Legal Commentary

Tancredo Implodes, Equates La Raza With KKK

By Jeralyn

Tom Tancredo has officially lost his marbles. (Video here.)Today, in discussing the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, he said:

TANCREDO: If you belong to an organization called La Raza, in this case, which is, from my point of view anyway, nothing more than a Latino — it’s a counterpart — a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses. If you belong to something like that in a way that’s going to convince me and a lot of other people that it’s got nothing to do with race. Even though the logo of La Raza is “All for the race. Nothing for the rest.” What does that tell you?

SANCHEZ: Alright. We’re not talking about — we’re not talking about La Raza –

TANCREDO: She’s a member! She’s a member of La Raza!

[More...]

La Raza is a civil rights organization. As TPM says:

For those who aren’t familiar with it, La Raza is basically a Latino equivalent of B’nai Brith or the NAACP. Garden variety and uncontroversial unless you thinks it’s a public safety issue if more than a handful of Mexicans or Puerto Ricans get together in one place at the same time.

La Raza responds to Tancredo's remarks. Among its comments:

“If you look at Mr. Tancredos’ record, he’s often spoken about things he doesn’t know anything about.”

Last week, Tancredo called President Obama "a cult leader."

He is — you have to admit — he is a cult leader. And the cult will go with him wherever he wants to go. You just don't know about the size of the cult; how big it is — if it's shrinking or growing.

And if you think Republicans will embrace him, think again. He also called for the legalization of drugs last week.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).