America's Voice Blog

Posted 05/29/09 at 06:40pm

NCLR Fights KKK Tancredo Attack, Tancredo “Not Sorry,” GOP Hispanic Outreach Team Convulses

Earlier today we asked, "Will Washington Republicans Repudiate Race-based Attacks on Sotomayor?"

Extremists in the anti-immigrant movement have become key mouthpieces in the race-based campaign against President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. They have dropped the pretense that their opposition to immigration is grounded in high-minded principles. Instead, they are revealing an ugliness that is as blatant as it is offensive. Just yesterday, former Rep. Tom Tancredo attacked Judge Sotomayor for being a member of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a mainstream civil rights organization with a 40 year old history, by saying it's like a "Latino KKK."

While Tancredo has come out swinging again, even refusing to apologize on CNN, NCLR is going on the offense. They are demanding that Republican Party leadership say "enough is enough." Below is the petition, but the ask is simple: apologize, now - stand against the politics of division and fear.

Sign it here - demand better.

Here's what the petition says:

Condemn the Attacks on Latinos and Sotomayor, Now!

Required text:
(This text will be included in your message)
Chairman Michael Steele of the RNC
CC: Senator Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader
CC: Representative John Boehner, Minority Leader

Dear Leaders of the Republican Party:

We all know that Supreme Court nominations get political, even with nominees as qualified as Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Still, that does not mean politicians get a free pass to attack nominees solely on the basis of race or ethnicity.

Neither does it mean that politicians get a free pass to slander organizations that work to promote civil rights and justice for Hispanic Americans, thereby making America stronger.

During an interview about Judge Sotomayor yesterday, former Congressman and current anti-immigrant extremist Tom Tancredo, called NCLR 'a Latino KKK without the hoods and the nooses.' Describing how profoundly offensive this kind of smear campaign against Sotomayor and the nation's largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization would be impossible. This outburst was reprehensible not only to Hispanics and communities of color, but to all Americans who want to put this ugly chapter of our history behind us.

Unfortunately, sadder still is that Republican leadership has failed to condemn these extreme statements; not one leader has repudiated the outrageous claims.

We, the undersigned ask you, Chairman Steele, to gather your fellow leaders of the RNC, and firmly condemn these statements as soon as possible. It is time to stand against the politics of division and fear and work together for a stronger America.

Thank you.

Tom Tancredo responds unsurprisingly:

And in case there was any doubt about how this relates to the revolting immigration debate of years past and (likely) months to come, this, from Ali Frick of Think Progress. Frick argues in "G. Gordon Liddy On Sotomayor: ‘Let’s Hope That The Key Conferences Aren’t When She’s Menstruating’":

Yesterday on his radio show, conservative host G. Gordon Liddy continued the right wing’s all-out assault on Judge Sonia Sotomayor. First, just like Tom Tancredo, Liddy slammed Sotomayor’s affiliation with the civil rights group La Raza — and referred to the Spanish language as “illegal alien“:

LIDDY: I understand that they found out today that Miss Sotomayor is a member of La Raza, which means in illegal alien, “the race.” And that should not surprise anyone because she’s already on record with a number of racist comments.

Here's the thing. According to political commentator Mario Solis-Marich, this outspoken rhetoric is no accident, but rather part of a three step strategy to win over "angry" voters. Only one problem, he argues:

Phase 3 is the where the real goal emerges: the 2010 reelection campaigns. Having framed the Obama Administration and the Democratic Senate as an Anglo-male hating institution Newt's old GOP playbook is ready for a return to prime time. The problem is that it is ready for primetime 1994. The 2009-10 audience demo has changed which leads us to:

The predictable outcome: GOP losses in any states that have a marginally significant Latino voting populations at all levels of government.

I can only image the GOP Hispanic Outreach Team convulsing somewhere, trying to figure out how to contain the backdraft of a nasty wedge politics gone very, very wrong.

Let's hope they stop convulsing and get to work soon. 

It is indeed "time to stand against the politics of division and fear and work together for a stronger America.

-

UPDATE: Apparently Senator Jeff Sessions in now ‘uneasy’ with Gingrich’s ‘rhetoric’ against Sotomayor. Earlier this month we reported on his extreme stance on immigration and links to white nationalism. An interesting spokesperson for toning down the racial rhetoric, indeed.

Comments

Thanks for the opportunity to condemn the attacks on Sotomayor and Latinos.  I seem to take forever to compose letters, so it’s very helpful to have one “ready made” to use and the appropriate people and addresses to send it to.

I am appalled at Tom Tancredo.  When will the defeated Republican politicians start to understand why they were defeated?  The citizens of the U.S. are disgusted with their rhetoric.  They need to be quiet.  First we got Dick Cheney justifying torture and now we get Tancredo and even Liddy with their bigoted nonsense.  Enough!

Instead of the name-calling, we all need to pitch in together and reform our immigration system.  If Republicans continue to toss out insults and lies, they will quickly find themselves discredited and left out of the discussion.

  • 06-01-09 By Mary-Lee(Delaware)

What is so ironic about the whole antiimmigration movement is that it focuses on a ZERO SUM GAME mentality—ie., for one’s slice of the pie to get larger, someone else has to lose out.  Anyone paying attention to America’s economic history knows that the US managed to GROW the economic pie instead of fighting over crumbs.  However, that’s how the antis act…fighting over their piece of the pie \instead of focusing on a larger pie for everyone.  ALL PEOPLE are needed, immigrants and nonimmigrants, in growing the pie…

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