http://www.examiner.com/a-663490~Yeas__ ... pr__9.html

Bounty Hunter’ becomes part of Tancredo’s White House bid

Call it the “Dog” plank in the presidential platform of Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.

The conservative congressman has been at the forefront of the effort to prevent the extradition of bounty hunter and reality TV star Duane “Dog” Chapman and his brother and son to Mexico on a deprivation of liberty charge.

Now, Tancredo has made it a part of his presidential campaign. Tancredo recently sent a letter to the Mexican government protesting the action, and his campaign site now sports a form that allows users to add their name to the letter and “let my congressman know how I feel.”

“I’ve read the letter to the Mexican government and I agree,” the petition states. “It’s time for the Mexican government to dismiss the charges against all the Chapmans and end their attempts to extradite.”

After convicted rapist Andrew Luster, an heir to the Max Factor fortune, jumped bail last fall, Chapman pursued him into Mexico and captured him without the cooperation of the Mexican government. U.S. Marshals later arrested Chapman at his home in Hawaii as Mexican authorities demanded extradition.

Tancredo immediately sent a letter, co-signed by 29 other House members, to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking her to deny the extraction of Chapman.

“It seems that Mexican authorities are pressing this case only because they are so stung by the embarrassment of failing where Mr. Chapman succeeded,” Tancredo wrote.

On March 28, along with the letter to Mexico, Tancredo sent another letter to Rice inquiring as to whether the United States has a legal obligation to extradite bounty hunters based on an agreement that could just amount to “a wink and a nod” between governments.