Thread: Southern group says it didn't host Tancredo event

http://www.rockymountainnews.com

Southern group says it didn't host Tancredo event
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
September 13, 2006

A leader of a controversial Southern nationalist group said Wednesday it had had nothing to do with organizing an event for Rep. Tom Tancredo last weekend in South Carolina.

And, Lourie Salley, a board member of the South Carolina League of the South, lashed out at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which described the gathering where Tancredo spoke as "a hate-group event."

Salley defended Tancredo after the Law Center claimed a barbecue held at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia on Saturday was hosted by the South Carolina League of the South.

Salley described the League as a "southern nationalist organization" and said that he and more than a dozen members did attend the Tancredo event. But he said the group's only involvement was to encourage its members to turn out for it.

The room was booked by the non-profit group Americans Have Had Enough, which backs Tancredo's anti-illegal immigration stand and said it wants to stand up for conservative principles once championed by the likes of former President Ronald Reagan. Tancredo serves as honorary chairman.

But, citing an online invitation (www.sclos.org/news.htm), the Southern Poverty Law Center tried to link the event to the South Carolina chapter of the League of the South, which it describes as a "hate group."

In an interview, Salley said, "Many of our goals are different from Congressman Tancredo's. In South Carolina, we share a concern about illegal immigration. I get the impression that (Tancredo) believes the union should stay together."

"The League of the South is a Southern nationalist organization," Salley said. "Obviously, Congressman Tancredo is not a Southern nationalist. As far as I know, he has got no contacts with the League."

Salley blasted the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose Intelligence Report program is known for investigating what it considers to be "hate groups."

"I think it's absolutely absurd," Salley said of the SPLC's charges about the Tancredo event. "The SPLC has called the Boy Scouts and several churches hate groups. If that's who (they) consider hate groups, I consider myself to be in good company."

Heidi Beirich, deputy director of the Intelligence Project for the SPLC, said she stands by an online article about the event that was widely circulated on the Internet on Tuesday (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=79).

"We stand by exactly what we wrote," Beirich said Wednesday. "Whatever Salley is saying now is not what came across at the event or in the advertisement."

A spokesman for Tancredo has vehemently disputed the group's charges, accusing the Southern Poverty Law Center of intentionally distorting the facts in order to discredit Tancredo.

"I think they knew exactly what they were doing," Espinosa said Tuesday. "They've had it out for Tom for some time now. We're talking about attorneys who make their money by exploiting illegal immigrants...I'm just shocked people are giving them any sort of credibility on this. They never bothered to call us. They never bothered to pay attention to things called facts."

Tancredo appeared at the event as part of his trip to South Carolina, a key battleground state in presidential politics. Tancredo has flirted with a run for president in 2008, although he said his travels to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina are really about making sure bigger-name contenders don't ignore the immigration issue.

As Tancredo's national profile has grown in the past year, he has tried to distance himself from racists who might share his views opposing illegal immigration. In several speeches, he has told audience members that if they come to the immigration issue with racial motivations, he has no interest in working with them.

Beirich said she did not know whether Tancredo was familiar with the League of the South, but that he should have been concerned about Confederate battle flags and other paraphernalia on display at Saturday's event.

"Our job here is to follow hate groups," Beirich said Wednesday. "When hate groups start advertising events where there are politicians, we're going to be following. We don't want hate ideology, hate anything, affecting the political process."

Talk about hate group "Southern Poverty Law Center" hates Americans

http://www.currentargus.com/ci_4327491

Tancredo: Bigots didn't sponsor talk
The lawmaker denies that a group eschewing racial equality hosted his recent speech in South Carolina.
By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writer


Washington - Rep. Tom Tancredo found himself snared in controversy Tuesday over a speech he gave in South Carolina that attracted the attention of a neo-Confederate group, which falsely claimed to have sponsored the event.

Tancredo's spokesman said the Littleton Republican has no connection to the South Carolina League of the South, which according to its website advocates "a free and independent Southern republic" and eschews racial equality.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League consider the organization a white-supremacist hate group.

The South Carolina League of the South's website posted an announcement that Tancredo "will be our guest" at Saturday's event in Columbia, S.C., at the South Carolina State Museum.

"An organization took liberty and decided to pretend to get themselves more involved with Tom than they actually are," Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa said. "We've never heard of them."

Tancredo rejects all of the group's beliefs, Espinosa said. The group was not responsible in any way for organizing Saturday's event, he said.

League of the South officials did not return messages left Tuesday by The Denver Post.

Tancredo spoke in Columbia as part of a series of appearances in recent days in South Carolina.

The Southern Poverty Law Center went to Saturday's museum event and reported details on its website, saying Tancredo "addressed the standing-room audience of 200 to 250 from behind a podium draped in a Confederate battle flag."

Several members of the League of the South identified themselves to SPLC representative Alexander Zaitchik at the event, said Heidi Beirich, a Law Center spokeswoman. There also appeared to be members present of the Council of Conservative

Citizens, which the SPLC also considers extremist.
But Garland McCoy, president of a political-activist group called Americans Have Had Enough, said his organization threw the event, which he said was open to anyone. McCoy said he started the group, that he has no connection to Tancredo and that the event was a fundraiser for his group, not for Tancredo.

The congressman signed and sold his new book there, however, at $25 a copy.

The room where the event was held was rented by Richard Hines, according to the museum. Hines is the husband of Patricia Hines, who McCoy said is on the board of his group.

The event was held in the museum's Confederate relic room, he said, which holds flags, portraits and other items.

The event was attended by several local dignitaries, McCoy said, including state Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, a state senator, and candidates for state treasurer and a congressional district.

Espinosa said Tancredo should not be blamed if any League of the South members attended.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center will use any excuse they can to attack Tom," Espinosa said. "We're talking about lawyers who make money by supporting illegal immigration and businesses that benefit from it."

Tancredo is seen as a Bigot, but LaRaza's not

When I read the headline I knew right away Morris Dees had something to do with this. How he ever became some sort of moral arbiter is beyond me. I guess PT Barnum was right.

Nice to know the SPLC is being vigilant on the hate groups. That must mean they are assiduously keeping tabs on LaRaza, MECHA, et al.

It must take a lot of hate from the SPLC to try and label any good hearted American that cares about our laws, our nation, and illegal immigration as a hate group supporter.

These false attacks are getting deep and the SPLC should be labeled as a hate group.

W

I took a look at the web site for the SPLC and cringed. Most of it focuses on hate groups and extremist stuff. I guess when you are obsessed with such things 24/7, it really makes you paranoid and causes you to have a very warped view of the world.

I've read in these forums in the year plus I've been here some nasty rants against our side of the issue by Morris Dees and the SPLC. His headquarters are labeled the "The Poverty Palace," and Morris is rolling in bucks by clueless contributors. Apparently and from what I've read, the majority of the the wealth raised by SPLC ends up in Morris' pockets instead of poor and discriminated against Americans whom he claims to represent and protect. There is much dirt out there on the web about Dees both in his professional and private lives. I've posted comments more than once that Dees makes Clinton look like a boy scout.

For dirt on Dees's private indiscretions, just do a google search on these words in quotation marks, "morris dees divorce." This includes his frequent philandering and trying to put the moves on his one time 16 year old step-daughther in her bedroom. He had numerous affairs while married to his long-time suffering first wife and many of the other women, women who worked for him (so why was he never charged with sexual harassment). Another affair Dees had according to what I've read on the web was with his very much younger and new daughter-in-law.

Morris likes to dig the dirt, and I will try to dig more on him soon. At least since I've been involved with ALIPAC and similar groups since April 2005, I've read more than once that the SPLC has produced reports on us so-called racist anti-immigrant groups. Their words not mine because I support legal immigration but also support securing USA borders and deporting illegal aliens.

boy o boy he is one sleaze ball