Writing off the Latino vote

Holy COW, Republicans! One of your higher-ups is going to have to get out in front of Tom Tancredo lickety-split, because you people are doomed for the long haul if you allow [excrement] like this to go down unchallenged:

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), who spent his career in Congress calling for a moratorium on immigration, appeared on CNN to lambaste Sotomayor for belonging to a group whose name would translate as "The Race," made the false claim that La Raza has the motto "For the race everything, outside the race nothing," and bashed it as being "a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses."

As Eric Kleefeld noted over at TPM, "Um, those hoods and nooses do make a really important difference!"

I am not particularly familiar with La Raza, but a brief stroll around their web page fails to evoke images of flaming torches or systematic racial violence. Rather, they seem to support the cause of equal rights for Latinos. A subject regarding which, quite frankly, Tom Tancredo is perhaps not the best counter-point person.

Not being Latino myself, I cannot speak with much authority. But I can't imagine it's particularly good for the Republican brand within the Latino community for major figures in the party to be linking a Latino civil rights organization with the KKK. On the other hand, maybe they just don't have the money to fight for Florida's electoral votes anymore, and have decided to throw in the towel rather dramatically.

Update: For a more in-depth look at the Right Wing's big middle finger to the Latino vote, I refer you to this Salon article.