We're all very much excited about America's favorite xenophobic brown-people hater Tom Tancredo's entry into the Colorado governor's race as a third party candidate, simply because of the potential damage it may cause to GOP chances in the state. Me, I just love the war of words between him and betrayed Tea Party folks, not to mention GOP state leaders like the hapless Dick Wadhams. (I'm picturing Wadhams sitting at home, utterly despondent, sucking on a bottle of whisky and thinking, "I took down Tom Daschle and was going to get George Allen the White House. Now I'm spending my days dealing with a shrieking lunatic who's going to cost me another election. What the hell happened to me?!")
But let's not forget that, for all the electoral benefits Tancredo may end up granting John Hickenlooper and other Dem candidates, the American political scene is only dirtied by having this guy around. And running under the banner of the seriously deranged (and thankfully very unsuccessfull) Constitution Party cannot bode well for any chance at moderation from him.
Yet sometimes people really forget how truly extremist and crazy Tancredo is on his favorite obsession of immigration, border issues and all the ways the scary brown people are coming to get us. Well, thankfully, Eric Lach at TPM has been kind enough to give us a list of Tancredo's greatest hits and it is a doozy. Here's a few examples (click on the link above for the full list):
Impeach Obama because he's a greater threat than Al Qaeda, which was too much even for Faux News' ridiculous Megyn Kelly to take seriously.
Calling Sonia Sotomayor a member of the "Hispanic KKK," insulting both the soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice and the National Council of La Raza (the Hispanic equal to the NAACP).
Calling Miami a Third World country. Dude, come on, the Miami aiport isn't that bad.
Claiming Obama was elected because we didn't have "civics, literary tests." Geting nostalgic for the days of Jim Crow, Tommy? (Of course, he fails to realize that if such tests were instituted again, most of his voting base would fail them soundly.)
And my personal old favorite, the time he suggested bombing Mecca in case of a terrorist nuclear attack, which he later said was just "throwing out some ideas." (Yeah, really bad ones.)
David Kurtz puts it best:
(ed. note: Holy cow, I'd forgotten how batshit crazy Tancredo has been until I read this list.)
No kidding. And that's my point. Is the electoral opportunities Tancredo opens up in Colorado with his third party run really worth him having a public platform for which to spew his hate, bigotry and all around sewage? Just something to ponder.