Minutemen's comic act on presidential campaign stage

Tired of playing cop, some in the Minuteman movement are trying to influence the 2008 presidential election by playing powerbroker. And like just about everything this bunch does, the results are sad -- but funny.

Take the fact that one of their top choices for president has already exited the race. Of course, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., never stood a chance of accomplishing anything other than embarrassing himself. He did that when he urged the disbanding of the Congressional Black Caucus, suggested that the definition of what it means to be an American is tied to speaking English, and likened Miami to a Third World country.

Yet Tancredo was seen as a fine prospect by the San Diego Minutemen who -- in an evaluation of presidential candidates on their Web site -- listed him as "acceptable." In the "unacceptable" column, you'll find Mike Huckabee, who, oddly enough, was recently endorsed by Jim Gilchrist, one of the co-founders of the Minuteman Project. Huckabee is hoping that the endorsement convinces the nativist wing of the Republican Party to forgive and forget that the former Arkansas governor once backed in-state college tuition for illegal immigrant students.

Here's the sad part. Huckabee did the right thing in Arkansas. If an illegal immigrant child moves to Little Rock at the age of 2, and lives there with her family until she is old enough to apply to college, we can assume that -- by that point -- her parents would have paid a bundle in taxes. Why shouldn't that college student get the same in-state tuition break that goes to other similarly situated students who happen to be citizens? Oh yes, because she and her family are illegal immigrants.

But even if Huckabee does need help polishing his tough-guy persona on illegal immigration, cozying up to the likes of Gilchrist buys trouble. Here you have someone who has been under fire from his own troops and accused of misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from supporters. Gilchrist denies those charges, insists that the funds in question went toward legitimate expenses, and accuses his accusers -- which include former board members of the Minuteman Project -- of attempting a "hijacking" of the group. A former CPA, Gilchrist has admitted to "temporary mismanagement" of funds that included bounced checks. But he told the Associated Press that -- having done more than 1,000 media interviews -- he doesn't "have time to cross every 't' and dot every 'i.'"

Here's the funny part: Suddenly, other anti-illegal immigration activists are hounding him with the same zeal with which he once hounded illegal immigrants at the border. After Gilchrist appeared with Huckabee at a news conference in Iowa, the vigilante leader was bludgeoned on the Internet by nativists who believe Huckabee is soft on illegal immigration and that Gilchrist is out for Gilchrist.

You don't say. The former marine/journalist/accountant appears to have floated from one career to another before taking on the illegal immigration issue as his meal ticket. Gilchrist convinced himself that people actually care about his opinion on illegal immigration -- and presidential politics? Most people don't, and that includes some of Gilchrist's former disciples in the border watcher movement. Many are now trying to discredit him. The dissenters can't just disagree with Gilchrist. They think they've got to destroy him. That's how zealots are. They eat their own kind. When there is so much anger all of it gets directed everywhere -- at the media, the Bush administration, the Mexican government, and now at each other.

A presidential election always turns into a bit of a circus. And what's a circus without the clowns?

© 2007, Washington Post Writers Group