August 12, 2011 12:23 AM UTC

Tancredo Disses Rick Perry. Hard.

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• by: Colorado Pols

Texas Gov. Rick Perry moved closer to his expected presidential run today, and 2010 Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo wants you to know that Perry is not, and be assured that Tancredo of all people knows how to pick ’em, a “true conservative.” Writing at Politico today:

Perry is eager to separate himself from his predecessor in the Texas governor’s mansion, George W. Bush – who is unpopular with both tea party Republicans and the American electorate as a whole. But one area where Perry’s positions are virtually identical to Bush is immigration.

When I ran for president in 2008, I tried to pressure the Republican candidates to take a hard line against illegal immigration. For this, Perry called me a racist…

Just a few weeks ago, Perry defended his decision to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. He said “to punish these young Texans for their parents’ actions is not what America has always been about.”

Perry opposed Arizona’s tough anti-illegal immigration law SB 1070. “I have concerns,” he explained, “with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas.”

…Perry, in a speech in Mexico in 2007, said he supports completely open borders, calling for the “free flow of individuals between these two countries who want to work and want to be an asset to our country and to Mexico.”

Now, Gov. Perry’s views on immigration might come as a surprise, and even come across a little to the left of most voters’ opinions on the issue–we’d submit that a totally open border with Mexico would have trouble even finding a majority of Democrats to support it. But there’s no question Perry is substantially more reasonable on the issue of immigration than just about any other Republican contender (or speculative contender) for the presidency.

The only problem is that Perry has to win a Republican primary first, where these kinds of statements about immigration could well amount to the kiss of death. Certainly if Tom Tancredo and his not-insubstantial following has anything to say about it.