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Wednesday, May 27, 2009 3:35 PM UTC

Tom Tancredo, master of irony

The former congressman attacks Sonia Sotomayor for her views on race

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Topics: Sonia Sotomayor, War Room, Tom Tancredo,

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., was never someone who managed to steer clear of controversy about his views on race. Sure, if you asked him about his obsession with illegal immigration, he’d tell you it had nothing to do with the ethnicity of those crossing the border, but for some strange reason — maybe it was his dedicating his book to a pseudo-scientist who ranted about hordes of Mexican rapist lepers, maybe it was his comparison of Miami to a Third World country — that just never felt all that sincere.

So it’s a little funny to see that he was on MSNBC Tuesday night arguing vociferously against the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court based on her views on race, especially during this exchange with host Ed Schultz:

SCHULTZ: You know, Tom Tancredo, if there’s no red flag out there, no glaring issue, wouldn`t it be political suicide to challenge an Hispanic woman, which is also part of the fastest growing demographic politically in the country? What would be your strategy to make sure that she doesn’t get on the court?

TANCREDO: If, in fact, there was nothing to challenge her on, I would suggest that they don’t challenge her on anything. Unfortunately for her and fortunately for us, there are plenty of things that we even talked about here already that you keep ignoring. I’m telling you, she appears to be a racist. She said things that are racist. In any other context, that’s exactly how we would have portrayed it. And there’s no one that would get on the Supreme Court saying a thing like that, except for an Hispanic woman. And you’re saying it doesn`t matter.

Video of his appearance, via ThinkProgress, is below.

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon. More Alex Koppelman.

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