Tom Tancredo Calls Sotomayor Racist (VIDEO)

Tom Tancredo, the former Colorado congressman and radical anti-immigration activist, called President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist Tuesday, telling MSNBC's Ed Shultz she has said plenty of "things that are racist."

Tancredo failed to elaborate on his claims, but he suggested Sotomayor's nomination should be blocked on account of her "racism." No one else has called her out for before, he said, because she is Latina.

"Unfortunately for her, and fortunately us, there are plenty of things that we've even talked about here already that you keep ignoring," Tancredo said. "I'm telling you she appears to be a racist. She said things that are racist in any other context, that's exactly how we would portray it, and there's no one that would get on the Supreme Court, saying a thing like that, except for a Hispanic woman and you're going to say it doesn't matter? Well, man, where are you coming from? How can you possibly say that?"

Tancredo, who ran for president in 2008 on an anti-immigration platform, is no stranger to racist comments. One of his campaign ads suggested that illegal immigrants are likely to be terrorists. Among the causes he championed while serving four terms in Congress was an effort to deport all illegal immigrants from the country and outlaw any type of immigration to the U.S. -- legal or illegal. Tancredo once sought to deport the family of a Denver high school student who was profiled in the local paper for his good grades after he learned the student was not a legal citizen.

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Comments

[Dbos]

Took the Repug talking point ran with it and got lost and started rambling .

[flashL1ght]

Tancredo's opinion is worthless. He's part of that group of somewhat recognizable conservatives who gets to chime in when the news networks need their obligatory canned-tal­king-point right wing opinion.

[Drumbeato]

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! There they go again, projecting their own failings on others. It's easy to go on TV and make wild claims about anyone, but it is a different matter to actually back up those statements with EXAMPLES. I see he was unable to come up with even one. That is pretty darn weak if you ask me!

[FairTalk]

Well, if she is racist, she will have plenty of company on the USSC.

[widdles]

In the words (lyrics) of Glenn Frey (from the movie "Beverly Hills Cop"):

The heat is on, on the street
Inside your head, on every beat
And the beat's alive, deep inside
The pressure's high just to stay alive
'Cause the heat is on

The Republicans have nothing - NOTHING!! They have no ideas. They have no sound reasoning. They have no cajones (oh, they THINK they have great big huge ones, LOL - but without their magnifying glass, they aren't so big!!). Their base has dwindled and they are panicking!

So the heat is on the Republicans and they can't spin fast enough! But what they don't realize is that all that spinning is just acting like an auger - it is digging the hole that will bury them!!

[IllinoisTexan43]

I don't think I've ever heard a man sound so shrill....­. wait a minute, Hannity! That's it. The more 'offended' they are, the higher the voice. Kind of made me cringe and cover my ears lest they bleed.

[sepiasiren]

from what I understand, her statement was taken out of context. She was asked a question and basically said she hoped to rules as well as any white judge ( in short)

But GOP think any n minority who is hired is done because they are a minority, not because they are smart, savvy, and qualified.

How is that for unbiased decision making?

[gfs5541]

Tancredo is hardly a role model to calling anyone racist. The man just seems to have a legitimate beef with "brown people" , particularly Hispanic immigrants.

[blairtone]

and you know this because...­...? or are you just another pontificating lefty windbag?

[Diogenis]

Indeed her comment was taken out of context! Now the Repubs will twist it. They will fail in their attempts.

[blairtone]

..context.­.. gimme a break! - you nutbars try to duck out with the context call time after time - it's old, it doesn't work and it's also untrue

[StillIRise]

You're so right.

In fact, the GOP still believes that the ONLY reason President Obama was elected is because he's black. This is one of the reasons they keep tripping over themselves trying to outsmart him. To accept that President Obama is intellectually superior to them, or even that he's their equal, flies in the face of what they believe about minorities and what they believe about themselves. So they attribute President Obama's accomplishments and rise to the presidency to the color of his skin.

In their mind, he would never have been elected except for blacks who voted for him because he's black and whites who voted for him because of white guilt. This is the only way they can justify his success and their defeat.

[sepiasiren]

So true. I don't how many times I was told by conservative types that I was "Smart and/or well spoken for a black girl" one even told me that I couldn't be all black as if black automatically means stupid...

Let them keep underestimating--it works for us.

[NoSillyName]

I'd hoped I'd never hear of Tancredo again after I moved from Colorado. Damn.

[LiberalDemIda]

Hey Tancredo! That glass house of yours need the windows cleaned!

[atila]

Tancredo and the GOP represent the past so who cares...

[Mike169]

I think that was probably said 40 years ago and still there remain Tancredos.

[sepiasiren]

Unfortunately you are right--but I do think their demise will happen in our lifetime if not this decade...

[YouCanKeepYourChange]

Sotomayor does a disservice to minorities -- to women and minorities -- that we are supposed to be empathizing for. Saying that someone would decide a case differentl­y... because she's a Latina, not a white male, that statement by definition is racist.

[JustLeftOfRight]

Statements (and ONE at that) and actions are different, aren't they. Can you site one of her cases where she ruled in a racist fashion? Cite some facts!

She is a corporatist though and THAT is concerning.

[iblog]

There's no more white male club.

Sorry.

[Leota2]

As a minority and a woman I don't think I need anyone telling me who does me a disservice.

[YouCanKeepYourChange]

You really dislike the truth that much

[judiNJ]

Oh, silly person!

[strangelet]

And, maybe, IF she had said that, it might be a racist statement.

BTW, you evidently misunderstand the word "empathy". One does not "empathize for" somebody -- that would be "sympathy". Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes to better understand their viewpoint, not necessarily to agree with them. If one has empathy, it pretty much needs for EVERYBODY -- otherwise, it would be more like sympathy or favoritism.

For example, I can attempt to empathize with you, although it's difficult with only this and some of your other comments to work with. I can try to consider that your insta-negative reactions to any action by the Obama administration may stem from deep-seated insecurities about the trustworthiness of minorities in positions of power over you. I can, perhaps, see how your compulsion to object to everything Obama might lead you to jump to conclusions -- like calling Sotomayor a "racist" based on one out-of-context sentence.

The above is obviously a toy argument -- I do not know enough about you to really empathize. The point I'm trying to make, however, is still valid: Empathy might allow me to view you as nervous and threatened, rather than as a simple-minded jerk. That might alter my approach to you -- as in a long and generally polite comment -- but it wouldn't change my opinion that your use of the term "racist" in this context is both factually incorrect and intentionally provocative.

[brt929]

So is Tancredo planning another run for President?

[Mike169]

Nothing more bitter than a priviledged white man scorned.

[Diogenis]

Bitterness does not have a color or race.

[JoeBlough]

Just a greater preponderance of old white men.

[sepiasiren]

No, but the white males who hold the reigns of the country, are angry about losing power and will do more to harm others based on their bitterness

[jpose]

I have a problem with the books at cable stations putting lunatics like Tancredo. He is a racist who rants and raves and makes no sense. He is not part of a thoughtful debate on Sotomayor. He is spewing hate randomly to get himself TV coverage. TV stations need to boycott him.

[fredisfred]

This from someone who wants to outlaw any type of immigration to the U.S.

Pot, meet kettle...

[sasidechick]

I did not know that Tancredo was a Native American. How else did his family get here??