What the????
Emily Geiger
in Romney, Tancredo
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So, I really can’t explain what happened with the Tancredo endorsement of Romney today. Obviously, as you can see from my earlier post, this one took me by surprise for many reasons.
1. We have multiple sanctuary cities in Massachusetts during his governorship.
2. We have him not instructing state law enforcement to enforce the immigration laws until a few weeks before he left office (when we all knew he was running for president).
3. We have illegal immigrants working (literally) right under his nose at his own home.
4. We have quotes in which Romney indicates he liked McCain’s amnesty plan. Here’s how the Globe put it:
In a November 2005 interview with the Globe, Romney described immigration proposals by McCain and others as "quite different" from amnesty, because they required illegal immigrants to register with the government, work for years, pay taxes, not take public benefits, and pay a fine before applying for citizenship.
"That's very different than amnesty, where you literally say, 'OK, everybody here gets to stay,' " Romney said in the interview. "It's saying you could work your way into becoming a legal resident of the country by working here without taking benefits and then applying and then paying a fine."
Romney did not specifically endorse McCain's bill, saying he had not yet formulated a full position on immigration. But he did speak approvingly of efforts by McCain and Bush to solve the nation's immigration crisis, calling them "reasonable proposals."
Romney also said in the interview that it was not "practical or economic for the country" to deport the estimated 12 million immigrants living in the US illegally. "These people contribute in many cases to our economy and to our society," he said. "In some cases, they do not. But that's a whole group we're going to have to determine how to deal with."
By the way, if you think the Globe has too much of an anti-Romney bias, you can hear his quotes in his own words at the Globe link above. They were also replayed for all the political world to see last week on Meet the Press.
So, the question remains: Why this strange endorsement?
There are two things I can think of that likely played a factor.
1. Think back to high school. Did you ever know a family that had two brothers, one sociable and well-liked, and the other kind of resentful, mean, and always eager to get a jab in against his brother whenever possible? That’s the vibe I get when thinking about Huckabee and Tancredo. That was reinforced when I read Kay Henderson’s account of what happened today. According to O.K., Tancredo made an interesting comment:
In answer to another question -- about whether the rise of Huckabee had something to do with his decision, Tancredo said: "You bet your life it was."
2. I think there will likely be speculation that perhaps Tancredo’s national campaign director, Bay Buchanan played a significant role in bringing about the endorsement today. There will also be speculation that, as a fellow Mormon, Bay was predisposed to like Romney as a back-up to her first-choice candidate. Whether this actually had anything to do with it, we’ll likely never know, but it’s sure to be brought up.
It will be interesting to see if Tancredo’s Iowa staffers take up the Romney cause, or whether they forge their own path to another candidate’s door. Of the ones I know (including some big names in Iowa GOP politics), I don’t see them getting behind Romney.
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