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Posted: September 26, 2007 6:24 PM
Tancredo Scores in Shooting Contest
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Although Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., did not attend this week’s National Rifle Association convention, his campaign heralded a Top 10 finish in a New Hampshire shooting contest as proof of his support for the Second Amendment.

He competed with 48 others at the first annual Republican Shoot in Keene, N.H., and sent a video message to fellow gun enthusiasts at the NRA event.

This week, Tancredo also criticized Columbia University in New York for allowing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak but banning the ROTC program for aspiring military officers. He described Ahmadinejad as “an international criminal and a leading sponsor of terrorism.”

“Regrettably, Columbia University thinks it’s OK to ban the U.S. military from campus while allowing a terrorist, responsible for killing dissidents in his home country and American soldiers in Iraq, to speak in their auditorium. It is quite unfortunate that this is what passes for ‘higher education’ these days,” Tancredo said in a statement released by his congressional office.

Over the weekend, Tancredo earned a standing ovation for his remarks on immigration at an Eagle Forum appearance, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. At the same time, he said his cause makes it harder for him to raise money because he does not have the support of corporate executives who have a stake in access to cheap labor.

A column by Newsweek’s Howard Fineman examined how immigration has become an “explosive” issue in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state that has a growing population of Mexican immigrants. While he acknowledged that there is room for top-tier Republicans to keep taking harder lines on immigration, Fineman also explored a question that some party strategists have been asking: Are Republicans sacrificing their long-term viability by trying to appease their base in the short term with the immigration debate?

Tancredo will express his views during a live chat during the Democratic debate Wednesday night via the Rocky Mountain News Web site.