Fat lady sings in Tancredo feud
Fla. guv's spokesman says it's 'over for us' in 'Third World' flap

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/l ... %2C00.html

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
December 1, 2006

WASHINGTON - Enough already with Rep. Tom Tancredo, according to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

After two days of verbal sparring with Colorado's famous firebrand, Bush was ready to change the subject Thursday.

"It's over for us," Bush spokeswoman Alia Faraj said, a day after her boss dismissed Tancredo as a "nut" for calling Miami a "Third World country."

This week's flap is vintage Tancredo, who revels in public spats with high-profile figures as a way to further his fight against what he calls uncontrolled immigration and a "cult of multiculturalism."

Bush, the president's brother, is just the latest to get pulled into the fray. Among others, Tancredo has used spats with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, top White House political adviser Karl Rove, and Sen. Ken Salazar.

Tancredo allies, opponents and outside analysts all see it as part of a combative public relations strategy that has helped the Littleton Republican turn his back-bench seat in Congress into a national bully pulpit.

Tancredo could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Will Adams, his former press secretary, said Tancredo's strategy is "whatever he decides at that moment."

"He shoots from the hip . . . the key to the strategy is to get a big fish to respond," Adams said Thursday.

And respond they have.

Adams, now studying law at Harvard University, was Tancredo's press adviser in 2005, when the congressman's fight against illegal immigration switched from a relatively lonely crusade into one of the hottest debates in the country.

In a September 2005 dust up, Tancredo took jabs at New Mexico Gov. Richardson after the governor declared a state of emergency in border counties to stem illegal immigration.

Tancredo accused him of using the issue to harass volunteers who had started monitoring the borders on their own.

Richardson fired back in a letter to Tancredo, defending his state's efforts and accusing Tancredo of "a desperate attempt to grab another headline."

And grab headlines he did. Tancredo counterattacked, getting his name in more news stories and drawing interview requests from New Mexico broadcast stations.

"The stupidest thing (Richardson) decided to do was write us a nasty letter back, because it was game-on at that point," Adams said.

A similar flap happened in early 2005. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Denver, had been on the job just a few months when Tancredo sent out a press release accusing him of cozying up to the "open borders lobby."

"Maybe he's already been in Washington too long," Tancredo said.

Within minutes, Salazar left a phone message for Tancredo, calling his release offensive. Then he sent an open letter questioning Tancredo's collegiality.

There was great glee in Tancredo's office, where the congressman fired off a swift reply: "He'd better grow some thicker skin. Welcome to the big leagues."

On another occasion, Tancredo told an interviewer that President Bush and Congress would have "blood on their hands" if a terrorist slipped through porous borders. That reportedly prompted presidential adviser Rove to tell Tancredo he would never "darken the door of the White House" again.

Tancredo wasted no time sharing the threat with reporters, and since then the phrase has become a standard line in countless national media profiles of Tancredo.

Jim DeFede, a Miami television and radio commentator, has been among those ridiculing Tancredo in recent days, saying the congressman gives cover to racists who want "brown-skinned people" to leave south Florida.

"If he was a fringe radio guy in Colorado spouting off his things, that's one thing," DeFede said.

"But he's a member of the U.S. Congress. It's hard to just outright ignore him in that context. You don't want to take it so seriously to legitimize him.

"It's finding that right balance to ridicule him for the nut that he is, but at the same time knocking down the bad information that he's putting out there."

Maggie Chamberlin Holben, who owns a public relations firm in Lakewood, said Tancredo's ability to stir the pot to attract the media is "not really novel." But, she added, "It's a tricky strategy because of the negativity you can attract."

Try though he might, Tancredo doesn't always get the last word. In 2002, he raised eyebrows - and ire - when he called for rounding up suspected illegal immigrants as they waited in line to get matricula consular identification cards.

That caused a legendary retort from Andrew Hudson, spokesman for then Denver Mayor Wellington Webb:

"What kind of bizarre Tom Tancredo planet is he living on?"

Fightin' Words: Congressman Tom's Greatest Hits

• Insulting Miami recently

"You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country."

• Threatening Islamic terrorists in 2005

"Well, what if you said something like - if this (a nuclear attack) happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites."

• Taunting Sen. Ken Salazar on immigration in 2005

"Maybe he's already been in Washington too long and is listening to the open-borders lobby instead of the people of Colorado, who overwhelmingly support passage of these tough new safeguards."

• Explaining why he voted against Hurricane Katrina relief funding in 2005

"Given the documented public corruption in the state, I am not confident that Louisiana officials can be trusted to administer federal relief aid."

• Accusing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson of grandstanding on immigration in 2005

"Given your new rhetoric on border security and your emergency declaration, I had hoped that you might actually change the way you govern your state. But, after the cameras left and the satellite trucks drove away, it appears to be business as usual for your administration."

• Feuding with Mayor John Hickenlooper over bilingual programs in city libraries in 2005

"The mayor responds to my inquiry with a five-page letter that could have been two paragraphs, and says essentially there may be something in what you say, but we'll never admit it, and besides that, stay the heck out of our business."