White House now closed to Tancredo

Human Events, Jun 24, 2002 by D'Agostino, Joseph A

White House political director Karl Rove has instructed conservative Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) to never "darken the doorstep of the White House, says the congressman.

The unusual command from the President's political right hand was prompted by an April 19 front-page story in the Washington Times.

The headline on the Times that day read: "Bush's `open door' slammed." In the body of the story, Tancredo was quoted as saying: "What we have not done is to protect our borders, ignoring our own national security... The President is not on our side. He believes in open borders."

As Tancredo went out to his car that morning his cell phone rang. A voice said: "Please hold for Karl Rove."

In a moment Rove came on the line and started castigating Tancredo for his comments to the Times. "He was angry because I said that the President was for open borders," Tancredo told HUMAN EVENTS. "We yelled at each other over the phone. He told me not to darken the doorstep of the White House. I said that I didn't know there was an invitation out there and that it wasn't your expletive-deleted house."

HUMAN EVENTS placed calls to the White House to get Roves version of this incident, but the calls were not returned. Shortly after the Rove-Tancredo argument, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told the Associated Press, "We're more puzzled by the fact that [Tancredo] apparently doesn't believe what the President has indicated his position is on immigration and border security."

A few days after the argument, Tancredo sent a placatory letter to the President. He did not back down from his criticism of the President's policy, but suggested that they should work together on border security issues.

So far, Tancredo has not been invited to any state dinners.

-Joseph A. D'Agostino