Another Legacy

Tom Tancredo (R. Colorado) announced his retirement. He will be leaving the US House of Representatives immediately, to be replaced by another Republican, according to this AP report.

He hasn't announced his future plans with any specificity, but he has hinted that he will run for governor. He also might very well join a conservative think tank so that he can have a place to vent his opinions on immigration and Arabs, which would make sense, given that he has so many opinions on those issues and others dear to the hearts of far right conservatives.

This is the man who suggested the we bomb Islam's holy city of Mecca in response to any further terrorist attack on the US.

He's also the man who, during his bizarre run for the Republican presidential nomination, put out ads that equated Mexican immigrants with drug dealers and rapists.

He's also the man who headlined a Minutemen anti-immigration rally (which, oddly enough, had very few participants).

He's also the man who suggested Miami was like a third-world country because so much Spanish was spoken there.

He was a one-man wrecking crew when it came to sensible and sensitive immigration reform, stopping a bipartisan effort crafted by, among others, John McCain dead in its tracks.

And now, thankfully, he's leaving Congress.

I doubt that we've heard the last from Mr. Tancredo, but at least he won't be wearing the mantle of a sitting congressman which has given him undeserved credibility.

Either way, I'm not going to miss him and his virulent hatred. Not. At. All.