As many of you may recognize, absent a drastic Constitutional change, George W. Bush is not going to be our President come January 2009. The want-to-be candidates to replace him are starting to line up at the fair grounds in Des Moines for the obligatory photo op with a pig. Because the Iowa caucuses are early in the game we tend to get all contenders well before they really show up on the national scene. This past weekend we had Rep Tom Tancerdo of Colorado. Apparently he is a comrade in arms of our very own nut case, Rep Steve King (very Republican, Know Nothing wing). What little I can find out about this guy suggests that he is something of a loon. Lately he has developed a phobia about crescents, they being the symbol of Islam and all. Here is a press release his office put out being upset about the shape of the proposed 9/11 monument is Pennsylvania and here is an unfriendly blog’s take on the guy.
Three questions:
If Rep Tancerdo serious about running for TPOUSA;
Is he really this irrational;
Who is financing him.
I believe Mr. Tancredo was the one who recently floated the idea of “taking out” Islamic holy sites in retaliation for any future terrorist attack on the US. And I am guessing that a significant minority of Americans agree with this idea and might want to see such a tough-talking hombre in the White House.
Tom Tancredo is the “immigration” candidate, which enjoys a lot of support, even across political lines. The problem for him, though, is that the “money” is on the opposite side of this issue (they like the cheap labor), so he would have trouble winning in the primaries.
He is also reckless in saying what he thinks (see above re: the cresent issue), so he would be suceptible to a Howard Dean style verbal meltdown.
Your blog cite is also interesting. I wonder, in what sense does the blogger think that a Congresscritter can “order” a journal to change its name, or cease publication?
I’ve never heard of him before reading this thread, but that link above sure makes him look like a loony toon.
Can we name a single person who, looking at the monument in question, would respond by saying: “Ah hah. The United States government built this thing to honor Islamic terrorists.” Anybody? Anybody? I didn’t think so. Obviously either Mr. Tancredo is genuinely nuts, or he goes around saying things that are nuts because he believes certain constituents want to hear them.
He aslo appears to have issues with redundancy.
As to whether he’s running, I neither know nor care. The Republican Party being hitched to an uncompromising attitude, there will always be wingnuts who insist that the bigwig chosen as their candidate is not right wing enough, and will run in the primary as a protest. Remember Bob Dornan in '96 and Alan Keyes in 2000? They never get a noteworthy share of the vote, though.
All evidence at this point is that the Republican leadership wants Frist as their candidate. If so, and if 2000 was any guide, they will not react kindly towards any other Republican opposing him.
There’s value to any party having a candidate or two on the fringe during the primary season. Even though they gain the support only of fringe voters, they make the serious candidates, including the eventual nominee, look more centrist and sane. Bush benefited from Gary Bauer’s candidacy as much as Kerry benefited from Al Sharpton’s, to name a couple more. The 2008 GOP nominee (whose identity would be a much better debate topic) might similarly benefit from Tancredo’s - hell, it may even be worth subsidizing him for a while.
The memorial hasn’t been built yet. The proposed memorial is in the shape of the islamic symbol. This has been noticed by many including some family members of the dead on flight 93. The entirely predictable public outcry over the idioticly unsensitive proposal has already resulted in the designers backing down and rethinking what they are going to do.
I see your “uncompromising wingnuts” and raise you “absolutely fucking crazy”: Remember the democratic candidates in the last election? The right had nothing that can be fairly compared to Al Sharpton. There is a party which has been hijacked by wingnuts, but it aint the republicans.
This is news to me. You got a cite for this “all evidence” of which you speak?
Proving what, exactly? Did anybody actually mistake the plans for an attempt to praise terrorists, or not?
So no doubt you have a cite for Sharpton assualting people in several public places including the Capitol as Dornan did, or Alan Keyes declaring abortion to be worse than terrorism? If so I’d love to see them.
Indeed. The aforementioned Dornan and Keyes were a U.S. Representative and a Senate nominee, respectively. Are you arguing that they are not wingnuts? And can you name anyone who’s actually been a serious part of the Democratic Party ho could reasonably be considered a wingnut?
Forget it. If you’re not going to follow the news, don’t expect me to do it for you.
Debaser, are you seriously saying you’re unaware of widespread reports and opinions that Frist is considered the leading candidate for the Republican nomination in 2008? Stuff like the following?
I’m on your side here and do believe the majority of wingnuts reside on the right, but I can’t believe you have forgotten about James Traficant already. He was the undisputed king of the wingnuts.
Traficant consistently voted with the Republicans, perhaps just to piss off the Dem leadership but there it is.
Don’t forget Duke Cunningham, now in his last term having been caught with his snout in the feed trough, and his screaming denunciation of President Clinton as a “traitor”, right there on the House floor.
ITR champion didn’t claim that Frist was doing well with fundraising, or that Larry Sabato thinks he’s a top candidate. He claimed that "All evidence at this point is that the Republican leadership wants Frist as their candidate. " I simply asked for him to provide some evidence of this assertion, which he has now refused. shrug So much for backing up your claims with fact. It’s OK, though, because he’s making up for his lack of evidence with indirect insults aimed at me. :rolleyes:
Traficant sure was a wingnut, but your post seems to imply that he was politically to the left. Sure, he was a Democrat, but that doesn’t make him a leftist. I grew up in Jim Traficant’s neck of the woods, and I can tell you that the eastern Ohio/western Pennsylvania/northern West Virginia area isn’t exactly too warm to leftists. Fiscal populists and social conservatives is what they are, and that’s what Traficant was.
He was also a trip. If they ever release episodes of his half-hour Sunday morning TV rantarama in DVD format, I’d buy it.
Tancredo actually makes some valuable points about immigration and its net effects (wage delation, additional costs, social concerns). Not sure about his other positions though. If he were at least to bring the immigration issue to the forefront then his candidacy would be a good thing.
