Tancredo, Bush Foe on Immigration, Poised as Republican Spoiler By Nicholas Johnston and Catherine Dodge
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Right-wing populists have bedeviled American political parties in presidential elections for more than 30 years. These include George Wallace in the 1960s and 70s, Patrick Buchanan in the 90s, and may include another such spoiler in 2008: Republican Tom Tancredo.
A U.S. representative from Colorado, Tancredo is the most vocal opponent in Congress of President George W. Bush's proposal to overhaul immigration policy with a guest worker program and has earned the enmity of Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove. Tancredo also has criticized the growth of federal spending under Bush and the lack of spending controls on the more than $62 billion appropriated to the Hurricane Katrina recovery.
Tancredo said he hopes one of the more establishment candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 will adopt his anti-immigration stance. He recently met with Republican Virginia Senator George Allen, a possible presidential aspirant, to discuss immigration and said he came away mildly encouraged.
If none of the candidates make immigration a prominent part of the presidential debate in 2008, Tancredo said he would enter the race to draw attention to the issue.
``I will enter primaries, and I will try my best to make all the folks out there have to deal with it,'' he said.
Since May, Tancredo traveled to the presidential primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire four times to talk about immigration issues.
Tancredo's candidacy could become an unpredictable force in the 2008 campaign and divide the Republican Party as it seeks to retain control of the White House, political analysts and consultants said.
`Thrilled to Death'
``He will give a voice to the immigration reform movement, and millions and millions of Americans on both sides of the party will be thrilled to death to find someone speaking out,'' said Angela ``Bay'' Buchanan, who managed all three of her brother Pat's presidential campaigns.
Bush has put immigration at the center of his second-term agenda, calling on Congress to create a new visa program that lets immigrants work in the U.S. The administration is encouraging House and Senate leaders to act on the legislation this year.
Tancredo, who heads the 90-member House Immigration Reform Caucus, demands a halt to any guest worker program until the borders are secure and opposes any such program that wouldn't require undocumented immigrants to return to their own country before applying to work in the U.S.
Referendums
Voters in two states have taken steps against illegal immigration by passing referendums. California in 1994 adopted a ballot initiative that barred undocumented immigrants from receiving social services, though it was later thrown out in court. Last year 56 percent of Arizona voters backed a proposition to prohibit undocumented immigrants from registering to vote and receiving taxpayer-paid services.
Legislation introduced in the Senate by Arizona Republican John McCain and Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy would let undocumented immigrants stay in the country and apply for a worker program, after paying a fine. That proposal is closest to what the White House is seeking, said Arizona Republican Jeff Flake, a sponsor of the bill in the House who met with Rove last week.
Tancredo hasn't been invited to meetings at the White House with Rove, with whom he said he has a ``horrible'' relationship. They haven't spoken since a 2002 argument that was triggered when Tancredo told the Washington Times that Congress and Bush would be responsible for a new terrorist attack because of insufficient border security.
A Call From Rove
Tancredo said he got a call from Rove on his cell phone the next morning, and during the 30-minute drive from Tancredo's home in Alexandria, Virginia, to his Capitol Hill office Rove called him a ``traitor'' and told him never again to ``darken the doorstep of the White House.''
``I said `I don't remember the welcome mat ever being out for me,''' Tancredo recalled. ``Karl is not a pleasant person to deal with.''
Tancredo said that while he has attended White House Christmas parties -- because his wife ``loves to do that'' -- he has otherwise been all but cut off from the White House since the argument with Rove.
A presidential campaign by Tancredo would be a populist challenge to his party's dominant candidates in the mold of Wallace and Buchanan, who pushed their parties to address states rights and trade issues, respectively.
Nixon, Bush
Wallace, after first competing as a Democrat, ran as an independent in 1968 and won five southern states when Richard M. Nixon captured the White House. Wallace was also a thorn in the Democrats' side in 1972, when he won several primaries before being shot. Buchanan, running in 1992, embarrassed then- President George H. W. Bush with a strong showing in the initial primary. Bush lost in the general election to Democrat Bill Clinton.
If Tancredo were to run for president, ``it would make a lot of Republicans uncomfortable,'' said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report a nonpartisan newsletter in Washington. ``His presence in a campaign might elevate an issue that would otherwise get less attention.''
Tancredo would also push an agenda of tax cuts and limited government spending. He has criticized the growth of the federal budget deficit and was one of only 11 Republicans to vote against a $52 billion spending package for Hurricane Katrina.
Farm Subsidies
He has proposed eliminating corporate farm subsidies and selling 10 percent of federal land to pay for Katrina recovery costs.
A spokesman for Allen's office had no comment on the meeting between Tancredo and the senator.
Bay Buchanan, who is now president of the American Cause, an educational foundation in Washington, said that Tancredo's candidacy would ``energize'' the Republican Party.
Pollster John Zogby, president of Zogby International in Utica, New York, said the impact would be limited.
``It's hard to believe there would be a substantial enough base of support for him,'' Zogby said. ``Couple that with his persona and really some of the outrageous things that he has said, you're looking at a 1-percenter.''
Tancredo said he doesn't expect to win -- his goal would be to make sure whoever does succeed is forced to take a stand to improve border security.
``I'm not delusional. I'm not telling you I see this pathway to the presidency for me,'' he said. ``I just don't know how else to force it into that debate.''