NEWS
Tancredo camp denies 'hate group' accusation
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer,- Rocky Mountain News
September 13, 2006
Rep. Tom Tancredo gave his standard immigration stump speech in South Carolina on Saturday. There were Confederate flags in the room, and he joined audience members in singing the Southern anthem Dixie.
But Tancredo's office on Tuesday vehemently denied that the gathering was "a hate-group event," as the Southern Poverty Law Center, an anti-racism group, has charged.
In an online article widely circulated on Tuesday (www.sclos.org/news.htm), law center officials cited an online invitation to the event by the South Carolina chapter of the League of the South, which critics describe as a "hate group."
According to Tancredo's office, however, the gathering was organized and sponsored by Americans Have Had Enough Coalition, which backs Tancredo's anti-illegal immigration stand and traditional conservative causes. Tancredo's longtime aide, Jacque Ponder, is on its board.
The League of the South, which adamantly disputes the "hate group" label, promotes Southern heritage and sometimes describes its views on issues such as immigration in racial or "ethnocentric" terms.
Tancredo's trip to South Carolina was part of his flirtation with a presidential run.
Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa said the law center was intentionally distorting the League of the South's connection to the event to discredit Tancredo.
The South Carolina League of the South "is very racist and a horrible group that is desperately trying to seem relevant by attaching themselves to an event they had nothing to do with," Espinosa said.
Garland McCoy, president of Americans Have Had Enough Coalition, said the League of the South had nothing to do with the event.
"They're incorrect," McCoy said of the law center account. "It was not their event. It was our event."
An attorney for the League of the South's national organization said he was unaware of the South Carolina controversy, and state representatives did not return numerous phone messages.
The League of the South has spent several years fighting the Southern Poverty Law Center's racism charges, and members even mounted a protest outside the group's Alabama headquarters.
The law center sent a researcher to the Tancredo event, said Heidi Beirich, deputy director of the group's Intelligence Project.
"We have no indication (Tancredo) knew exactly who he was talking to. . . . (but) I think the Confederate flag should have been a big ol' stopper for him."
Espinosa, however, said Tancredo was aware that the audience included members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Civil War re-enactors in Southern garb. When they began singing Dixie, Tancredo joined in, Espinosa said.
"These aren't racist people who spew out hate. These are just people remembering and cherishing their past," Espinosa said. "Tom thought it would be rude not to take part."
Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
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