The 10 Worst Congressmen

6. MR. BIGOTRY
TOM TANCREDO (R-COLO.)

The House Immigration Reform Caucus certainly has its share of hard-core xenophobes: One member, Rep. Steve King of Iowa, calls illegal immigration a "terrorist attack on the United States" and wants to erect an electrified fence to control Mexicans like livestock. But the founder of the caucus -- and the undisputed king of Republican bigotry -- is Tancredo, a dark-horse presidential contender for 2008. "He's got the best track record in Congress," raves Gordon Baum, head of the Council for Conservative Citizens, a "pro-white" group that lauds Tancredo for protecting America from a "full-scale invasion" of Latin immigrants.

Elected to the House in 1998, Tancredo has not only led the fight to deport every undocumented worker in America -- a proposal that would cost at least $200 billion -- but has called for halting all immigration, legal and otherwise. In one unforgettable move, Tancredo wanted to deport the family of an undocumented high school boy who was profiled in The Denver Post for his perfect grades.

The grandson of Italian immigrants, Tancredo traces his interest in politics to the eighth grade, when he played Fidel Castro in a class assignment. He urges America to reject "the siren song of multiculturalism" and depicts Islam as "a civilization bent on destroying ours." In September, when Pope Benedict XVI sparked riots by condemning Islam as "evil," Tancredo urged him not to apologize. Even the right has noted his unbridled looniness on the subject: In July, when Tancredo proposed that America respond to any future terrorist attack by bombing Mecca and other holy sites, the National Review came to an unavoidable conclusion: "Tom Tancredo is an idiot."

TIM DICKINSON