http://www.denverpost.com/spencer/ci_4354511The expression is "You ain't just whistling Dixie."
Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo wasn't whistling. He was singing Dixie. He was also standing in a Columbia, S.C., museum room with Confederate flags and a picture of Robert E. Lee.
The guy who booked the room once protested the placement of a statue honoring black tennis star Arthur Ashe.
Tancredo spoke to a crowd that included the League of the South, a secessionist organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a bigoted hate group. The league now embraces Tancredo's stands on illegal immigration.
It is "highly possible" that members of the South Carolina Council of Conservative Citizens also were on hand for Tancredo's speech, a local chapter spokesman told me. The CofCC has staged demonstrations for the enforcement-only immigration reform Tancredo backs. snip
I asked to speak to Tancredo about the divisive symbolism of the Confederate flag and Dixie. He chose not to talk.