President Bush, August 23, 2001, Crawford Texas
What do you imagine this means?
What does such a pledge actually preclude?
Posted on 11/18/2002 6:23:24 PM PST by Mark Felton
November 18, 2002
Target: Tom Tancredo
Some Say GOPPrimary Challenge Likely
By Josh Kurtz He represents one of the most conservative districts in the nation. He just trounced his Democratic challenger by 37 points. Yet Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) may be one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the 2004 election cycle.
Tancredo, a controversial, outspoken voice for the Republican right who is entering his third term, has angered leading Republicans back home and in the White House.
The House Member's 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." And his decision to renounce his pledge to serve only three terms has infuriated powerful Colorado Republicans, including his political patron, former Sen. Bill Armstrong (R).
"I'll be surprised if he doesn't have a primary [in 2004]," said Floyd Ciruli, an independent Colorado pollster.
Several Republicans, including popular state Treasurer Mike Coffman, who just won a landslide re-election of his own, are considering taking on Tancredo in the '04 primary.
Other potential candidates include state Sen. Jim Dyer (R) and former Arapahoe County Commissioner Steve Ward. "It's a given" that someone will run against the 56-year-old lawmaker, Coffman said. "There are questions about his term-limit pledge. When you have someone like Senator Armstrong, who was his mentor, backing away from him - I think that resonates."
Armstrong was instrumental in getting Tancredo elected in the first place, endorsing him over four strong opponents in a competitive GOP primary to replace retiring Rep. Dan Schaefer (R) in 1998. By Tancredo's reckoning, Armstrong's blessing was worth 3 points at the polls - which just happened to be his margin of victory in the primary.
Even though he may not seek re-election in 2004 - and would consider running for Senate if Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R) retires - he has chucked the term-limit promise nevertheless.
"The term-limit pledge in and of itself is not the deciding factor if he will run again," said Tancredo spokeswoman Lara Kennedy.
Like all Members who change their minds on term limits, Tancredo has cast his decision as being in the best interests of his district and pet causes. Tancredo wants to preserve his seniority for his suburban district south of Denver and angle for better committee assignments. Plus, he does not want to lose the momentum he has built fighting the government's open immigration policies, Kennedy said. Tancredo is the founder of the House Immigration Reform Caucus.
While plenty of politicians have broken their term-limit pledges before, including Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.), Tancredo's decision is more noteworthy because he once headed Colorado's term-limit organization.
"All too often you have terrific candidates who come to Washington with the best of intentions, but they get too comfortable, and when the time comes, they don't want to go home," lamented Stacie Rumenap, a spokeswoman for U.S.Term Limits.
Whether Tancredo suffers any political damage remains to be seen. So far, the handful of Members who have broken their pledges, including McInnis, have not suffered any consequences at the polls, Rumenap conceded. And U.S.Term Limits is not in the business of recruiting challengers to incumbents who have broken the pledge.
Tancredo has promised to return campaign contributions to donors who are dismayed at his decision to ignore the term-limits pledge. But Armstrong - who did not respond to several messages left at his Denver law office - called the refund offer "hollow," according to The Rocky Mountain News.
Armstrong, meanwhile, has offered some kind words about Coffman.
"Mike Coffman is someone the Republican Party and the people of Colorado will rally around,"he told the News. "There is no doubt in my mind that he will be on the short list for whatever comes along - it could be governor, it could be Senator, it could be Congress."
Coffman, in fact, began running for Congress last year - in the new 7th district, which adjoins Tancredo's. But when the final district lines were drawn, Coffman found himself in Tancredo's 6th district, just a few blocks from the 7th, and chose not to move or run.
Coffman said that while he has not given much thought to the 2004 election yet, he believes that Tancredo will be vulnerable. The three Republicans most frequently mentioned as challengers are all military veterans, while Tancredo is not, and that could make a difference in a district that values military service, political insiders said.
Coffman, a 47-year-old Marine Corps vet who served in Operation Desert Storm, said Tancredo's military deferments during the Vietnam War would hurt him as America prepares to attack Iraq, and could be linked to his decision to ignore the term-limit pledge.
"Here's a guy ordering young men off to war and he himself didn't serve," he said. "I think in this conservative district, something like that could resonate."
Certainly, Tancredo's record would contrast with Coffman's, or Dyer's, who is an Air Force veteran, or Ward's, who is a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves and is on active duty in Florida.
Dyer called it "highly unlikely" that he would challenge Tancredo, but said somebody else might, and predicted that the term-limit issue would sting the incumbent.
"I think a number of people that support Tom are not going to support him if he breaks the term-limit pledge,"said Dyer, who was a surrogate for Tancredo at a candidate forum this fall. "We can't say that situational ethics is bad for party A but not for party B."
Ward, a former mayor of suburban Glendale, could not be reached for comment, but is expected to return to Colorado next year. In an interview with the News after completing his one term on the Arapahoe County Commission, Ward made his opinion of politicians who stay in office too long perfectly clear.
"Any politician who can't find the bathrooms in the first week doesn't deserve to be in public office," he said.
It is unclear whether the White House would try to get involved in a primary challenge to Tancredo.
But it is fair to say that 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.
With his hard-line views on immigration, Tancredo is no stranger to controversy. In 1999, he gained publicity for reaffirming his support for gun owners' rights just days after the massacre at Columbine High School, which is six blocks from his house.
The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report last summer linking Tancredo to extremist groups, which the Congressman dismissed as "McCarthyism."
And he was embarrassed earlier this year when it was revealed that undocumented workers had been hired to do some construction work on his Littleton home.
But pollster Ciruli said Tancredo's views on immigration are 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.
After seeing two fairly viable opponents get wiped out by Tancredo in 1998 and 2000, Democrats appear to have abandoned the 6th district - leaving Republicans there to decide whether they want him to remain in office.
You should focus in on the "qualifying" word "blanket". The fact the Bush even qualifies what he is against in Amnesties is a good indication that he is FOR Amnesties that may not quite reach the definition of "blanket".
Clinton talked like this all the time but somehow when it comes to Bush many Republicans just seem to throw out their critical reasoning skills that they (and I) used to expose Clinton's dirty rotten agenda.
So you're just here to spread the same lies the Denver Post did. Says a lot. Who would want to undermine a Republican pol who won big in his district? Hmmmm?
What do you imagine this means?
What does such a pledge actually preclude?
Who's idiotic?
And that was before the California Democrats passed laws saying it was illegal to ask for ID when appying for free food, money, health care, schooling, insurance and clean needles. Apparently the one thing they don't ask for is birth control!!!
Reagan is my hero. Bush would be his.
(NO matter what the fringe-dwelling third party wackos say.)
Man, if you think George Bush is a fake, NWO, fraud saboteur or a complete idiot after all he has done with the war, the tax cut, defeating the democrats, winning the senate and maintaining OUR interests with the UN and all those who want America under their control - there is no convincing you. If you think he is an idiot - you MUST be a democrat disruptor as they are the only ones that think that.
Idiot? I wouldn't throw that term out there. Some may get confused as to who is the idiot - you or George Bush.
He was Pro-2A until Columbine (his district). He folded like a taco.
I believe his immigration stance is geared toward keeping his voters from thinking about recent domestic problems.
And we all know the Patsies were eager to get vocal again.
Voted YES on banning human cloning, including medical research. (Jul 2001)
Voted YES on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001)
Voted YES on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes. (Apr 2001)
Voted YES on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)
Voted YES on barring transporting minors to get an abortion. (Jun 1999)
Voted NO on Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China. (May 2000)
Voted YES on Constitutional amendment prohibiting Flag Desecration. (Jul 2001)
Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC. (Jul 1999)
Voted YES on Amendment to prohibit burning the US flag. (Jun 1999)
Voted NO on funding for alternative sentencing instead of more prisons. (Jun 2000)
Voted YES on more prosecution and sentencing for juvenile crime. (Jun 1999)
Voted YES on military border patrols to battle drugs & terrorism. (Sep 2001)
Voted YES on prohibiting needle exchange & medical marijuana in DC. (Oct 1999)
Voted NO on requiring states to test students. (May 2001)
Voted YES on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1. (Jun 1999)
Not a bad conservative record. All in all. And there's more on Tancredo, at the link I supplied above.
LOL! What politician hasn't lied at least once during their political careers? Politics and dishonesty go hand in hand.
Particularly if we could build a few nuke/desalinzation plants along the way.
So what's on the table here, Baja for Amnesty?
Yes, foreign-born European cultures of the kind that built this country...you bet. Our government wanted to bring in as many as possible that could make the trip as long as they respected our laws and customs. A little thing TOTALLY LACKING today.
Thanks, butt I'm regular. ;)
You have a problem with principles. Don't rag at me because you posted something dumb.
It is really just as simple as identifying a nich to get elected. Ron Paul found his by simply saying NO to everything and ranting about how corrupt the GOP is while running under its banner and Tancredo is doing the same thing with immigration. More power to them but I see as much, or more "worship" from their constituencies on this forum as I do from the so-called Bushbots.
Perhaps someone that expects honesty.
BTTT. I agree 100%. Bush recently said he didn't care what the Conservative Base thinks. I think he will rue the day he said this.
Thanks for the info. I have nothing against the guy and he is entitled to focus on whatever he chooses but like an actor he is quickly becoming typecast on this singe issue and he is being defined by it and not in a flattering way.
I have been out of the loop lately. When and what did he say?
Just ask the right question and you will know. For instance; "Do you oppose illegal immigration?
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