrants. But Tancredo's approach, whereby he attacks legal immigration, is totally wrongheaded. We need people to come in and work, not just in agriculture and construction, but in engineering, science and medicine. And Tancredo makes it worse by saying that the reason why he opposes continued legal immigration is because too many non-English speakers are coming in. What does that say to the descendents of German, Italian, Russian, Slavic, French, Spanish, Lebanese, Greek, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish, etc. immigrants who make up such a large percentage of the American population and who---despite the assertions of the Tancredo's of the time---spoke English by the second generation? And what about the 14% or so of the population that is Hispanic, who are a natural Republican constituency because of their cultural conservatism and who may well agree that illegal immigration should be stopped but who would be entitled to feel indignation should the rationale for stopping ALL immigration be that Tom Tancredo believes that Mexicans and Central Americans are unworthy of becoming Americans and are incapable of ever learning English. All the goodwill we acquired by supporting Miguel Estrada (a Central American immigrant who came here as a teenager and---gasp!---learned English) against the racist attacks by the RATs would be for naught if Tancredo was a U.S. Senator.

Tom Tancredo is subject to reelection every two years by his constituents, and if his constituents agree with his stands, then nobody (including me) has any right to tell him what to do. And as one in 435, he serves a useful role keeping the GOP honest on immigration reform while being unable to wield too much influence on legislation (and thank God for that). But I think Tancredo would make a terrible Senate candidate, and an even worse Senator. There is no way I would support him over Scott McInnis or Bob Schaffer.

I concur with AuH2ORepublican on Tancredo. His stridency on immigration, for right or wrong, has made him a lightning rod for criticism and he is way too divisive as a result and he is perceived as hostile even to legit immigrants. If he wants to play the "bad cop" role in the House, that's one thing, but it would be damaging to us as a party were he to be in the Senate. We need someone with a more deft touch than a sledgehammer to deal with these issues.

Tancredo, is that a Portuguese name ?