May 27, 2009 04:00 PM UTC

Stay Classy, Tom Tancredo (I Know You Are But What Am I Edition)

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• by: Colorado Pols

On MSNBC yesterday, where a regrettably large number of people witnessed former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo’s typically bizarre histrionics over the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Partial transcript:

Tancredo: Unfortunately for her and fortunately for us there are plenty of things that we’ve even talked about her already. I’m telling you, she appears to be a racist. [Pols emphasis] She said things that are racist in any other context…

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Tancredo: You can still be a racist and have all those things in your background. You can be a racist and have all that stuff in your background.

Ed: How aggressive do you want the Republicans to be on the judiciary committee?

Tancredo: I think there’s plenty of stuff that they can use and should. They should do to her what the Democrats did to Bork.

Ed: Like what?

Tancredo: I would continually bring up this quote of hers, I’d like her to explain that. It is incredible to me. There is no one else I can think of who could possibly have said the kind of things she said, If they are reported accurately about the benefits of being a brown women [Pols emphasis] as opposed to a white man and interpreting the law and nobody can look at that and say that was not a racist, sexist statement that would disqualify anybody else…She is a Hispanic woman and we can’t say anything like this…

If you have a strong stomach, you can watch video of Tancredo’s rantings at Crooks and Liars. Another off-reservation disaster for Tancredo and the GOP, especially since the level of opposition to Sotomayor’s nomination has in no way been agreed upon–a lot of smart conservatives realize they have much more to lose by shrilly attacking the first Hispanic woman nominated to the Court, by most accounts a moderate choice. These are the Republicans who understand they cannot continue to alienate the fastest growing bloc of voters in the United States to appease a small extremist wing of their party and remain viable.

Unfortunately, Tancredo is much more interesting on camera than they are.