Tancredo jumps the shark

Congressman Tom Tancredo has been a second tier candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2008 presidential race with a minor following based solely on the combined issues of illegal immigration and border security. Though I tend to agree with him on those issues, I found him to be less than impressive in the early debates and assumed his campaign wouldn't make it to the primaries. Well, he is now making comments that should leave him lumped together with the oddball candidates like Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). Discussing the case of a couple border guards who were sentenced to prison after shooting a fleeing illegal alien in the backside, Tancredo threatened to withhold funding for federal prisons if the president doesn't pardon the two border guards.

A Republican congressman yesterday said he will offer an amendment to an annual spending bill to prevent the Bush administration from using funds to enforce the prison sentences of two U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado said the amendment would force the release of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who were sentenced to 11- and 12-year prison terms for shooting a fleeing drug-smuggling suspect in the buttocks.

"Americans have been waiting months for the president to right this wrong and I am not going to wait any longer," said Mr. Tancredo, a candidate for president in 2008. "It's time that the Congress took matters into its own hands.

No, it is not time for Congress to take matters into its own hands. We have a judicial system that works fairly well. We also have a provision in our Constitution for the head of the executive branch to commute or pardon people convicted of crimes. We do not have a system for the legislative branch to override if they don't like how the other two branches handle a case. Silly stunts like this go a long way in explaining why we tend to elect presidents out of governors mansions instead of the halls of congress. I'm for boarder enforcement and I'm generally very pro-law enforcement. However, unlike the congressman and some of my friends on the right I also understand that putting on a badge does not mean one is incapable of doing wrong.