Group says it didn't plan Tancredo event

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, September 14, 2006

A leader of a controversial Southern nationalist group said Wednesday that the group had nothing to do with organizing an event for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., last weekend in South Carolina.

Lourie Salley, a board member of the South Carolina League of the South, lashed out at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which described the gathering where Tancredo spoke as "a hate-group event."

Salley defended Tancredo after the Law Center claimed a barbecue held at the South Carolina State Museum on Saturday was hosted by the South Carolina League of the South.

Salley described the League as a Southern nationalist organization and said that he and more than a dozen members did attend the Tancredo event. But he said the group's only involvement was to encourage its members to turn out for it.

The room at the museum was booked by the nonprofit group Americans Have Had Enough, which backs Tancredo's anti-illegal immigration stand and said it stands up for conservative principles. Tancredo serves as honorary chairman.

Citing an online invitation to the event, the Law Center tried to link the event to the South Carolina League of the South, which it describes as a hate group.

In an interview, Salley said, "Many of our goals are different from Congressman Tancredo's. In South Carolina, we share a concern about illegal immigration. I get the impression that (Tancredo) believes the union should stay together."

"The League of the South is a Southern nationalist organization," Salley said. "Obviously, Congressman Tancredo is not a Southern nationalist. As far as I know, he has got no contacts with the League."

Salley blasted the Law Center, whose Intelligence Report program is known for investigating what it considers to be hate groups.

"I think it's absolutely absurd," Salley said of the Law Center's charges about the Tancredo event. "The SPLC has called the Boy Scouts and several churches hate groups. If that's who (they) consider hate groups, I consider myself to be in good company."

Heidi Beirich, deputy director of the Intelligence Project for the Law Center, said she stands by an online article about the event that was widely circulated on the Internet on Tuesday, which is available at

splcenter.org/intel/news/ item.jsp?aid=79.

"We stand by exactly what we wrote," Beirich said Wednesday. "Whatever Salley is saying now is not what came across at the event or in the advertisement."

A spokesman for Tancredo has vehemently disputed the group's charges, accusing the Law Center of intentionally distorting the facts in order to discredit Tancredo.

Tancredo appeared at the event as part of his trip to South Carolina, a key battleground state in presidential politics. Tancredo has flirted with a run for president in 2008.

The flap has found its way into the congressional race in Tancredo's District 6. "Despite Mr. Tancredo's efforts to deny any culpability in his actions, it is clear that Mr. Tancredo has no qualms reaching out to groups whose sole purpose is to divide America further," said Democratic challenger Bill Winter.