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September 25, 2010 01:27 AM UTC

Rehabilitating Tom Tancredo (To Spite Their Face)

  • 45 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Westword’s Michael Roberts digs into the strange phenomenon that is Colorado Republicans lining up to support Tom Tancredo’s insurgent bid. Do they realize who they are playing with?

Against all odds, Tom Tancredo seems to be gaining momentum in his third-party gubernatorial run. With pundits essentially writing off Republican nominee Dan Maes, whose recent attempt to raise $500,000 in a day fell over $400,000 short, Tancredo operations manager Cliff Dodge is buoyed by new poll numbers and confident that a fundraiser Sunday featuring controversial Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio and local hero Dog the Bounty Hunter will lead directly to Tancredo TV ad buys…

The independents “mean everything,” he says. “We have to get a huge plurality of Republicans, naturally, but we have to get over half of the independents — and then we have to have some of the Democrats to win this race — and we think we can do it.” To him, inching ahead in independent voters is “a huge step.”

Getting Republican voters to cast their ballots for Tancredo represents a different kind of challenge — convincing people accustomed to supporting the GOP to make the leap. In this respect, he thinks a new batch of radio spots featuring former Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez will have an impact.

“He’s the consummate Republican,” Dodge says of Beauprez. “He was chairman of the party, a congressman, and he has seen the light. He’s willing to lend his name and his voice. That ad wasn’t scripted. It was off the top of his head. And we think [former Republican Senate candidate] Bob Schaffer is going to do one of these non-scripted things, too.

“The message has got to be that it’s okay for Republicans to vote for Tom Tancredo, because principles matter,” he continues…

Folks, we can’t tell you what’s possessing so many in the GOP to embrace Tancredo, who for years has been a toxic pariah. Tancredo’s trending-toward-naked-racism views on immigration, and his disastrous lack of a filter when it comes time to open his mouth on most any issue–from foreign policy to Supreme Court nominees–basically left him without mainstream friends or job prospects once his term in Congress was over. Tancredo was blacklisted from the Bush White House, and as top strategists like Karl Rove look at the changing demographics of the American electorate, it becomes clear that Tancredo is pure poison to the Republican Party long-term.

He’s also a big problem for Colorado Republicans: as we’ve discussed, if Republicans were to switch to Tancredo in enough numbers to actually elect him, however improbable, it could easily consign the Republican Party to minor-party status. But there’s a more fundamental issue than that, even–don’t the same demographic trends showing Hispanics to be the fastest-growing bloc of voters across the country matter in Colorado as well? What is the value of supporting Tancredo if he can’t win, and in every long-term sense he is lethal to the survivability of your party?

It’s not that anybody is in control of this impending train wreck at this point: it’s possible that moves to support Tancredo initially had more to do with Dick Wadhams pressuring Dan Maes to get out of the race than actually wanting Tancredo, but it didn’t work. The people who had a chance to stop this were GOP “elder statesmen,” such as they are, like Bob Schaffer and Bob Beauprez; and for them, embracing Tancredo’s baggage is preferable to isolating Maes and focusing attention elsewhere–no matter what it means for Republicans running five years from now. We find this decision, on an objective level, inexplicable. And we do believe they will regret it.

No folks, we could look back in a few years and view the GOP’s desperate lurch to Tancredo in 2010 as a moment when, having lost a battle, they proceeded to cost themselves the war.

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45 thoughts on “Rehabilitating Tom Tancredo (To Spite Their Face)”

  2. The “big lie” promulgated by the Nazi’s was that the Jews were responsible for the German economic collapse.  And we know that what happened after that was because the German people let it happen, and likely wanted it to happen

    Today we have the ascendancy of Tancredo and the Tea Party coincide with an economy in collapse presided over by a black President.  

    The big lie today directed at “Independents “is that the Democrats (liberals, blacks, Mexicans, Jews, Catholics, unions, sub-prime borrowers, etc.)caused the problem and that we need to get them before they take away our country, our money and our priviledged position in society.

    Never mind that the economic collapse was caused by greedy Republicans and their rich sugar daddies, and that Democrats are trying to fix it.  Will the Independents bite in sufficient numbers?  Perhaps not in Colorado due to our highly educated workforce.  But it is up to the Democrats to turn out in record numbers to beat back those who do.

    1. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What…

      They “let it happen, and likely wanted it to happen.” What exactly is “it?” They wanted a depression? They wanted to be led to war by Hitler and his Nazi Party?

      http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/ar…

      “Perhaps the most humiliating portion of the treaty for defeated Germany was Article 231, commonly known as the “War Guilt Clause,” which forced the German nation to accept complete responsibility for initiating World War I. As such Germany was liable for all material damages, and France’s premier Georges Clemenceau particularly insisted on imposing enormous reparation payments. Aware that Germany would probably not be able to pay such a towering debt, Clemenceau and the French nevertheless greatly feared rapid German recovery and the initiation of a new war against France. Hence, the French sought in the postwar treaty to limit Germany’s potential to regain its economic superiority and to rearm. The German army was to be limited to 100,000 men, and conscription proscribed; the treaty restricted the Navy to vessels under 100,000 tons, with a ban on the acquisition or maintenance of a submarine fleet.”

      Yes, I’m sure the German people wanted to have their country firebombed, as seen in Dresden.

        1. And no, the German people as a whole didn’t “want” the murder of Jews.

          I don’t like the Tea Party, I don’t like Tom Tancredo, and I don’t like you.

          How about you take your uneducated assumptions and shove them up your ass?

        2. You ignorant twat, I have family who faught the Nazis in WWII. I hate Nazis with every cell in my body. And you have the audacity to call me a sympathizer when I ask you how you meant that a whole country wanted the extermination of an entire race?

          Congratulations, you’ve insulted four generations of my family.

          1. elsewhere on this blog dwyer called me a Nazi symphathizer because I objected to him calling Steve Bosley a Nazi symphathizer.  

              Where is Godwin’s law when you need it?

          1. Thank you for the bucket of cold war.  I didn’t like the fact that Bosely identified himself  and his tea party with Storm Troopers. Period.

            Now then, I think that both reubenesp and Cartesian Doubt have valid points to make.  We have to be able to talk about this without seeming to condone  racism or explain away the Nazi.

            The reason to understand all the factors which created Nazi Germany is so that it won’t be repeated.  The reason to identify those elements in our present situation which are causing such rage and division is to address them before we have an explosion.  The failure of the average German people to protest what was happening until it was too late is a mistake we must avoid.

            The economic situation is dire for many Americans, the worst that many have seen in their life time.  It is not anywhere near the horrific economic environment in Germany caused by the world wide Depression , which was a factor in creating the Nazi regime.  But it is bad.

            Scapegoating is a political strategy which we have to be very careful to avoid.  Much of the popular (read talk radio) propaganda marginalizing the President and targeting Muslins and the disadvantaged, particularly minorities, sounds to me like creating the kind of stereotypes which can lead to scapegoating.

  3. If you are a Republican, what are your choices?

    1. Vote for Maes. An idiot who cannot win. De facto, a vote for Hickenlooper.

    2. Vote for Hickenlooper. NOT!

    3. Don’t vote. A vote for Hickenlooper.

    4. Vote for Tancredo.  Despite all his wackiness, he is the closest thing that is a – I hesitate to use this word – typical Republican.

    All Tank’s negatives are secondary to getting him into office vs. Hickenlooper. They’ll worry about them later.

    If I was an R (patooey!)I’d support Tancredo.

    1. Look at Republican Larry Mizel and others who are not only voting for Hickenlooper but contributing substantially to him.

      Dan Caplish and his lackey Craig Silverman can blather on all they want at KHOW, but just look at Hickenlooper’s record as Mayor of Denver. Solid moderate, sensible, and doing the best he can to manage in tough times. Exactly what Colorado will need, rather than some xenophobic, lying, unprincipled renegade sonofa(gun) when times are rough in 2011.

      1. who comes from a once despised immigrant group himself.  Or is it? Satisfying to be the one looking down instead of the one being looked down on, I guess.

        He wasn’t concerned about illegals when he had a basement full of them doing a remodel.  That was the contractors business, he keeps saying, not his. The Tancredo version of don’t ask, don’t tell? Sanctuary basement?

        1. Tancredo grew up in an ethnic Italian enclave where the “other” was Hispanic and to be avoided and feared.   He never moved beyond that, IMHO. Ultimately, the “Chicanos” grabbed power from the Italians in municipal elections and issues.

          Tancredo is soft spoken, but he is mean, IMHO.   He does not concede that American born citizens may speak Spanish.  

            1. But, I don’t want that conflict from forty years ago relived.

              Besides, in North Denver, the “yuppies’ have come in and taken over and the Hispanic and Italians and a handful of the Irish all  who stayed are uniting against these usurpers….which is just as it should be.

              Tancredo, IMHO, never left the North Denver of his youth, emotionally.  His growing popularity is of major concern to me.  The suburbs around Denver used to be very conservative, peopled by “white flight” right after the DPS busing orders.At a time of economic crisis, those kinds of reactions can reemerge.

              Tancredo, of course, moved to Arvada a long time ago and

              then to SE Denver.    Anything or anyone which doesn’t meet his definition of America is suspect and attacked.  That is potentially very dangerous. I don’t think Tancredo is very smart.  I do think he is “street wise.”  After all, he managed to get out of the draft during the Vietnam war.

  5. I think consigning the Republican Party to that of minor is overly-optimistic.

    Tancredo may give the state a bad reputation, but he does have his followers.  

    2. if Tanc and Hick between them grab enough of the vote to keep Maes under 10% the Republican Party loses major party status on the ballot until it once again climbs above 10% in a gubernatorial four years away.  Conversely, If Tanc gets the ACP more than 10% in the gubernatorial they get majority party status on the next ballot.  

      Now we all know that the Republican party will still be the other major party in terms of registration and the ACP won’t, regardless but it still will be very inconvenient and embarrassing for the Colorado GOP. That so many prominent Rs seem to be willing to go there is kind of surprising. Makes them look like chickens running around without their heads. That’s a break for Colorado Ds in a tough year. It’s in that sense.

      2. By a republican governor, legislature, secretary of state and state supreme court appointed by a republican governor.

        The repubs may be running around like chickens running around without their heads…..at least they are moving.

        The dems have simply stop running.

        1. Hick will be the governor and chances of ousting Buescher not great.  So much for your scenario coming to pass in the near future.

          GOP leaders can’t think risking a less than 10% showing for their official candidate is a good thing yet many are working for just that by endorsing to Tanc.  Tanc winning would at least represent a victory for the right and a defeat for Dems but they can’t seriously believe that to be possible.

          Seems clear a combination of bad decisions and bad breaks has caused the whole gubernatorial election and its possible consequences to get completely away from them and they know it. Beginning to look like everyone just trying to make the best decision for him or herself with no good options for the party as a whole in this race.

          1. I suggested one scenario, it is not “my scenario.”  I am not part of the “No problamo” democratic clique.  I think there are “problamos.”  Dems continue to rationalize away a coming tsunami as if they have been brainwashed.

            Tancredo is moving very quickly up in the polls…he has gained more than 20 points in the last month.

            GOP leaders can’t think risking a less than 10% showing for their official candidate is a good thing yet many are working for just that by endorsing to Tanc.  Tanc winning would at least represent a victory for the right and a defeat for Dems but they can’t seriously believe that to be possible.

            I admire your posts, BC, you are rational and logical.  But, the dems should not take a victory lap in this race, until the fat lady sings.  

            I am trying to ring the Tsunami siren and standing on the

            wide empty beach and saying “see, no ocean,” doesn’t help.

            1. but with so many things to worry about, such as a Buck win and what’s going on nationwide, I think we can afford not to stress out too much over the gubernatorial. Plenty of other things will get his voters to the polls this election. And my point wasn’t about the victory lap so much as the fact that, in this particular race, it’s hard to see why so many prominent Rs think the risks involved in abandoning their official party candidate under the circimstances are good risks from a party point of view.

              1. The only advantage I can see is that they are all local politicians who may be looking for a gig in a Tancredo administration and/or don’t want to get stuck defending Maes.

                I think Mike Coffman has been silent.  But, I also think he has no use for “for those who wave the flag but never served.”  Could be wrong on both counts.

                1. You don’t really think anybody in the Colorado GOP upper echelons is taking a risk of that magnitude for the slim chance of a Tanc administration, do you?  Whatever. I’m pretty sure the reason there doesn’t appear to be any grand strategy that makes sense is because there isn’t. They just ran out of time and options starting with the unraveling of McInnis. They couldn’t get themselves to believe that they could no longer just order everyone around from the top down as usual to make it work the way they wanted and then it was too late to regroup.

  6. So believe me when I tell you this, no one ever voted for a Republican for their thinking or their good ideas.  Tommy’s mind? — pshaw!

    My Tommy’s a hottie, but it’s not his mind that interests me, or likely anyone else.  I’ll vote for Hickenlooper because this state need good thoughtful people running the government.

    (I’l still hope the Tommy comes knocking on my door later tonight though.  You aren’t going to through a hunky guy like that out for eating, or being, crackers.  Until then how about some pictures?)

    1. Wait, wait, WHA….? This isn’t bjwilson83 at all! Why, it’s an IMPOSTER!!!1!!!1!

      Halp! Pols!! I’m completely unable to tell that BSWilson83.83 is NOT the bjwilson83! Despite the immediately noticeable difference in names thanks to capitalization, different letters, and the extra “.83,” and the completely different tone of the posts, I have been FOOLED into believing that this individual is one and the same as beej!! Oh the humanity!

      1. I’m the rich, good-looking, mature woman of the world.  

        BJWilson83 is apparently an adolescent snotty-britches who’s hoping to attract a man with brazen and unladylike advertising — “BJ” — while she sits at home on Friday nights hoping desperately to herself that her ugly fades away.

        1. And for all I know, he’s not.

          These attempts at “outing” people, and using derivatives of their usernames, and cut-and-pasting their latest statements into snotty little childish signature lines, should stop. It’s beneath you, it doesn’t accomplish anything, and it just hurts your beliefs/position by making you look childish.

          3. except in the kindest sense.  Miss Wilson (“BJ”) is obviously an adolescent — not yet grown or matured  She can only hope at this point in her little life to somday aspire to womanhood.

            To call her a woman now, insults those of us who are women.  Please consider our feelings HGF and apologize.

        1. One of my closest friends died in a motorcycle wreck.  He was a farmer, liked to use a bike to check his fields because you could go through rows without trampling crops.   Pulled out on the highway, and was broadsided by a pick-up truck who was blinded by the setting son.

           Of course, a helmet wouldn’t have helped him, but a biker needs to play the odds.

           It always says in the obituary that the biker wasn’t at fault, the car driver was.

          That’s such a wonderful comfort to the biker’s family…

    2. which is all this nasty little politician knows how to do.  The guy was out on the campaign trail so much that he never learned how to craft effective legislation.  You can see it in his policy statements.  He really doesn’t know how to govern.  All he can do is run around mad and ask for money.  What a totally worthless politician.

  8. Tell that to all the constituents, former opponents within and outside his party, and former employers he screwed over when he stopped being the chief spokesperson for Colorado Term Limits USA, renounced his personal term limits pledge – taken repeatedly, over and over, and made the centerpiece of his initial 1998 congressional race.

    What a fraud, cheat and liar. And now he has the gall to run on PRINCIPLES?

    Say what you will about Tom Tancredo: the one thing he has proven and can never take back is that when it mattered most, he abandoned his principles. Shame on him.

  9. A strategy to disenfranchise the Hispanic voter could be developed, easily, IMHO.  First, you need a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.  No problamo, if Gingsberg or any other liberal, leaves for health reason, then there is a conservative majority until or unless a replacement is confirmed by the Senate.  A republican senate can filibuster any Obama nominee….particularly if the republican House has started impeachment hearing against the President…

    Next, the Senate takes up the 14th Amendment and decides that being born on American soil does not automatically confer American citizenship.  Rather, one parent has to be an  American citizen.  So anyone presenting themselves to vote has to prove American citizenship…..this throws into disarray a lot of Hispanic voters…who up to now have been considered American citizens.  Just the threat of having to show “papers” and risking deportation is sufficient to keep Hispanics away from the polls.

    So this appears to be a clear violation of civil rights…so take it to the conservative Supreme Court and see what happens.

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