Denver Post - Diane Carman
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo was behind the mike Monday, headphones teetering on his head, jaws flapping, one with the radio faithful once more.
There was no stirring speech about his qualifications, how he would win the war in Iraq or unite a divided America. His message was that the "field of presidential contenders" is ignoring immigration.
"Therefore, because this field does not offer me that kind of opportunity, I mean that kind of, of, uh, uh, particular characteristic, there's no one there with that characteristic, ... I'm going to run for president of the United States."
OK, so he's no Jack Kennedy.
He's the Colorado Republican and former junior high school teacher with the radio face, the single-issue audience and not a prayer of winning.
TT is the guy who quit giving interviews to newspaper reporters in 2002 after The Denver Post's Michael Riley revealed that a crew of undocumented workers had remodeled the basement in the congressman's Littleton home.
While he shunned newspapers, he embraced cable TV, especially Fox.
Still, it was nothing like his love affair with talk radio, and until there's another JonBenét case, a Bigfoot rumor or a UFO sighting, Tom Tancredo will remain talk radio's dreamboy.
On Monday, the congressman stuck with the material that has served him well, yukking it up with an obsequious host and delivering his familiar shtick on immigration. Yeah, he's running for president, he said. Then it was all about those people who "don't want to assimilate" swarming across our borders.
My interest started to wane. The TT hit parade features some doozies, and despite the hype, this appearance in Des Moines, Iowa, wouldn't even break the top 20 of his 1,800-some radio gigs.
Calling Miami a "third-world country," now there's a talk-radio hit.
Tancredo actually made the remark in person at a conference in Palm Beach, Fla. Rush Limbaugh was in attendance, though, so it was only a news cycle away from a talk-radio feeding frenzy.
TT was so provocative, he inspired former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to write a passionate defense of Miami, calling it a wonderful place "filled with diversity and heritage."
TT recalled that episode fondly Monday, calling it "a little dust-up, heh, heh, heh."
A close second on the TT playlist is his suggestion in 2005 that if terrorists attacked the U.S., "you could take out their holy sites." "You're talking about bombing Mecca," the host said. "Yeah ...," said TT, who refused to apologize to outraged Muslim leaders around the world, generating a healthy three-week spike in ratings for yakkers coast-to-coast.
Among his other big moments were his objections to the design for the 9/11 memorial in Pennsylvania because if you looked at it just right, from the air and preferably with the right attitude, it appeared to resemble a crescent, which, if you spent enough time listening to talk radio, surely would convey a subliminal pro-Islam, pro-terrorist message.
Like the moon.
More TT hits include the Raul Gomez-Garcia/sanctuary- city riff in 2005; honor student Jesus Apodaca's quest to go to college and TT's 2002 campaign to stop him; and a tiff with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson over monitoring the Minutemen patrolling the border.
Talkers Magazine ("The Bible of Talk Radio") portrays talk-radio regulars as a rather narrow slice of Americana.
Overwhelmingly non-Hispanic white (65 percent), predominantly male (55 percent), over 45 (54 percent) and registered independent (57 percent), only 33 percent of them are college graduates and only 10 percent read local newspapers.
"They're the ones that brought me to the party," Tancredo said, "and we're gonna dance with them."
Don't book tickets for the inaugural yet, though, because TT's immigration show has begun to sound an awful lot like a golden oldie. The conversation is different in 2007. In Year Five of the Iraq war, a whole nation has changed the channel.
Diane Carman's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@ denverpost.com.
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