July 20, 2005 08:00 AM UTC

Fallout from Mecca

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• by: Colorado Pols

We speculated the day before yesterday that if Tom Tancredo’s recent comments on hypothetical responses to a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States gained traction in the national media, the result might be costly for him.

Today, articles featuring angry condemnation of Tancredo from the State Department as well as Muslim nations around the world were printed in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and numerous other dailies via AP, in addition to prominent coverage in the News and Post.

It’s safe to say that what he said got noticed. The only question that remains is what damage this will do to Tancredo’s future electability. We have heard the word ‘censure’ used more than once in the last 24 hours.

Whatever might come of that, and despite the blood that “Tancredo haters” can plainly smell in the water now, we feel obligated to point out again the ardent, likely unflappable support of Tancredo’s core constituency. This “nuke ’em ’till they glow” rhetoric might actually play well with them. The voters of CD-6 have endured scorn over Tancredo’s vitriol many times before, and then happily re-elected him.