A black Christmas for the Hot Air readership this year.

But for the illuminati working on the North American Union? A merry one indeed.

Tom Tancredo has scheduled a press conference in Des Moines tomorrow afternoon to make a “major announcement regarding the campaign,” according to a media advisory his campaign sent out today.

Asked whether Tancredo intended to drop out of the race, his congressional spokesman, TQ Houlton, said he didn’t know. But Houlton didn’t affirm that Tancredo was staying in and directed calls to the campaign…

Tancredo’s close friend, Rep. Steve King, passed over his colleague and threw his support behind Fred Thompson this week. King and Tancredo have worked closely on immigration and many in Iowa thought King would not endorse as long as Tancredo was in the race.

Think of the ads we’ll be deprived of. For all sad words of tongue and pen…

Exit question: Who will he endorse? The Tancredo immigration imprimatur could be quite a get. It won’t be Huck, whom Tanc called out at the last debate. It won’t be Rudy, thanks to his sanctuary city policy. It probably won’t be Mitt after his landscaping debacle. That leaves the guy endorsed by Steve King himself. He’s only 20 points off the pace. Fredmentum!

Update: Tanc’s quitting the House next year, too, so unless he takes a run at Ken Salazar in 2010 you’ll be seeing considerably less of him in the future.