Tancredo says 'hyphenated' conservatism brings policy, electoral catastrophe
By Jim Brown
AgapePress
March 8, 2007

(AgapePress) -- A Republican lawmaker says he's troubled by the recent influx of what he calls "hyphenated conservatives." U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado, an admitted "huge long shot" for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, says he is troubled by members of his party who want to qualify their conservative label.

Tancredo says he was a conservative "even before Al Gore invented the Internet" and is glad every Republican running for the White House is some kind of conservative. But he finds it "mildly amusing," he adds, when people label themselves as neo-conservatives, paleo-conservatives, compassionate conservatives or commonsense conservatives.

Amid all these hyphenations and qualifications, the Colorado Republican remarks, "What I want to know is, since when is conservatism itself not enough?" When exactly, has it ever helped the Republican Party "either in politics or in policy, to qualify our commitment to a limited government, the rule of law, a strong national defense, and traditional values?" he asks.

"As best as I can tell, every effort to hyphenate conservatism has led to both policy and electoral catastrophe," Tancredo contends. "Remember compassionate conservatism?" he says. "That's given us No Child Left Behind, and Medicare prescription drugs -- which is the largest increase in government since the creation of Medicare."

It was "we 'compassionate conservatives'" that brought about that policy, which introduced an entitlement benefit for prescription drugs, the congressman observes. However, he is quick to clarify that he "was not party to that event," noting rather that it "happened on our watch." But compassionate conservatism, the congressman says, "gave us that, it gave us open borders, and eventually it gave us Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker [of the House]."

When conservatives run on principle they win, Tancredo asserts; but when they run from principle, they lose. That is why, he recently told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, the only adjective he will put in front of the word conservative is "unapologetic."

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2007/march/0 ... redo.shtml