Tancredo quits presidential race, endorses... ROMNEY???

This will likely be the final post by me on this blog, now that Tom Tancredo has today bowed out of the 2008 presidential race and has thrown his support behind... Mitt Romney?!?

When Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minutemen, endorsed Mike Huckabee, Tancredo must have realized the end was near. When Steve King, the bizarrely grandiose Iowa conservative pundit, endorsed Fred Thompson, that must also have hurt big-time.

So Tancredo decides to quit, and endorses... Romney? The former governor of sanctuary-state Massachusetts? The flip-flopper who used to be for abortion and gay rights until only just recently?

It seems like once again, political expediency has trumped values. Mitt Romney: "secretly a Mexican"?

But when you think about it some more, whom else was Tancredo supposed to endorse?

John McCain? Of course not.

Mike Huckabee? He's too compassionate towards illegal immigrants. He even supports allowing them to have college scholarships. (Wonder why Gilchrist lined up behind him.)

Fred Thompson? He would seem to have been the most logical choice, although by now he's another losing cause.

Rudy Guiliani? No way: another sanctuary supporter.

All the other Republicans still in the race have Tancredo-like support and only slightly larger bank accounts. The real race is down to the above five, each of whom are very different from Tancredo when it comes to illegal immigration.

Tancredo said that he had a long meeting with Romney, but he didn't succeed in getting Romney to change any of his positions.
The fact that Tancredo had no logical candidate to throw his "weight" behind proves that he continued to represent only a fringe, extremist element even in the Republican Party, and that he failed in using his candidacy to promote the cause of fighting illegal immigration through extreme, kick-em-all-out measures.

All he really accomplished through his fiery, divisive rhetoric was to guarantee that Hispanics will desert the Republican Party in droves in 2008 and beyond.

Mitt Romney? Only a few days ago Tancredo had issued a video spoofing Romney, showing him smiling in front of a Mexican flag:



There is no way on earth that Romney will endorse Tancredo's specific proposals for fighting illegal immigration. Or for dealing with Islamofascist terrorism. All Tancredo has accomplished is to guarantee that Romney will get asked all kinds of awkward questions, such as: "Do you agree with your supporter Tom Tancredo that the U.S. should bomb Mecca in response to a nuclear terrorist attack in this country?" Or: "Do you agree with your supporter Tom Tancredo that the U.S. should round up and deport the 12/15/20 million illegal immigrants currently in the U.S.?"

Finally, how will Tancredo's endorsement play with his fervent supporters? Will they meekly follow their leader into the Romney camp, or will they splinter among the remaining candidates? Bet on the latter.

It's official: Tancredo is not running for re-election to the House of Representatives

Keeping his most recent promise to announce his decision once the World Series was over, Tom Tancredo has officially announced that he will not be running for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives.

He will cease being my representative in January 2009, and perhaps my district will finally, after ten years of being represented by an ineffective political outcast, obtain representation by a sober, mature and effective Congressman or Congresswoman.

Tancredo's replacement will almost surely be a Republican. This is a heavily Republican district. Tancredo's replacement may even share his views on many issues, including illegal immigration. But it is to be hoped that Tancredo's replacement will exhibit the highest personal ethics, including keeping any and all solemn, oft-repeated campaign promises.

Tancredo's presidential campaign will likely fizzle out in the next several weeks or months, perhaps even before the Iowa and New Hampshire votes. (The Teamtancredo.org website has a new, rather "going out of business sale" look to it.) Tancredo will definitely depart from Congress with a very hefty pension.

I promised that if and when Tom Tancredo kept his promise not to seek re-election, I would stop blogging about him. Despite what those extremists who drove up my block with a huge Confederate flag may have thought, my main beef with Tom Tancredo wasn't his stance on illegal immigration. Respectable, honest people like Duncan Hunter and others have taken similar views as Tancredo's on that issue: in fact, Tancredo has been largely co-opted by other Republican presidential candidates on the subject - to the likely detriment of the party in 2008 and beyond.

No, my major quarrels with Tancredo were in two areas: first, his unnecessarily vindictive, shrill, bullying, nativist and most of all profoundly naive approach to the issue of illegal immigration, which caused the man to be embraced by extremist, racist fringe groups regardless of how much Tancredo insisted he was not a racist. Tancredo had an incredible knack for using terminology that tended to depersonalize and even demonize American citizens and well-wishers alike who happened to be of different colors or faiths than most Americans, and in particular good, hard-working people whose only crime has been to try to obtain a better life for their loved ones through amazing personal sacrifices.

Is illegal immigration wrong? Yes, it is: and better border enforcement is a key element of a responsible solution to the problem. Claiming, as Tancredo did, that illegal immigrants were coming across the border to kill you and me, and that Miami was a "third world country," and similar stunts were amazingly short-sighted and mean-spirited exercises in rank hyperbole. Tancredo actually harmed his cause more than he helped it, when all is said and done.

But the main problem I had with Tancredo, and the reason I started this site as well as the companion tomtancredo.org site that I will also no longer be updating after today, was his lack of personal ethics and integrity in making a solemn term-limits vow, not once but on numerous occasions, and after having served as Colorado's main spokesperson for the cause of term limits, and then breaking that vow when he found it politically expedient to do so. In a gesture of class, Tancredo in his press release announcing his decision not to seek another term in Congress acknowledges if not quite apologizes for admittedly breaking his promise on term limits.

I have said before that I think Tom Tancredo is a funny individual, and would no doubt be a lot of fun at any social gathering. He is also intelligent and articulate. Here's wishing him and his family well in his future endeavors now that he has belatedly kept his promise to his constituents.

Finally, thanks to the many people who have posted comments on this blog, whether they were for or against Tancredo. Thank God that we live in a democracy that allows citizens to speak their minds! This blog has almost assuredly had zero influence on people's thoughts about Tancredo, let alone on Tancredo himself, but it's important for citizens to keep their representatives accountable any way they can.

Here's to integrity and truth in government! With best wishes to all, this is TancredoWatch signing off.

Tancredo's stupidest stunt yet

This one takes the cake. Tancredo called ABC News to make a bet with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney:

If the Boston Red Sox win the World Series, Tancredo will drop out of the Presidential race ... IF Romney agrees to drop out if the Colorado Rockies win.

I kid you not. Read about it here and here.

That probably explains why the Rockies tanked in the opening game, losing 13-1: they heard about Tancredo's bet.

This guy is such a not-ready-for-prime-time embarrassment.

Tancredo calls for ICE to raid Senator's news conference

Once again, Tancredo has fired off one of his trademark "letters from his (illegal immigrant built) rec room," seeking free publicity. This time he's contacted Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), demanding that they raid Senator Dick Durbin's news conference because - gasp - some foreign students two from Germany, and one from Costa Rica) were going to be in attendance.

Never mind that the students were all here LEGALLY!

What a little pr*ck Tancredo can be sometimes. Here are a couple of students LEGALLY in the U.S., who happen to dare show up for a Senator's news conference, and Tancredo calls on Immigration to raid the event.

Can you say "bullying"?

"Have you no shame?" Durbin asked Tancredo through the media. Well, as a constituent of Tom Tancredo's only too familiar with his bloviating, chickenhawk pronouncements, lies, wasteful spending on personal perks, hypocrisy, posturing and bullying tactics, I can answer that one for you, Senator:

Nope. He doesn't have any shame at all. Not a shred of it.

OK, this is getting fairly ridiculous

Tom Tancredo's now telling people that he's made up his own mind whether he'll run for re-election to his Congressional seat, but according to the Denver Post "he won't reveal his choice until after the (Colorado) Rockies are done with the World Series."

Come again?

Is Tom worried that if he reveals his choice before the Rockies finish the Series, he might influence that contest? Will the Rockies wither away, losing all hope for the future of America if Tancredo says he won't run for his Sixth Congressional District seat again?

Or is Tancredo more concerned that the multinational Rockies squad will throw in the towel in disgust if he does run again?

The Series will be over, one way or another, no later than November 2. We'll see if Tancredo keeps this latest promise or breaks it like so many others he's made. The other Republican potential candidates waiting in the wings, like Tom Wiens and Will Armstrong, must be going crazy by now.

Of course, if Tancredo does announce for re-election to Congress, it'll be really hard for him to be taken seriously - even by his tiny core of true believers - as a presidential candidate. Tancredo entered the race candidly admitting that he didn't have a prayer, and acknowledging that his purpose was simply to bring attention to the issue of illegal immigration. Now that the Republican Party is riding that issue all the way to certain defeat in 2008, Tancredo is still flogging the dead horse - only now he's insisting to potential donors that he's in the race for real.

Anything to keep the publicity and campaign donations coming - even if only in dribs and drabs.

Tancredo continues to forget that the true test of a politician is whether he or she is a person of integrity.

Brownback is out - and his numbers were better than Tancredo's

Sam Brownback is quitting the Republican presidential race - and his polling numbers were if anything a bit better than those of the Colorado Bantam Rooster's! By contrast, Tancredo recently flushed $1,000 down the drain by signing up for New Hampshire's presidential primary.

Tancredo continues to garner little attention in the national news media. A typically cockamamie and insulting proposal to conduct DNA testing of all visa applicants - to address a problem that doesn't even exist according to other conservative Republicans like Jon Kyl of Arizona - didn't generate the buzz that Tancredo undoubtedly was hoping for.

Prediction: Tancredo to quit presidential race, run for re-election to Congress

The latest polls show Tancredo getting about 2% in Iowa and 1% in New Hampshire. He had a few "protest votes" early on, but now people are getting behind candidates they think really have a chance to win - and Tancredo's not one of them.

You can already sense that he's getting virtually no press time: the national news media - even his former friends who used to give him publicity - are focusing on the real candidates now.

And there's really not much else outrageous for Tancredo to say. Once you've advocated bombing religious sites as the centerpiece of your foreign policy, I mean really, what else can you do?

Tancredo will withdraw from the presidential race after these miserable results come in on Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary day. The real question now is whether he'll run for re-election in Colorado's 6th Congressional District, becoming even more of a career (do-nothing) politician.

The guess here is that he will.

After all, what other options are open to him? His former think tank, the Independence Institute, has another director now. And before that stint, he had a patronage job under a Republican presidential administration. And before that, he was a schoolteacher. It will be very hard for Tancredo to walk away from a nice, tidy salary and an amazing pension plan - a job that gives him plenty of free time to write books and fire off letters to whomever he wants to needle on a particular day, without having to be responsible for actually compromising with other politicians and passing desperately-needed solutions to critical issues.

It's so easy to be a back-bencher. Especially once you've jettisoned your formerly core principles.

Tancredo will run for Congress again. Then the question becomes: Will he get some serious opposition within his own party, from ambitious Republicans in his district like Tom Wiens (pictured)? We'll see.

Conservative predicts "catastrophic consequences" for GOP as result of Tancredo stance

A thoughtful opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by a conservative writer notes that the deportationist viewpoint with which Tancredo, more than anyone else, is associated, augurs "catastrophic consequences" for the Republican Party - and for the conservative viewpoint in general - in elections to come.

Tancredo is betraying the conservative cause, quite frankly, with his grandstanding, completely impractical, "deport them all" approach to the serious problem of illegal immigration.

Tancredo may not back Republican presidential nominee

At the most recent presidential debate (featuring the much-heralded debut of Fred Thompson, pictured), rapidly petering-out candidates Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul created wavelets when they each declined to offer their support for the eventual GOP nominee (assuming it's not them, which is a pretty safe bet).

Tancredo said:

"I am absolutely tired and sick and tired of being forced to go to the polls and say I'm going to make this choice between the lesser of two evils,” he said. “I really don't intend to do that again.”

Tancredo added that he is hopeful that the nominee who emerges will be “the principled flag carrier for the Republican Party,” but cautioned if that is not the case he “will not support them.”

Since none of the major contenders for the Republican nomination share Tancredo's position on illegal immigration, it sounds as if Tancredo is saying that he'll sit on his hands if anyone other than himself (or maybe Duncan Hunter) is nominated.

Of course, given the poisonous effect of Tancredo's extremist positions on Republicans' chances in general, the eventual Republican candidate may welcome Tancredo's disapproval.

Sore-loser attitudes like this further serve to isolate and marginalize Tancredo within even his own party.

Tancredo buddy Neil Cavuto says Tom's not "getting any traction," and a desperate Tom votes against Ramadan

In a fawning FOX "News" interview, right-wing shill Neil Cavuto acknowledges that Tom Tancredo isn't "getting any traction" in his presidential race.

"It seems his message is falling on deaf ears, in fact," Cavuto goes on to say. "It's not gelling."

Tancredo responds by blaming the debate formats, and the fact that there are too many candidates.

How about this possibility: Tancredo would make a lousy president, and even his ideological matchmates know it.

Meanwhile, Tancredo and a few lonely and pathetic colleagues in the House (like bigot Virgil Goode) voted "no" or "not present" on a House resolution that simply recognized the commencement of Ramadan. Three hundred thirty seven House members voted in favor of the resolution.

Tancredo's stated excuse for voting not present was that

“This resolution is an example of the degree to which political correctness has captured the political and media elite in this country. I am not opposed to commending any religion for their faith. The problem is that any attempt to do so for Jews or Christians is immediately condemned as ‘breaching’ the non-existent line between Church and State by the same elite.

The above ignores the fact that Tancredo voted "yes" in favor of a resolution celebrating Christmas in 2005.

"A pitchfork and a torch"

I just came across this July interview by the Rocky Mountain News' M.E. Sprengelmeyer with Tom Tancredo, in which the Congressman fondly recalls how some California supporters gave him a "pitchfork and a torch" in honor of his stance against illegal immigrants, and how Tancredo "loves the symbolism" of the gift:

TANCREDO: In California, they actually gave me at the end a pitchfork and a torch. I just couldn't get them on the plane to take them back.

SPRENGELMEYER: A pitchfork and a torch?

TANCREDO: Yeah, pitchforks and torches, like storming the castle walls, the whole thing. 'They'll be there with pitchforks and torches.'

SPRENGELMEYER: Is that your new logo?

TANCREDO: It should be. I love the symbolism of it.

Unfortunately, Tancredo either forgot or intentionally misconstrued the true symbolism of pitchforks and torches: the chasing of a misunderstood bogeyman by a whipped-into-a-frenzy pack of rabid, fearful citizens - as so unforgettably depicted in the classic 1930s movie "Frankenstein."

And that's really what Tancredo's all about...

Tancredo Iowa caucus support lagging badly

A new poll of 500 likely Iowa Republican Caucus-goers indicates that Tancredo is failing to build any support there - despite the general weaknesses of the other presidential contenders, and despite the Congressman's heavy investment in money, time and (such as it is) prestige in the contest.

Tancredo is currently polling 2%, tied for second-to-last with Sam Brownback and beating only the other hapless Congressman in the GOP race: Duncan Hunter. Hunter is polling 1%.

Whether voters just don't like Tancredo, or whether his anti-immigration message has now been co-opted by the other Republican contenders (besides McCain, who supports a path to citizenship for current illegal immigrants) - either way, you have to wonder why Tancredo's continuing this exercise in futility at this point.

Tancredo "forgets" to do anything about illegal immigration

OK, you Tancredo-lovers out there: try to put a positive spin on this remarkable article from the Denver Post that exposes Congressman Tancredo for the sham that he is:

Washington - Call it congressional amnesia.

Rep. Tom Tancredo two months ago announced a far- reaching proposal to rewrite immigration laws. Today that plan is missing in action.

The Republican congressman from Littleton never submitted the bill he trumpeted in July, legislation that would severely limit family-based legal immigration, imprison employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and deny citizenship to babies of illegal immigrants who are born in the U.S.

Tancredo's spokesman said that the congressman and his staff have been busy and that perhaps it just slipped their minds.

"We've been fighting a lot of other fights" on immigration, said Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa. "Are we going back to that? Of course we are."

Tancredo, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, also has been hard to pin down, Espinosa said.

Tancredo is all show, no go. He announces a press conference to trumpet legislation that he's too forgetful or lazy to even write, let alone do the hard work to give it a reasonable chance of being heard.

He rails against the alternatives offered by good, responsible, politicians like John McCain, but he has no real solutions of his own.

Literally!

Miserable showing by Tancredo after "Values Debate"

Tom Tancredo came in sixth out of seven participants - beating only total nonentity John Cox (who?) - in straw polling after the recent Florida "Values Voter Debate".

Even brand-new Seventh Dwarf Alan Keyes trounced Tancredo, coming in third overall.

Not surprisingly, Tancredo beat out Giuliani, Romney, McCain and Thompson - because none of them even showed up for the debate.

You have to wonder why Tancredo is keeping this farce of a presidential campaign going. He continues to poll in low single digits everywhere, including Iowa and New Hampshire. His anti-immigration message has been totally co-opted by almost all of the other Republican candidates, in a craven move to the extreme right that will be sure to cause disaster in November 2008 when millions of angry Hispanics move from the red column to the blue.

There is no longer any way to distinguish Tancredo from the others among the Seven Dwarfs.

Except for the centerpiece of Tancredo's foreign policy: threatening to bomb Mecca and Medina.

But the public's not buying that. Not even the Frightened Right.

Ruining the Republican Party

A well-argued piece by Michael Gerson in the Washington Post points out how the GOP candidates' new stances on immigration - seemingly falling all over each other to out-Tancredo Tancredo - will be absolutely "ruinous" to the Republican Party in the long run.

Blogger News Network also picks up on this political suicide by the Republican Party.

Tancredo's hypocrisy also is exposed. Tancredo was against the Univision Spanish-language debate, but he used to have political yard signs that said "!Viva Tancredo!" Apparently it's OK to speak Spanish when Tom does it...

They All Look Alike

Other than pure vanity, is there any reason why Tancredo is still in the presidential race?

Here's a great quote about the recent Republican "Seven Dwarfs" debate - skipped by Giuliani, Thompson, Romney and McCain:

All seven participants said they would work to keep federal funding away from organizations that perform or promote abortions; they all said they would revive an attempt to reform Social Security by offering personal retirement accounts; and all of them said they would oppose a government-run universal health insurance system. They all vowed to increase funding for abstinence education, to veto hate crimes legislation and to oppose embryonic stem cell research. They all agreed multiculturalism "weakens and divides" the country.

All seven also weighed in against Islamic militants.

Denver conservative slams Tancredo hypocrisy

David Harsanyi, the Denver Post's ultra-conservative columnist, comes down hard on Tancredo for accepting taxpayer funding for the Congressman's "vanity project."

"A clear case of Washington hypocrisy," Harsanyi quite rightly calls it.

"We hear a lot of politicians" - like Tancredo - "grousing about wasteful government spending," Harsanyi notes. "And then, like any good politician, they go out and show us exactly how it works."

Tancredo a hypocrite? That's no news.

WSJ blasts Tancredo: huge losses likely for Republicans among Hispanic voters

The Wall Street Journal has pointed out the obvious: the Republican Party's nativist, xenophobic approach to border control and illegal immigration is threatening to wipe out any gains the party has recently made among Hispanic voters.

And since Hispanic - LEGAL Hispanic - voters are increasing their percentage in the U.S., this is a harbinger of doom for the Republican Party for 2008 and beyond.

The problem isn't so much the solutions being advocated as the tone: when people like Tancredo say - literally - that Mexicans are coming across the border to "kill you, me, and your children," well, that doesn't sit well with the large proportion of American citizens who have Mexican roots. When people like Tancredo cavalierly lump Mexicans coming across the border for jobs with Al Qaeda terrorists, that offends a lot of people who would otherwise agree that illegal immigration is a serious problem that needs serious solutions.

As the Wall Street Journal notes:

Republicans would help their cause tremendously if the party at the very least adopted a welcoming stance toward Latino newcomers. People aren't going to listen to your message unless they believe you care about them... Tone matters in politics, and getting people to vote for you is easier when you're not likening them to Islamic terrorists, or implying that Latino men are hard-wired for gang-banging. Unlike blacks, who have hewed to Democrats in large majorities for decades, Latinos are proven swing voters, and Republican energies would be better employed trying to win them over instead of trying to capitalize on ethnic polarization to win GOP primaries...

Some conservatives insist that it's only the illegal aliens who have earned their wrath, but when the target of scorn is the mother or brother or cousin of someone here lawfully, that becomes a difference without much of a distinction politically. Moreover, Tom Tancredo, the pied piper of restrictionists in Congress, wants a "time out" on all legal immigration, and Hispanic voters are wise to the fact that it's not because he thinks there are too many Italians in the U.S. Republican pols may decide to follow Mr. Tancredo, Lou Dobbs, Fox News populists and obsessive bloggers down this path, but it's likely to lead to political defeat.

Hispanics are now about 8% of the electorate, but they're projected to become 20% by 2020 and one-quarter of the total U.S. population by 2050. The political reality is that going forward Hispanics will have to play a bigger and bigger role in keeping the GOP competitive nationally. It's hard to see how Republicans have any hope of building a permanent majority if Hispanics start voting for Democrats in the percentages that blacks already do.

Woman arrested in racist fight, claims Tancredo's her uncle

The western Colorado Glennwood Springs Post-Independent has this interesting article about this woman named Crystal Ann Tancredo, who was arrested in a brawl in the little burg of New Castle and charged with ethnic intimidation, among other things - calling someone a "wetback" - and who told police officers, "I don't have to move, my uncle is Tom Tancredo."

Carlos Espinosa, a press secretary to Rep. Tom Tancredo, said, "Tom said that he is not aware of any relative, niece or anyone related to him that he's aware of by the name Crystal Ann or anything along those lines."

He added that it's always possible that there could be some distant relation, but "as far as anyone he's ever met, no."

TW checked out the genealogy website www.familysearch.org, but it contains very little information on any U.S. Tancredos. Thomas Tancredo isn't even mentioned - and neither is Crystal Tancredo.

But Whether or not she's related, the New Castle Tancredo sure shares Tom Tancredo's ability to create a commotion (although the Congressman at leat obeys the law):

The affidavit says while the officer was waiting to hear back from dispatch, Tancredo was yelling at the man police believe was pushed, calling him a "(expletive) wetback" and saying that he and the others don't even have their immigration papers. The "enraged" man the officer believe was pushed yelled back at Tancredo, the affidavit says.

The officer told Tancredo to stop using foul language and she continued, saying that her uncle is Tom Tancredo, the elected official who is running for President, according to the affidavit.

The officer told Crystal Tancredo's boyfriend, Miguel Angel Velasquez, that he was under arrest for a restraining order violation. Tancredo became very upset and refused to move away from Velasquez, the affidavit says, stating something like, "I don't have to move, my uncle is Tom Tancredo."

The officer arrested Velasquez and attempted to hand Tancredo's driver's license back to her so she could leave. Tancredo grabbed the license forcefully and slapped the officer's hand, according to police.

"When Tancredo slapped my hand, I felt an overwhelming amount of pain in my right wrist," the officer wrote.

Tancredo was instructed to leave or she would be arrested, when she yelled, "What, you are going to take the wetback's word over ours? We are Americans," the affidavit says.

Tancredo compares New Jersey state officials to Southern separatists

Here's a neat trick guaranteed to earn a headline or two: write an op-ed piece for the conservative Washington Times comparing New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and Newark Mayor Corey Booker - the latter an African-American, by the way - to 1950's Southern racists George Wallace and Jim Clark.

The somewhat tortured rationale is that Corzine and Booker, by supposedly violating federal laws on immigration, are just like Wallace and Clark, who violated federal anti-discrimination laws.

Tancredo - you know, the guy who not so long ago spoke before a South Carolina audience of Southern secessionists from a podium draped with a Confederate flag, and who then joined the crowd in singing "Dixie" - is now accusing Booker, an African-American, of being just like George Wallace.

Of course, it's a ridiculous analogy. Equally ridiculous is the concept of the normally anti-federal-anything Tancredo's supposedly taking a principled stance against States' Rights.

But it's definitely good for a headline.

Tancredo qualifies for matching funds; campaign on life support a while longer

Tom Tancredo has qualified for federal matching funds, which as a second-tier candidate he sorely needs if he's to have any chance to stay in the race until at least February.

His campaign guru Bay Buchanan sounded strangely negative when she commented that the money would enable Tancredo to hang on a while longer.

Now that all the major Republican presidential candidates except John McCain have swung frantically to the extreme anti-immigration position, you have to wonder why Tancredo is staying in the race. He said right from the start that his campaign was intended to focus on illegal immigration. Well, the other candidates are focused: so much so that they've probably doomed the GOP for generations.

So why's Tancredo still tilting at these windmills? Oh well, keeps him out of trouble here at home...

Off the Cuff

Tancredo is an expert at making headline-grabbing, (seemingly) off-the-cuff remarks.

But when it comes to real cuffs, he's apparently a remedial student.

This is what passes for erudite commentary in politics-glutted Iowa nowadays. And just think: only a third of a year left until the Iowa caucuses!

Wall Street Journal calls on Tancredo to quit

Arch-conservative WSJ writer Peggy Noonan, commenting on the most recent Republican debate:

"Duncan Hunter was there. So was Tom Tancredo, who shouldn't be. When you can't compellingly break through with the issue that most roils the base, and on which you were a leader and in agreement with the roiled, then you should admit it didn't work, and leave."

Well said, Noonan.

A candidate to rival Tancredo

In futility, that is. Here's another candidate with a platform rivaling Tancredo's in strangeness. One makes bombing Mecca and Medina the linchpin of his foreign policy; the other claims that he has a wire implanted in him by the police.

Which is stranger, really, when you think about it?

Anyway: presenting the Democrats' Tom Tancredo: Lee Mercer!

Marginalized

With the entry of Fred Thompson into an already crowded field of Republican presidential candidates - all flawed in some respects, some quite deeply - the pundits say that people like Tancredo are now in great danger of being thoroughly marginalized in the next few months.

Especially with the compression of the presidential nomination race to a few weeks in late January and early February, why would people "waste" their votes on admitted protest candidates like Tancredo?

Tancredo has, perhaps, assisted somewhat in moving the Republican Party to a more extreme position on immigration reform - to the point where responsible politicians like John McCain are now almost seen as traitors. (Which is really hilarious, considering where McCain and Tancredo were during Vietnam...) But the GOP will pay dearly for its extremism on immigration for decades to come, as the percentage of LEGAL U.S. immigrants with Hispanic backgrounds continues to grow compared to the U.S. population as a whole.

Who'd be a worse president than Tancredo?

Much as TW disapproves of Tom Tancredo, we all know he has no chance at all of being the next President of the U.S. Even Tancredo himself has candidly said so on numerous occasions.

But this man does... and he would be a colossal disaster if elected. If not quite as bad as "Nuke Mecca" Tancredo, he'd come close...

Tancredo insults Katrina victims; characterizes federal aid as "gravy train"

Once again seeking some cheap headlines, Tom Tancredo issued a statement demanding that the "gravy train" in "runaway" federal aid to Hurricane Katrina victims come to an end.

Reaction was swift:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Not surprisingly, Louisiana's governor issued a detailed rebuttal (quoted below), but the rest of the nation didn't give a rat's patootie about what Tancredo had to say.

Now, if he'd suggested NUKING New Orleans - that might have gotten him some additional airplay. But the muted reaction to Tancredo's latest outrageous comments suggest that perhaps the national media is getting wise to what Colorado's press has known for a long time: Tancredo is an inveterate headline-grabber who will say anything, no matter how stupid, insensitive, or inflammatory, to get some column inches.

Here's Governor Blanco's thoughtful response to the latest ridiculousness from Tancredo:

"Perhaps Rep. Tancredo should read the entire report to which he refers. The GAO report cites the federal government as the source of waste, not those at the state and local level who continue working around the clock to rebuild their communities. He should also know the facts behind the $114 billion figure that is so easily touted as the monetary cure-all for the largest disaster in our nation's history. Federal investments in the Gulf Coast's recovery have been generous and historic. However, appropriations still have not come close to the magnitude of our damages or to the commitment President Bush pledged in Jackson Square shortly after Katrina.

"The federal government suggests it has allocated more than $114 billion to the Gulf Coast recovery - but they often fail to mention this $114 billion was distributed among five states - Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Florida - in the aftermath of three disasters, including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Of this, it is estimated that federal commitments to Louisiana are roughly $60 billion. A substantial portion of this assistance was directed to emergency assistance and meeting short-term needs arising from the hurricanes, such as relocation assistance, emergency housing, immediate levee repair, and debris removal efforts, leaving less than $26 billion for actual 'bricks and sticks' rebuilding of permanent infrastructure. Of this, we have forced enough federally-required paperwork through the eye of the needle to get nearly $7 billion spent on permanent construction projects, including more than $3 billion that has been paid directly to Louisiana homeowners.

"To characterize our ongoing recovery challenges as 'runaway government spending' is an insult to Americans in need. Let me remind him and others in Congress that Louisiana has contributed nearly $5 billion of our own resources toward this historic recovery effort. We have painstaking accountability measures in place to ensure every dollar is appropriately spent on recovery. We have undergone numerous audits, and we stand tall in the way Louisiana has honestly disbursed its federal dollars. I share Rep. Tancredo's concern for transparency and accountability, and I urge him to stand with us as we face this long-term recovery, just as we would stand with Colorado should residents there suffer a major disaster. Join us in demanding more efficient use of recovery aid by reforming the Stafford Act, cutting the reams of red tape that are hampering our progress."

Movin' on up?

A new poll of Iowa Republicans has Mitt Romney in the clear lead, but then a bunch of Republicans including Tom Tancredo clustered with about the same level of support below Romney.

The poll has Romney with a commanding lead, but then Giuliani, Huckabee, Thompson, Tancredo and McCain are all clustered with between 12% and 6% of the vote. Tancredo actually leads McCain, according to the poll.

Were Tancredo to come in second in Iowa, that would be earthshaking for the Republican Party.

And another gift to the Democrats.

Tancredo blows golden opportunity

A few weeks ago Tom Tancredo achieved one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal presidential campaign when he showed up, all alone, for an NAACP-sponsored debate. The image of Tancredo, standing alone at his podium with nine other empty podiums around him, while not flattering to the Republican Party as a whole, burnished Tancredo's image and gave him badly needed positive publicity.

The sight of Tancredo receiving a standing ovation from a predominantly African-American crowd - if only for having the decency to show up - was indeed impressive, as even TW was forced to admit.

How odd, then, that Tancredo missed what would have been a heaven-sent opportunity to again appear brave and principled. Recently Univision had to cancel a Republican presidential debate in Spanish, scheduled for Sept. 16 in Miami, because of all the GOP contenders only John McCain bothered to attend.

Had Tancredo said yes, it would have been a political gold mine for him on many levels: 1. He could have gone head-to-head with his archenemy, John McCain. 2. He would have appeared brave, both for appearing before a primarily Hispanic audience and for traveling to "Third World City" Miami. And most importantly: 3. He would have had a fantastic opportunity to explain, in depth, how he's not really against Hispanics and not even against people speaking Spanish, but that he wants to encourage people to learn English for their self-betterment (and the good of the country), and wants to fight illegal immigration.

But Tancredo blew it. (As, of course, did the rest of the Rebpublican contenders - except for McCain - by appearing to be practically racist.) He failed to grasp the big picture. And maybe, just maybe, the hypocrisy of his attending was even too much for him to stomach.

But then, this was a man whose campaign signs - until 2006 - always said "!Viva Tancredo!"

Once again, by blowing this opportunity, Tancredo shows he's not ready for prime time.

Tancredo deports Jesus?

Informed sources - including one of Tom Tancredo's most fervent supporters - have been commenting on a rumor that Congressman Tancredo accidentally ... well, read it yourself.

Flatlining, despite all

Despite his near-hysterical attempts to get in the news lately - his shamefully opportunistic New Jersey press conference urging that parents of slain kids sue the City of Newark; making the obliteration of Islamic holy sites the linchpin of his foreign policy; his claims that Iowa Straw Poll efforts were sabotaged - Tom Tancredo continues to sit motionless near the bottom of the Republican presidential candidates, according to the most recent Zogby poll.

This is the first scientific poll of Iowa GOP presidential contenders since the Ames straw poll where Tancredo got 14% of the vote, so one would naturally wonder whether his fourth-place "success" might have translated into better recognition and support among likely caucus-goers in January.

The results have to be very discouraging to Team Tancredo. He continues to draw just 3% of the vote, moving not a bit from May 15 to August 17, placing him near the very back of the pack. The August 17 poll results:

Romney 33% (soft on immigration according to Tancredo)
Giuliani 14% (ditto)
Fred Thompson 12%
Huckabee 8% (up from 2% in May)
McCain 6% (down from 18% in May)
Brownback 4% (up from 3% in May)
Tancredo 3%
Paul 3% (up from less than 1% in May)
Hunter 1% (up from less than 1% in May)
Other 2%
Not sure 14% (down from 22% in May)

Interestingly, while the "Not Sure" camp dropped 8% from May, not even one percent of those undecideds chose to increase Tancredo's polling numbers.

Tancredo is currently in a tie for 7th (or 8th, depending on how you look at it) place. Only one declared candidate - Hunter - is statistically below him. Even using his own yardstick of diminished expectations, Tanc