Salazar says press secretary used as scapegoat

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 27, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Airlines & Aerospace

WASHINGTTON - Rep. John Salazar defended his Muslim press secretary Tuesday, saying she is a "true-blue American" who is being used as a scapegoat by desperate Republican opponents.

Salazar, D-Manassa, broke his silence Tuesday about a case that has added a new wrinkle to his re-election campaign in southwest Colorado's 3rd Congressional District.

The first-term congressman has been under pressure from re-election opponent Scott Tipton, a Republican businessman, to say whether he agrees with the personal statements of his communications director. Nayyera Haq lashed out at Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo after Tancredo's latest missive questioning the tenets of Islam.

"That was her statement. She made it on her own. She didn't do it with my permission," Salazar said Tuesday at his Capitol Hill office. "She probably should have been more careful. What's done is done, and she certainly has paid the price."

Salazar said Haq has not deserved the intense scrutiny she's gotten since the controversy erupted, including an anonymous video circulating on the Internet that delves into her personal social-networking page and questions her membership in the Congressional Muslim- American Staff Association.

Salazar said that the group, which is officially sanctioned by Congress, tries to promote cross-cultural understanding, like with a recent forum titled "Muslim Americans as Partners in the Fight Against Terrorism."

Conservative activists "are trying to use a staffer who is a true-blue American and who cares deeply about America to get at me," Salazar said.

Salazar said that he had counseled Haq and the rest of his staff, telling them to watch their words and to be especially careful that their personal views don't get confused with those of his office.

Salazar's reaction did not satisfy Tancredo or Tipton, who said that Salazar still needs to say flat-out whether he agrees with Haq's statements.

The flap started last week, when Tancredo, R-Littleton, sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, urging him not to apologize for a speech that quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor saying that Muslim prophet Muhammad brought "things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

That offended Haq, a 24-year-old daughter of Pakistani immigrants who was raised in New York and studied history and economic development at the University of Michigan. Saying that she was speaking only for herself, not her boss, Haq blasted Tancredo in an on-the-record e-mail to the Rocky Mountain News.

In it, Haq accused Tancredo of expressing "hatred of Islam and immigrants" and of disregarding millions of law-abiding Muslim Americans.

"Congressman Tancredo should focus more on building bridges with the progressives in the Muslim world rather than burning the few bridges we have left," she said in the e-mail.

Tipton said that the case called Salazar's management skills into question.

"John could have put this all to rest simply by answering the question, Are you going to stand behind what your spokeswoman stated?" Tipton said.

"A fellow representative in Washington deserves an apology."

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News