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Tom Tancredo

Thomas Gerard ("Tom") Tancredo (born December 20, 1945) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party. Tancredo has been a member of the United States House of Representatives since 1999, representing the 6th Congressional District of Colorado. Tancredo has gained national attention for his strong stance against illegal immigration. He is a declared candidate for the 2008 Presidential Race.

Tancredo won re-election in 2006 against Democratic challenger Bill Winter by a 59%-40% margin. The district includes most of Denver's southern suburbs.

Tancredo was born in Denver, Colorado to Adeline Lombardi and Gerald Tancredo. Both sets of grandparents immigrated from Italy. He graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in political science. While in college, Tancredo was active with the College Republicans and a conservative, non-partisan organization, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). In 1976, while teaching history at Drake Junior High School in Denver, he ran for and won a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives. He served two terms (1977-1981) and was one of the leaders of a vocal group of conservative legislators opposing the policies of Colorado Governor Dick Lamm. During the 1970s, Tancredo pioneered opposition to bilingual education, an issue that would remain a feature of his political orientation.

After Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1981, Tancredo was appointed by the President to be the regional representative in Denver for the Department of Education. He stayed on from 1981 until 1992, through the first Bush administration, and pared the office's staff from 225 to only 60 employees. In 1993, he became president of the Independence Institute, a conservative think tank based in Golden, Colorado, serving there until his election to Congress. He was also a leader in the Colorado term limits movement.

After Dan Schaefer decided not to run for a seventh full term in the 6th Congressional District in 1998, Tancredo narrowly won the five-way Republican primary and went on to victory in November. He is only the second person to represent the 6th District since its creation in 1983 (former astronaut Jack Swigert was elected as the district's first congressman in 1982, but died before taking office). Despite his promise to serve only three terms in Congress, he later decided to run for a fourth term and won re-election. Tancredo cited as his reason for seeking re-election, the report of the 9/11 Commission which noted that experience and continuity of service in Congress should be considered more important than term limits.[citation needed]

A former Roman Catholic, Tancredo is now a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Tancredo is married to Jackie Tancredo. They met at Drake Junior High School as teachers, and married in 1977. They have two children and five grandchildren.

Tancredo's position on illegal immigration (and on other issues) has brought him some criticism. On September 11, 2006, in Columbia, South Carolina, Tancredo spoke to a gathering of the "Americans Have Had Enough Coalition", which he had helped found. The League of the South also invited its own members to attend the event, describing Tancredo as their "guest".

According to reports, the room in which Tancredo spoke had a prominent picture of Robert E. Lee and was draped with Confederate battle flags. At the closing of the event, men dressed in Confederate military uniforms reportedly began to sing "Dixie". Several days later, Tancredo came under heavy criticism from a group of Denver ministers for attending the function, which followers of the League of the South also attended.

On November 28, 2006, Tancredo was quoted in several news sources as referring to the city of Miami, Florida as a "Third World country." His comments drew strong criticism from numerous political leaders and organizations, including Florida Governor Jeb Bush who, in a letter to the congressman, called Tancredo's remarks "naive." Bush told reporters, "What a nut. I'm just disappointed. He's from my own my party. He's a Republican. He doesn't represent my views." Bush said he moved to Miami with his Mexican-born wife in 1980 because of its diverse cultures, and adds "it's just as American as suburban Denver."  Tancredo replied in a letter, "I certainly understand and appreciate your need and desire to try and create the illusion of Miami as a multiethnic 'All American' city," he said. "I can also appreciate ... that the cultural and ethnic diversity of the city offers many advantages to its residents. However, it is neither naïve nor insulting to call attention to a real problem that cannot be easily dismissed through politically correct happy talk."

In another incident, student protests against a Tancredo speech scheduled to be given at the Michigan State University College of Law on November 30, 2006 turned violent.

Two days later, on December 12, 2006, Tancredo was publicly announced by the Rotary Club of Miami as its guest speaker. The next day, the event was canceled by the restaurant, The Rusty Pelican, citing expectations of a media circus that Tancredo's appearance would create, that employees would not show up for work, and that Hispanic patrons — allegedly 80% of the restaurant's trade--would be offended by the speech..

Tancredo referred to Miami as having been taken over by "thugs" and "separatists" and declared that "I knew speaking your mind could be dangerous in Havana - I guess it's equally dangerous to do so in Miami. Apparently, there isn't much of a difference between the two anymore."

During a radio interview on Orlando talk-radio station WFLA AM 540, Tancredo responded to a questioner asking about the hypothetical U.S. response to a nuclear attack on U.S. cities by al-Qaeda, by saying that one possible response would be to retaliate by "taking out" Muslim holy sites (specifically, Mecca) if it were clearly proven that Islamic terrorists were behind such an attack. Several days later, in an interview on CNN together with James Zogby, Tancredo said that the attack was mentioned merely as a hypothetical response and insisted that there was nothing for which he should apologize. Later, during the Fox broadcast Republican Presidential Debate on May 15, 2007, he made a statement in passing that the root cause of Islamic terrorism is "a dictate of their religion."  This is contrary to the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report, which offered a mix of testimony outlining the reasons for Islamic terrorist attacks, including unfavorable US policies in the Middle East.

Tancredo spoke out on January 25, 2007, against the continued existence of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Republican Congressional Hispanic Conference. "It is utterly hypocritical for Congress to extol the virtues of a color-blind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based solely on race. If we are serious about achieving the goal of a colorblind society, Congress should lead by example and end these divisive, race-based caucuses

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