Audio: Tancredo responds to being disinvited to Miami
posted at 9:29 pm on December 14, 2006 by Allahpundit
I have to do something for all the Tancredo fans after the beating we’ve given him the past few weeks. So here you go. The Rotary Club invited him to Miami after he likened the city to a third-world country, whereupon workers at the restaurant where he was due to speak as well as local citizens residents threatened to boycott the place if the event went forward. According to the regional manager for the restaurant chain, there were “safety concerns.” So the invitation was rescinded.
How do you respond to something like that? Like this. Short but sweet.
Query: is that the only version of Tanc’s statement or was there an earlier one? According to the Times article,
In a posting on his congressional website, Tancredo said he was “obviously disappointed that a radical element in Miami was able to intimidate the hosts.”
He went on to lament what he described as an infringement on free speech.
“I knew speaking your mind could be dangerous in Havana — I guess it’s equally dangerous to do so in Miami,” Tancredo said. “Apparently there isn’t much of a difference between the two anymore.”
He said the incident “may, indeed, prove the point I was coming to Miami to make.”
There’s nothing about Havana in either the audio version or print version of his statement. Did he get cold feet and redo it after it first went up on the site?
Too bad. It’s a sweet line.
He’s also posted the speech he’d planned to give. Eight pages long and nary a punch pulled.
I know, there has always been some corruption in every large city and in many small towns as well. The difference is this. In a Third World country, corruption is a way of life, it is accepted, it is routine way of doing business. Mexico has its “mordida” and Russia has a violent mafia and so forth. In America by contrast, it is a scandal and someone is thrown out of office. So, I ask you: Is corruption becoming a way of life in Miami?…
I do not think most citizens of Miami want it to be mistaken for a Third World Country, especially if that term is interpreted to mean a city rife with poverty, crime and corruption. Yet the dominance of Spanish as the language of commerce, of entertainment, and increasingly the language of the civic culture creates the impression that you have some ambivalence about America and its institutions.
Exit question: will Miami be the capital of the North American Union?
Blowback
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I was going to comment, but the death threats against Tancredo had a “chilling effect,” so never mind.
Ali-Bubba on December 14, 2006 at 9:35 PM
Nah,Miami is too far off the highway to be the capital. Maybe Des Moines?
billy on December 14, 2006 at 9:40 PM
I live in the heart of Miami. Like local journalist Jim DeFede, my first reaction to Tancredo’s remarks was like, Yeah, so what’s new?
But then I got kind of annoyed, and then a little mad, because we Miamians are like a dysfunctional family. We bash each other, vote for judges based on their last names, and have some of the worst driving manners in the U.S. In other words, we treat each other like dogsh_t. But when an outsider says things like Tancredo, we’re all like, Whoah! Hold on there, pal! This is Miami you’re talkin’ about!
It’s true that Miami is ridiculously corrupt. But Miami was built on corruption. Drive down Brickell and look at all of those shiny banks. Know where that money came from? I doubt you have to guess.
SWLiP on December 14, 2006 at 9:58 PM
So, is Carl Hiaassen right?
Is Florida really a repository of weird?
Slublog on December 14, 2006 at 10:04 PM
Carl Hiaassen — a left-wing moonbat whose work I used to admire — only exaggerates a little. But it must be said that most of the weirdness is in the Miami-Dade metropolitan area, which I would loosely extend from Palm Beach County southward.
Most of the rest of the state is relatively normal.
SWLiP on December 14, 2006 at 10:21 PM
The guy is a moonbat of the first degree, but “Striptease” and “Tourist Season” were two of the funniest books I’ve read.
Slublog on December 14, 2006 at 10:26 PM
Wait, does this mean that the 95 has been the North American SuperCorridor this whole time?
a4g on December 14, 2006 at 10:26 PM
Slublog, you should check out “Native Tongue,” “Double Whammy,” and “Stormy Weather.” His books have been terrific. It’s his Herald column that makes him hard to stomach.
SWLiP on December 14, 2006 at 10:30 PM
Oh, I’ve read them all. Except “Hoot” (and maybe “Double Whammy” – doesn’t sound familiar)
If he put half as much effort and humor into his column as he did his books, he’d be one of the best local columnists in the country. As is, though, they read like boring Kos screeds.
Maybe if he wrote them in the character of Skink…
Slublog on December 14, 2006 at 10:33 PM
Most Springer guests aren’t from florida by dumb-luck. I assure you. This IS a weird state.
lorien1973 on December 14, 2006 at 10:38 PM
No, it will be San Francisco of course. Speaker Pelosi wouldn’t have it any other way… until it’s annexed by Mecca anyway.
SilverStar830 on December 14, 2006 at 11:09 PM
Cities like Miami are seceding from the Union without even declaring. There are probably more people in “sanctuary cities”, that is cities that refuse to recognize federal law, than lived in the Confederate States during secession.
I wonder if there are any federal laws for which a city can decide they want to be a sanctuary from that would provoke Bush to take action against the outlaws. A Partial Birth Abortion Sanctuary City? Federal Tax Sanctuary City? A city which declares itself a sanctuary from abiding by affirmative action or the 19th amendment? Does Bush get to pick and choose which federal laws he wants to enforce?
Perchant on December 14, 2006 at 11:23 PM
So Tanc is right. You just don’t like outsiders calling a Spade a Spade.
CliffHanger on December 14, 2006 at 11:57 PM
He’s likely right about the corruption, but maybe he’s overthinking the cause. Tancredo attributes it to illegal immigration and a refusal to assimilate. What if it’s just plain old greed?
Slublog on December 15, 2006 at 12:03 AM
I’m from Florida!
frankj on December 15, 2006 at 12:10 AM
Florida is wierd? Florida? Been to California recently? Colorado? New Jersey? New York? Illinois?
Like the Miami dude said, Miami/Broward/West Palm is wierd. The rest of the state is no wierder that anywhere else in this increasingly wierd country, and many parts are less so.
Remember 2000? It was Broward and to a lesser extent West Palm Beach that almost stole enough votes to elect Algore. Those arrogant bastards were sitting there in plain sight on national TV and fully intended to throw away enough Bush votes, with the help of the Seven Drawfs ( the Florida Supreme Court, four liberals and three moonbats )
They say it’s the heat that makes you crazy, and the humidity makes you even crazier. The drugs probably contribute….
Janos Hunyadi on December 15, 2006 at 12:13 AM
“I’m obviously disappointed that a radical element in Miami was able to intimidate the hosts into rescinding their invitation for me to speak. I can understand the decision of the hosts to put public safety before public discourse today. But it is regrettable in 21st century America that they were forced to make that choice.
http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/2006/12/14/tancredo-miami-speech-cancelled-they-were-going-to-put-a-bullet-in-toms-head/
http://www.vdare.com/epstein/061213_tancredo.htm
Speakup on December 15, 2006 at 12:18 AM
I’m obviously disappointed that a radical element in Miami was able to intimidate the hosts into rescinding their invitation for me to speak. I can understand the decision of the hosts to put public safety before public discourse today. But it is regrettable in 21st century America that they were forced to make that choice.
One of America’s most important values is the right to free speech. It’s unfortunate that threats of violence were successful in trumping that right today. I knew speaking your mind could be dangerous in Havana— I guess it’s equally dangerous to do so in Miami. Apparently there isn’t much of a difference between the two anymore.
I wish everyone in Florida a Merry Christmas. I hope that someday in the future there will be an opportunity to engage Miami in this important dialogue about protecting and preserving the unique values and culture that make America what it is.
Speakup on December 15, 2006 at 12:19 AM
Well if Miami is a third world city, what does that make new Orleans?
Iblis on December 15, 2006 at 12:21 AM
Well 3 years ago we went on a cruise out of Miami. When it was over and we went back to the airport it was impossible to find anyone who spoke English. We got sent to the wrong terminal twice. I finally said “Does anyone speak English here anymore?” and I got a bunch of dirty looks. I remember one time while visiting the ‘rents in FL I saw a bumper sticker that said “Will the last American to leave Miami, please take the flag?”.
About FL being weird; I read in the Pravdatiser that “Florida’s Friendliest Hometown-The Villages” has the highest rates of STD’s amongst the over 60 crowd. Now, that is incredibly weird!
Catie96706 on December 15, 2006 at 1:36 AM
The point of my comment was that corruption in Miami goes way back. You could argue that more recent arrivals have advanced it, but you can’t say that they invented it. It’s also worth noting that at least a couple of Miami’s more infamous recent corruption scandals involved non-Hispanic Americans. Google the names Donald Warshaw and Arthur Teele, for example, and you’ll see what I mean.
SWLiP on December 15, 2006 at 7:51 AM
I should have added that the two Miami City Commissioners who most recently had to be removed from office due to felony charges — Art Teele and Coconut Groves own Johnny Winton — were non-Hispanic Americans.
SWLiP on December 15, 2006 at 7:53 AM
Unless I have my terms wrong, bilingual implies two languages not one. If everyone in Miami spoke Spanish and English there would be no problem…
I am not sure why he keeps going on about the evils of bilingualism.
Babs on December 15, 2006 at 7:59 AM
The only one who took a beating was you, Allah. How soon you forget.
EF on December 15, 2006 at 8:42 AM
The idea that public safety can trump public discourse is, by definition, un-American. The two should never be mutually exclusive. That city needs to be cleaned out. For the fact that it hasn’t, I blame the Bush twins–not Barbara and Jenna, George and Jeb. They’ve been infected with multiculturalism to the exclusion of America’s well-being.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like what W’s doing in Iraq (ignoring ISG, etc.) and with taxes, but on most other issues, he’s hard to stomach.
urbancenturion on December 15, 2006 at 9:38 AM
I’m liking Tancredo more every day.
Buzzy on December 15, 2006 at 9:52 AM
I’m from Miami and I love Miami. Tanc is an idiot. If he has any presidential aspirations he just killed them by insulting one of the most Republican cities in the state. Miami isn’t the only US city that can be term corrupt, but is it any more corrupt than NOLA or Chicago, or Boston, or cities in NJ. I doubt it. I can’t think of any city that would take kindly to being insulted.
I’d like to know the details on these supposed death threats. Frankly, I doubt they were serious, and that Tanc is only trying to exploit them to further his inane attacks against an American city.
Mig on December 15, 2006 at 10:08 AM
There’s a common thread to the deterioration of America’s urban areas: Democrat Party city governance.
Going along with this is creating the mindest that it can’t be corrected, just endured. America never had peasants, unlike the rest of the world, but Third World mentalities are bringing in the conditions that create them. America’s gift is the triumph of the middle class, the working guy. Third World concepts have the elites over the servants who work at crud wages for them. Americans should be on guard.
naliaka on December 15, 2006 at 10:29 AM
I like how Miamians are saying that Tanc is an idiot. The most offensive thing to most people is the truth. Be offended but don’t be afraid to look over the fence and see that someone may be right. If your property is a mess and someone calls it a mess, be offended but clean it up.
robman27 on December 15, 2006 at 11:00 AM
What is “Republican” about it? Surely it’s not their voting habits. I’m sure you could find a city in Florida that has actually voted for Bush in the majority.
Perchant on December 15, 2006 at 11:12 AM
The only thing you beat was the topic… to death; and from the wrong side I might add.
You are right about one thing though, it was a sweet line.
Cary on December 15, 2006 at 11:14 AM
Tancredo for President 2008
Miami has become like the Universities where Free Speech is only for the leftists.
Wanna bet the employee at the Rusty Pelican that was offended is an Illegal Alien.
ScottyDog on December 15, 2006 at 11:50 AM
I’m from Miami and I love Miami. Tanc is an idiot. If he has any presidential aspirations he just killed them by insulting one of the most Republican cities in the state.
Freelancer on December 15, 2006 at 12:16 PM
Ok, so I managed to get the quote tags backwards. AP, a review/edit option?
Freelancer on December 15, 2006 at 12:17 PM
Freelancer:
I think that you’re looking at Broward and Palm Beach counties on that map. Miami-Dade is shown as purple. And Miami-Dade includes liberal bastions such as the City of Miami Beach. I think that the point was that Miami’s (the city’s) Cuban American voters (who are, pretty much by definition, legal immigrants nearly to the last one) reliably skew Republican.
That is not to say that we do not have illegal immigration and corruption problems, here. We do. I am just not sure that the two can be demonstrably linked.
SWLiP on December 15, 2006 at 12:55 PM
Oh my god no! Spanish! It’s the end of civilization! The brown mongrel hordes!
Tancredo is completely unhinged — and always has been. How else do you explain that he actually wanted Bay Buchanan to work his campaign?
rightwingprof on December 15, 2006 at 1:44 PM
Death threats or any threats of disobedience are wrong BUT Tancredo has lost me completely with this idiotic Third World crap. How can those of us who oppose illegal immigration be taken seriously when he makes outlandish comments like those (and proceeds to stick by them).
Karol on December 15, 2006 at 2:25 PM
That Miami is a third world dump? Oh, the horror! The horror! You republican party shills have been making outlandish comments about anyone who is actually against illegal immigration. You oppose it just to win an election and then renege on every pre-election promise.
EF on December 15, 2006 at 3:06 PM
An interesting viewpoint, just how many foreign nationals actually constitutes ‘a horde’ say..5..12..20, million?
Yeah, we got that. Maybe it’s time to do something.
I’ve never been to Miami but I have been to Los Angeles.
As a microcosm of tomorrow’s America, it is the end of civilization, for Americans.
Speakup on December 15, 2006 at 3:25 PM
I’d say Tancredo is the most seriously taken of anyone trying to fix invasion problem. Perhaps you’d be taken more serious if you became more like Tancredo.
Perchant on December 15, 2006 at 3:48 PM
No, he’s not.
Yea, and Newt shall lead the way.
Slublog on December 15, 2006 at 4:10 PM
Funny thing happened right after I posted my last comment which kind of illustrates a typical day in the life of a “gringo” in Miami:
I stepped out for lunch, but it was raining so instead of walking the three blocks or so to one of my usual places I went around the corner to a little Italian place in a strip mall, next door to my building. The Italian place is run by Colombians. I know this because they display the Colombian flag, whereas in most Italian places you expect to see, well, the Italian flag. This is a good sign that one is in Miami.
I asked the girl behind the counter what the special was and I thought she said “Eggplant parmigiana.”
To be sure, I asked, “Eggplant parmigiana.”
She nodded, “Yes.”
So I ordered it and went to sit down. I was a little damp from the rain and the a/c and ceiling fans were going full blast, causing a chill. I saw that the ceiling fan closest to me had a pull chain switch, but not wanting to be rude I went back to the counter and asked if I could turn off the ceiling fan. The girl nodded and handed me two television remote controls.
I asked her why she handed me the remotes, and she pointed across the room to a television that was mounted in the corner, just beyond my ceiling fan. I said, “No, I just want to turn off the ceiling fan.”
Confused, the girl called over to a young guy who worked in the place, who asked, “Can I help you?”
“Yes,” I patiently explained, “I just wanted to ask permission to turn off the ceiling fan.”
He promptly stepped across the room toward the television and looked for the On/Off button.
I called to him, “Sir, um, no, not the television.”
He looked at me. “Not the television?”
I finally motioned like I was pulling the chain switch on the ceiling fan. “Hace frio,” I said.
“Oh,” said the young man. He pulled the chain a couple of times and turned off the fan while I sat at my table.
About five minutes later, the girl brought my order. It was chicken parmigiana.
SWLiP on December 15, 2006 at 8:18 PM
And yet, the President of the United States of America does…nothing.
A paltry 6,000 Guard troops is a tenth of the necessary force needed to save America.
Nothing, after all is a solution.
If filling up our nation with willing workers that will once and for all destroy unions, pay into social security and make an ever smaller number of people ever richer.
If global manifestations are the end all, be all, where some will float to the top and world labor competition will eventually balance out like multiple tanks of water connected with a hoses, then all is well, in open, free for the taking, do nothing, just wait. America land.
Somehow, the quality of my children’s lives becoming an average of every nation on this globe, to be honest, really pegs my mad meter. The betrayal of the blood mine and yours ancestors shed falls in this same category.
Also somehow, I don’t feature those who are participating in our institutions politic as being those who end up as servants to the few that float to the top.
If nothing is a victory over bad reform, it is, just not for you or I and our children.
American’s have procrastinated and now our home is at the precipice, the balance could swing either way.
With our backs up against the wall, it’s time for us to claim what is ours.
Speakup on December 15, 2006 at 11:37 PM
Slublog,
The thing I noticed when reading Newt is he’ll get you nodding your head all the way through the article without ever having taken a concrete stand on an issue.
When he’s put on the spot and forced to take a stand he’ll tell you stuff like the NSA wiretapping program is “indefensible”.
There are a lot of Republican politicians who talk a good anti-invasion game who think they can make things all better by changing the word “illegal” to “legal”. Once you change the illegal status to legal, there is no more “illegal” problem, don’t you know?
Perchant on December 16, 2006 at 10:11 AM
Tancredo’s stock just went up on my list after reading his speech. Someone probably leaked it and that’s why they canceled him.
ic1redeye on December 16, 2006 at 10:55 AM
Penchant,
From the article:
He then goes on to list why amnesty is bad policy. His arguments are well-written, well-reasoned and not filled with the rhetorical excesses of Tancredo. The more I hear Tancredo talk, the less seriously I take him. The man is a sideshow and his antics make sound immigration policy harder to achieve, not easier.
Slublog on December 16, 2006 at 3:21 PM
Slublog,
You need to read that first Gingrich paragraph you quoted and really think about it. It’s a perfect example of the weaselness I was talking about.
We know what it means; Mike Pence spelled it out more clearly. Gingrich signed on to the Pence “non-amnesty amnesty”. They want to magically change the “illegal” status of illegal aliens to “legal”. They take a quick trip back to Mexico and are handed their magic now-you’re-legal card.
They push this backdoor amnesty nonsense while talking about how disastrous amnesty would be for the country, believing that citizens, their Republican constituency in particular, are too dumb to catch on to the sophistry.
Perchant on December 16, 2006 at 4:36 PM
Tancredo is not a sideshow and the immigration caucus membership list in Congress is why he is being taken seriously. It has doubled in less than six months.
Sublog
Just because you keep calling him a racist does not make it so .
You remind me of Heraldo Rivera that keeps telling me how hard these criminals work and that supposedly makes them legal and good for America.
I have said it before and I will say it again. Why is it that people like you, of Hispanic descent, are the ones yelling the loudest that Tancredo is a racist? I will even give you some examples of so called conservatives yelling the loudest: Linda Chavez and Mel Martinez.
BTW-Newt Gingrich is a CFR member in good standing so be careful that what he says is just what you want to hear.
ScottyDog on December 17, 2006 at 2:52 PM