« Bay Buchanan
July 31, 2007
Right-Wing Children Are The Future
Bay Buchanan urges participants at the Conservative Student Conference to become "true leaders" and replace the current elite: "You all are our hope -- I mean that ... we need to clean out Washington. Move them aside and bring in some new fresh faces."
Posted by Kyle at 3:58 PM | Permalink
July 30, 2007
The GOP’s Circular Firing Squad
Sen. Sam Brownback got the ball rolling last week when he started running “robocalls” in Iowa questioning the pro-life credentials of Rep. Tom Tancredo and Gov. Mitt Romney. Tancredo was especially outraged that Brownback was targeting his campaign for accepting money from population-control zealot John Tanton, whose views the Brownback campaign characterized as “racist:”
"Conservatives and liberals alike have abandoned Tanton once they learn about his bizarre obsession with population control.”
The Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schlafly has now come to Tancredo’s defense and has recorded her own calls targeting Iowa voters:
"I want to go on record as saying I've known Tom Tancredo for 30 years and I know for sure he has always been a champion of the right to life of the unborn.”
Both Tancredo and Romney have called on Brownback to apologize and pull the calls, which he refuses to do.
For his part, Tancredo has not been content merely to defend himself and his own record. He had unleashed his own ads attacking most of his opponents – ads which are themselves drawing complaints from other candidates:
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Thursday called on rival Tom Tancredo to stop airing a "blatantly dishonest" campaign ad in Iowa that accuses Huckabee of favoring amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Huckabee said Tancredo either did sloppy research or deliberately mischaracterized Huckabee's position.
"When people engage in a completely false attack, it's usually an act of desperation. To me, it's a badge of honor because he sees that we are reaching the people we are trying to reach," Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, told The Associated Press.
Tancredo campaign spokeswoman Bay Buchanan said the ad would not be pulled and insisted it was accurate. She said Huckabee supported a plan by Bush that would have allowed illegal immigrants to earn the right to stay in the United States, and that Huckabee refused to sign a pledge opposing amnesty.
"All indications are that Huckabee supports amnesty. He's a pro-amnesty politician who is in denial. There are a lot of pro-amnesty politicians in denial," she said.
The radio ad calls Mitt Romney a flip-flopper on abortion, amnesty and gun control, then attacks Sam Brownback, Fred Thompson and Huckabee, claiming "they're all for amnesty."
Posted by Kyle at 8:59 AM | Permalink
June 4, 2007
Romney Taking Immigration Pointers from Pat Buchanan
Immigration reform is sharply dividing the Republican electorate, as right-wing activists and commentators take increasingly harsh pot-shots at President Bush and other Republican supporters of a comprehensive reform bill being considered in the Senate. Dissent in the ranks over the issue was blamed when the Republican National Committee laid off its entire telemarketing staff last week. And pressure is high among presidential candidates who otherwise agree on most issues: In particular, John McCain, a sponsor of the Senate bill, has been duking it out with Mitt Romney, whom McCain accuses of being newly hardline in his stance on immigration.
According to the American Spectator, Romney has been taking tips from staunchly anti-immigration commentator Pat Buchanan:
If former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suddenly sounds tougher and pithier on immigration issues, thank pundit and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan for it. According to Romney insiders, the man who has flip-flopped on immigration sat down privately with Buchanan late last week to discuss the issue.
Buchanan, of course, is a long-time proponent of the view that Mexican immigrants are causing the “death of the West.” What kind of political advice is Romney taking from Buchanan? The former insurgent presidential candidate has recently warned Republicans that “pandering” to Hispanics has cost them white votes, and just two weeks ago he wrote of the current immigration bill,
What is happening to us? An immigrant invasion of the United States from the Third World, as America's white majority is no longer even reproducing itself. Since Roe v. Wade, America has aborted 45 million of her children. And Asia, Africa and Latin America have sent 45 million of their children to inherit the estate the aborted American children never saw. God is not mocked.
And white America is in flight.
Perhaps Romney feels that by embracing Pat Buchanan-style nativist sentiment, he can occupy the narrow political space currently owned by Rep. Tom Tancredo – the GOP’s one-issue anti-immigrant candidate whose campaign is run by Buchanan’s sister Bay. While Tancredo is picking up a small number of fervent supporters, polls show him mired at one percent.
Posted by Ezra at 5:10 PM | Permalink
January 17, 2007
Tancredo Runs for President
PAC chair Bay Buchanan: “Christian right can feel completely comfortable with” him. But some on the Right link him to extremist, “pro-eugenics” groups like FAIR. Also mentioned for possible Senate run.
Posted by Ezra at 5:58 PM | Permalink
Praise From An Expert on Lost Causes
It looks as if Rep. Tom Tancredo is hoping to capitalize on his anti-immigrant credentials in an effort to make a run for the White House:
Rep. Tom Tancredo yesterday formed a committee to explore a run for the Republican nomination for president, hoping to force the issue of immigration into the primary debates and push the candidates to embrace stricter enforcement.
"As I look at the current presidential candidates -- Republican and Democratic -- I simply do not see one who reflects the grass-roots, majority belief of Americans that our borders must be secured, that employers who hire illegals must be prosecuted, and that no one who has broken our immigration laws should ever be put on a 'pathway to citizenship,' " Mr. Tancredo wrote in his first fundraising letter.
It is hard to believe that Tancredo has much of a chance of winning the GOP nomination – and the fact that his campaign is winning accolades from Bay Buchanan does not bode well:
Bay Buchanan, a friend and confidante of Mr. Tancredo's who runs his political action committee, Team America, said that immigration is the issue that will help Mr. Tancredo stand out from the pack of candidates. She also said his record, consistently conservative up and down the line, will go over well with Iowa's pro-life, conservative caucusgoers.
"He is an across-the-board social conservative -- one that the Christian right can feel completely comfortable with, that he has been with them on those issues for his whole life," she said.
…
But Mr. Tancredo stands out from that pack because he brings to the race a dedicated army of talk-radio show hosts and activists who oppose illegal immigration.
"His strength is that he already has a national following. He has enormous grass-roots support. He is well-known across this country by the Republican base," said Mrs. Buchanan, who was chairman in all three of her brother Pat Buchanan's presidential campaigns.
Having thrice chaired her brother’s various losing efforts, Buchanan clearly has an affinity backing futile vanity campaigns, so it comes as no surprise that she’s supporting Tancredo.
Posted by Kyle at 5:02 PM | Permalink
August 10, 2006
Freelance Anti-Immigrant Sheriff in Ohio Creates Fear, Undermines Police Work
Butler County, Ohio Sheriff Richard K. Jones has been running his own personal campaign against undocumented immigrants. He’s taken out newspaper ads, he put up six billboards in the area with his personage warning “Hire an Illegal—Break the Law!” and he even started his own blog on the web site of the sheriff’s office to organize a boycott of businesses that hire undocumented immigrants.
And a few weeks ago, his office arrested 18 Hispanic construction workers without charge, only to release them when federal immigration officials declined to investigate.
While Jones does not have the authority to enforce federal immigration violations – he would prefer that they be felonies – he has created a sense of fear in the Hispanic community of Butler County, which is part of House Majority Leader John Boehner (R)’s congressional district. As NPR reports:
The police cars that cruise by Little Mexico aren't from Sheriff Jones' office but from the city of Hamilton, whose police force is trying to improve relations with the Hispanic community. But that effort seems undermined by Jones' campaign against illegal immigrants.
Lourdes de Leon, co-owner of Taqueria Mercado, says friendly police officers used to be regulars at her Mexican restaurant, in part to make the community more comfortable with them. But she recently asked them to stop coming. Their presence was scaring customers away.
Today, if a crime happened, de Leon is sure most Hispanics would be too scared to call the police. Even without officers around, she points to plenty of empty tables. Over the past month or so, business is down by more than one-third, she says.
De Leon is a U.S. citizen, but she understands her customers' fears.
"Me myself, you know, I'm afraid," de Leon says. She worries the sheriff might target her business "even if I'm doing nothing wrong."
Sheriff Jones receiving an “American Patriot” award from Bay Buchanan, chair of Rep. Tom Tancredo’s anti-immigrant Team America PAC.
Posted by Ezra at 3:17 PM | Permalink