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Minutemen rip Jim Gilchrist for endorsing Huckabee

posted at 10:54 am on December 13, 2007 by Allahpundit
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To refresh, the Minuteman Project is the activist group headed by Gilchrist. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps are the guys led by Chris Simcox who patrol the border.

They are, apparently, also considerably less impressed with Huck’s 11th-hour immigration conversion than Gilchrist is.

Jim Gilchrist’s erstwhile Minuteman Project is itself an organization which by its own representations as a non-profit civic group cannot legally endorse candidates. It does not have any volunteers who observe illegal border activity. It has no border fence building projects. Jim Gilchrist here speaks only for Jim Gilchrist, he does not speak for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, nor is he nationally representative of most patriots in the “Minuteman movement” – who under no circumstances could ignore the failed record nor endorse the duplicitous “plan” recently rolled out by candidate Mike Huckabee. The national media needs to recognize that Jim Gilchrist’s endorsement is his own personal statement, nothing more…

Unlike this last-minute opportunism attempted by Huckabee, many of the other GOP presidential candidates have actually helped push the issue of national border security forward for some time. Tom Tancredo’s many years of hard work on the border crisis and illegal immigration issues have all the candidates striving to sound like him. Duncan Hunter can take personal credit for getting the highly effective San Diego border fence built. Ron Paul has been to the border with us first hand and aggressively pushed positive border legislation. Alan Keyes has done more than anyone to support the organizational development of MCDC, and personally participated in the Minuteman Border Fence Groundbreaking – advancing a citizen’s construction effort which has forced Congress to finally get the Feds building physical border fence.

Their own plan? A “massive increase” in Border Patrol topped off with 25,000 National Guardsmen deployed to the border, the odds of which happening are roughly equivalent to Tancredo’s odds on winning the election. Exit question: We’re almost guaranteed a Hannity & Colmes showdown between Simcox and Gilchrist after this, right?

Update: Here’s Gilchrist explaining his endorsement, perhaps better than he even intended. He offered his help to all the candidates. Only Huck, in desperate need of immigration cred, accepted.

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Jackstraw over at Aces said that he saw an interview of Gilchrist where he was asked about his reason for endorsing Huckabee where he admitted that he had tried to court many of the other candidates – but Huck was the only one who responded to him.

Didnt see the interview myself. Worth looking for i would imagine.

amish on December 13, 2007 at 11:00 AM

Awesome. Some sanity returns to the world.

Darksean on December 13, 2007 at 11:01 AM

Their own plan? A “massive increase” in Border Patrol topped off with 25,000 National Guardsmen deployed to the border, the odds of which happening are roughly equivalent to Tancredo’s odds on winning the election

Probably the same odds, but they should push for it nevertheless. Even they probably know they won’t get all they want, but they won’t get more than they have if they don’t shoot for the moon.

thirteen28 on December 13, 2007 at 11:06 AM

Exit question: We’re almost guaranteed a Hannity & Colmes showdown between Simcox and Gilchrist after this, right?

Yup should be fun, unfortunately Simcox will proably come off like a bigot.

When is someone going to admit we do not like the Hispanization of America? Just admit it, then we can talk about assimilation, culture and it impact on America. I have never seen a real through discussion on the subject. I would love to see Latinos juxtaposed against other immigrant groups, on assimilation.

Theworldisnotenough on December 13, 2007 at 11:06 AM

Gilchrist is a complete fool. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that he works to secure our border, but the endorsment of Huckabee is beyond laughable. I can think of half a dozen Republican candidates who are stronger on immigration than Huckabigot is.

davenp35 on December 13, 2007 at 11:10 AM

Update: Here’s Gilchrist explaining his endorsement, perhaps better than he even intended. He offered his help to all the candidates. Only Huck, in desperate need of immigration cred, accepted.

That’s the worst reason to endorse someone that I’ve ever heard.

lorien1973 on December 13, 2007 at 11:13 AM

Thanks for the vid. I was looking for it this morning.

amish on December 13, 2007 at 11:20 AM

Here’s Gilchrist explaining his endorsement, perhaps better than he even intended. He offered his help to all the candidates. Only Huck, in desperate need of immigration cred, accepted.

So he’s available to endorse anyone? I think Ahmadinajacket needs some good PR; maybe Gilchrist should get in touch with him.

Frozen Tex on December 13, 2007 at 11:29 AM

When is someone going to admit we do not like the Hispanization of America? Just admit it, then we can talk about assimilation, culture and it impact on America. I have never seen a real through discussion on the subject. I would love to see Latinos juxtaposed against other immigrant groups, on assimilation.

Theworldisnotenough on December 13, 2007 at 11:06 AM

Perhaps America needs to look north for the example of Quebec. The Quebecois have passed numerous laws regarding the primacy of their language and culture over all else in their province. They are regularly accused of being intolerant bigots (I’ve said as much myself) but they ignore it and keep up with what they believe to be right to protect their way of life. If a majority of Americans believe the US to be a country largely founded on “Anglo-Saxon” language and culture, with a tradition of newcomers assimilating to that standard, then it’s time that such beliefs need to be more vigorously defended, against “Hispanization”, sharia creep, and PC ridiculousness.

Frozen Tex on December 13, 2007 at 11:37 AM

What a ridiculous reason to endorse someone indeed… but I fully expect the MSM regurgitation of this to be “Minutemen Leader endorses Huckabee” with no deeper contect or explanation. More game-playing from the Huckster.

MT on December 13, 2007 at 11:58 AM

That’s the worst reason to endorse someone that I’ve ever heard.

lorien1973 on December 13, 2007 at 11:13 AM

Ain’t that the truth.

commonsensehoosier on December 13, 2007 at 12:08 PM

Only Huck, in desperate need of immigration cred, accepted.

The Great White Knight Templar didn’t accept?! Seems odd. And it seems a lame way to endorse someone — ask them all, endorse the ones who “hitcha back.”

Mark Jaquith on December 13, 2007 at 12:09 PM

The Great White Knight Templar didn’t accept?! Seems odd. And it seems a lame way to endorse someone — ask them all, endorse the ones who “hitcha back.”

Mark Jaquith on December 13, 2007 at 12:09 PM

Probably more likely the rest of them said: “thanks for the offer, but no thanks”

Canadian Imperialist Running Dog on December 13, 2007 at 12:40 PM

Life is cold, and the game is old
Just see how virtue repays you
You turn and someone betrays you
Oh, every Judas once loved a Jesus
But finally treason will seize us
- Percy

MB4 on December 13, 2007 at 12:48 PM

The Great White Knight Templar didn’t accept?! Seems odd. And it seems a lame way to endorse someone — ask them all, endorse the ones who “hitcha back.”

Mark Jaquith on December 13, 2007 at 12:09 PM

Gilchrist isn’t really a great guy to get an endorsement from, if you’ve been following his history. A Chris Simcox endorsement would mean something. Unfortuneately, the vast majority of Americans don’t know the difference between the MCDC and Jim Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project.

NTWR on December 13, 2007 at 1:29 PM

the Minuteman Project is the activist group headed by Gilchrist.

I don’t have time to read all the comments right now so I’m not sure if someone has already mentioned this, but it’s important to point out that Gilchrist is NOT the head of the Minuteman Project. He was booted from the Board of Directors for suspect financials.

I’m being flooded by emails from both Minuteman Civil Defense Corp and Minuteman Project members who overwhelmingly feel this is an attempt by Gilchrist to seek revenge for being ousted.

Gregor on December 13, 2007 at 2:07 PM

Here is a letter sent to all MCDC members by Chris Simcox:

No National Minuteman Group has endorsed Mike Huckabee.

One individual Minuteman has personally endorsed him.

For the sake of clarity, it is important to note that the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), the nation’s largest Minuteman organization, is a 501(C)4 non-profit organization and cannot and does not endorse any candidate for public office. MCDC is not associated with Mr. Jim Gilchrist, who today endorsed Mike Huckabee for president.

Jim Gilchrist’s erstwhile Minuteman Project is itself an organization which by its own representations as a non-profit civic group, cannot legally endorse candidates. It does not have any volunteers who observe illegal border activity. It has no border fence building projects. Jim Gilchrist here speaks only for Jim Gilchrist, he does not speak for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, nor is he nationally representative of most patriots in the “Minuteman movement” – who under no circumstances could ignore the failed record nor endorse the duplicitous “plan” recently rolled out by candidate Mike Huckabee. The national media needs to recognize that Jim Gilchrist’s endorsement is his own personal statement, nothing more.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps emphasizes policy dealing with national border security. The only “plan” to ensure border security that is acceptable to our constituency would be a candidate policy statement declaring that his first act as President will be to hold a press conference and announce to the American people an executive order to immediately deploy and fund 30,000 National Guard personnel to the U.S. Borders (25,000 to the southern border and 5,000 to the northern border) to complement a massive increase in U.S. Border Patrol Agent field personnel, and a bilateral effort to secure our frontiers, smash the drug cartels, shut down the human smugglers and protect the public safety of the citizens who reside along the borders on both sides of our national boundaries.

Unlike this last-minute opportunism attempted by Huckabee, many of the other GOP presidential candidates have actually helped push the issue of national border security forward for some time. Tom Tancredo’s many years of hard work on the border crisis and illegal immigration issues have all the candidates striving to sound like him. Duncan Hunter can take personal credit for getting the highly effective San Diego border fence built. Ron Paul has been to the border with us first hand and aggressively pushed positive border legislation. Alan Keyes has done more than anyone to support the organizational development of MCDC, and personally participated in the Minuteman Border Fence Groundbreaking – advancing a citizen’s construction effort which has forced Congress to finally get the Feds building physical border fence.

Only one Minuteman group is conducting regular multi-state border security efforts, building fence and aggressively monitoring Washington DC : Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. We would like to extend an invitation to all the presidential candidates, Republican and Democrat, to come to the border and see what is really happening on our nation’s frontier. Not to take the safe little government photo-op helicopter ride, but see the lay-up sites full of trash and debris. See the rape trees. See the violent crime in the border towns. Walk on the pathways of destroyed environmental terrain trampled by tens of thousands of invading foreign migrants. See what the American elites’ support of broken borders, unfettered illegal immigration and sanctuary cities is doing to our fellow Americans who live on our borderlands, and how these failed policies imperil our nation’s safety, security and prosperity.

Chris Simcox

Gregor on December 13, 2007 at 2:10 PM

Hey Gregor, they really need to remove the “Jim Gilchrist’s” part in front of Minuteman Project on their website if he’s been ousted. It’s cornfusin’, man.

NTWR on December 13, 2007 at 2:36 PM

they really need to remove the “Jim Gilchrist’s” part in front of Minuteman Project on their website if he’s been ousted. It’s cornfusin’, man.

NTWR on December 13, 2007 at 2:36 PM

That’s not the official Minuteman Project website. Gilchrist had control of that site and never gave it up.

Since Gilchrist founded the group, he continues to pretend that he’s in charge. He’s a complete fraud. The actual website for the Minuteman Project is at:

http://www.minutemanprojectinc.com/

Gregor on December 13, 2007 at 3:06 PM

Here’s what’s going on:

The Minuteman Project’s board of directors removed Gilchrist as head of the Minuteman Project amid allegations of fraud and financial mismanagement.[2] In a May 2007 interview, Gilchrist claimed: “I’m the President and always was. I got the corporation back. I have the right to the web site, the bank account, everything. We are back in the same position as we were prior to the hijacking.”[3] These claims by Gilchrist, though, do not appear to match the judge’s ruling. Judge “Wilkinson issued an interim ruling barring the board members from spending Minuteman Project donations until Gilchrist’s lawsuit is resolved. Wilkinson also rejected Gilchrist’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have restored Gilchrist to power until the case is decided.”[4] In April of 2007, Gilchrist announced the formation of a new non-profit corporation, named Jim Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project, Inc.

It will be interesting to see how Gilchrist’s “official endorsement” of a Presidential candidate will effect the non-profit status of his “new” group.

Gregor on December 13, 2007 at 3:09 PM

Sorry. Forgot to link that quote.

Gregor on December 13, 2007 at 3:09 PM

Also, it’s important to note that Gilchrist DROPPED the lawsuit.

SANTA ANA, Calif. — mMinuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist is forming a new anti-illegal immigrant group.

Its name: the Jim Gilchrist Minuteman Project Incorporated.

Gilchrist announced the new group’s formation as he dropped his lawsuit against the leadership of the original Minuteman Project.

He had sued its board of directors for control after he was fired and accused of embezzling $400,000 dollars in donations.

He denied the allegation and claimed in his lawsuit that the firing was illegal.

He now says he’s dropping the lawsuit and forming the new group to avoid spending activists’ contributions on attorney fees and so he can focus illegal immigration.

But an attorney who represents three directors who fired Gilchrist said the dropped suit constitutes a victory for his clients.

Gilchrist has never accounted for that $400,000 that he says he was concerned about. As far as anyone knows … he’s already spent it.

Gregor on December 13, 2007 at 3:18 PM

Allah, it just seems as if the Minuteman lost it. I also posted yesterday on a blog for Michelle:
Here in Phoenix, there was meeting between a group of state politicians, bussiness leaders and government officials about illegal immigration. Sen. Pete Rios, R-Hayden (a strong amnesty advocate) afterwards praised president of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Chris Simcox for agreeing with him that “kids of illegal immigrants deserve health care and education as well as citizens.

SIJ6141 on December 13, 2007 at 7:18 PM

I have lost faith in the Minutman. Seems that they are in it for publicity and the money ??????

SIJ6141 on December 13, 2007 at 7:20 PM

Not all Minutemen are the same, guys. There’s a rotten apple in every barrel. No other group has done as much to bring this issue to the forefront as the Minutemen.

Redhead Infidel on December 13, 2007 at 7:38 PM

redhead,
Maybe as far as the rank and file is concerned the are genuine but it looks as if the top guys are rotten.

SIJ6141 on December 13, 2007 at 9:30 PM

Ya know, if he endorsed Duncan Hunter, all this would be moot

BobJones-77 on December 13, 2007 at 9:39 PM

redhead,
Maybe as far as the rank and file is concerned the are genuine but it looks as if the top guys are rotten.

SIJ6141 on December 13, 2007 at 9:30 PM

Thats not true at all, don’t let this story taint the rest of the very honorable Minutemen.

Speakup on December 13, 2007 at 9:56 PM

Sen. Pete Rios, R-Hayden (a strong amnesty advocate) afterwards praised president of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Chris Simcox for agreeing with him that “kids of illegal immigrants deserve health care and education as well as citizens.

SIJ6141 on December 13, 2007 at 7:18 PM

I’m a member of MCDC and I know Chris Simcox. Chris Simcox does not believe this. If this was stated by Sen. Pete Rios … it was either a complete fabrication, or a lie.

Gregor on December 14, 2007 at 4:37 AM

I’m a member of MCDC and I know Chris Simcox. Chris Simcox does not believe this. If this was stated by Sen. Pete Rios … it was either a complete fabrication, or a lie.

Gregor on December 14, 2007 at 4:37 AM

Although I tend to like the way I wrote it the first time better, I meant to write …

it was either a complete fabrication, or a brutal mischaracterization.

Gregor on December 14, 2007 at 4:40 AM

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