Thread: GOP embraces ex-outsider and his hard-line positions

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/pol ... 30977.html

Dec. 17, 2005, 12:26AM

By GEBE MARTINEZ

WASHINGTON - Tom Tancredo threw his head back and laughed the laughter of sweet vindication.

The Colorado Republican congressman was recalling in a recent interview the 2004 Republican National Convention, when White House political strategist Karl Rove wouldn't tell him where the platform committee had assembled. Rove apparently wanted to prevent Tancredo from embarrassing President Bush by trying to add strong anti-immigration phrases as Bush was wooing Hispanic voters.

Tancredo laughed again as he mimicked the scolding he said he got last year from then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, for setting up a political committee that backed Republican primary candidates, even against GOP incumbents, who shared Tancredo's call for zero tolerance on immigration laws.

But now, the immigration issue has moved to the forefront, Bush has toughened his stance against illegal immigration and the House was expected to pass legislation late Friday that would crack down on illegal immigration.

As one of the major reasons for the action, Tancredo is no longer treated as an outsider in his own party. He is invited to the weekly "unity" dinners sponsored by House GOP leaders, even as he encounters criticism of his legislative proposals from many Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

After arriving in Congress in 1999, Tancredo, the grandson of Italian immigrants, began pushing the immigration issue with a single-mindedness rarely seen on Capitol Hill.

On talk radio and cable television and in nightly speeches in an empty House chamber, he railed against illegal immigration and the increasing number of foreigners granted visas to enter the United States.


Started in the 1970s
Tancredo became an immigration foe in the 1970s when, as a junior high school teacher, he saw the start of Colorado's bilingual education programs. During four years as a state lawmaker, starting in 1977, Tancredo attempted unsuccessfully to strike all funding for bilingual education, contending it hurt student test scores.

Tancredo tried to make immigration an issue in his first congressional race.

"Nobody would say I was right; nobody would say anything," he recalled. But he kept talking about it.

"Then 9/11 happened and everything turned topsy-turvy."

When the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Middle Easterners who entered the country with documents that appeared legal, national security concerns entered the immigration debate. And again Tancredo was at the forefront.

The GOP maverick thought no one was listening. But he had underestimated the appeal of his message. The House Immigration Reform Caucus, which began with 16 members, now has five times that number.

Tancredo is even thinking about a presidential bid.

"It was completely serendipitous," Tancredo said, explaining his rise from obscurity. "I certainly never planned to be at odds with the president of my own party and my own leadership."

These days he seems to relish defying party leaders. When Bush recently bowed to criticism by party conservatives and urged stronger border enforcement, Tancredo said: "As with all politicians who change their rhetoric and their policies under political pressure, the public must continue to push the administration to follow up on its words."

Under the banner of compassionate conservatism, Bush has proposed a way for illegal immigrants to get temporary legal status as guest workers.

Tancredo's approach, in his own words: "If you are truly compassionate, what you will do is to construct a [physical] barrier ... so that you will be able to discourage people from trying to come. Because those folks are the ones dying in the desert."

Critics, however, suggest he's using the immigration issue to make a name for himself.

"I know that Mr. Tancredo is sincere, but I don't think he has been constructive," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the cosponsor of an immigration bill in the Senate. "Is a politician making a sincere effort at trying to find a solution to a problem? Or are they using it as a lightening rod to generate political support?"

Rep. Linda T. Sánchez, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the nation needs comprehensive immigration reform, including border security and a way for immigrants to earn legal status.

"His personal vendetta and venomous rhetoric against immigrants does not contribute anything constructive to the immigration debate," she said of Tancredo.

His allies regard him as a political warrior unafraid of bucking establishment opinion.

"He's been a really outstanding voice and has had to arm wrestle with members of the administration who haven't been interested in moving this issue," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.

Tancredo annoyed some Republicans by aggressively campaigning in a California special House election against the GOP nominee and in favor of Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project of armed citizen border patrols.

Gilchrist ran as an American Independent Party candidate with an anti-immigration agenda and came in third. He lost the conservative Orange County seat to Republican state Sen. John Campbell. Democrat Steve Young finished second.


15 interviews a week
Tancredo now does about 15 radio and TV immigration-related interviews a week. He concedes his argument benefits from some people not distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants.

"They go into the hospitals, they go into the emergency rooms and they see people who they believe to be illegal immigrants. They read that people are coming across the border to get benefits," Tancredo said.

"You cannot tell a person's immigration status by looking at them," countered Lisa Navarette of the National Council of La Raza.

But after years of being on what he called the defensive on the issue, Tancredo brags that momentum is now on his side: "It's happening, and it's the number one topic."

A lot of the problem is the failure of legal immigrants to effectively benefit their friends and family where they came from. The legal immigrants and American citizens with family members over there including I dare say Mitt Romney* should use their money to help create jobs not buy things for them.

Romneys third cousins live in Mexico in an area undergoing a drought.

"It was completely serendipitous," Tancredo said, explaining his rise from obscurity. "I certainly never planned to be at odds with the president of my own party and my own leadership."

And you've been very brave and have spoken out, and we really appreciate it, President Tancredo !!

As far as I'm concerned he really seems like the president. More than the other president.