Rachel Maddow responds to Tom Tancredo's racist screed on Rick Sanchez's show comparing La Raza to the KKK. She explains what the NCLR's mission actually is.

"Strengthening America by promoting the advancement of Latino families." And as Rachel notes "it's also the largest national Hispanic and advocacy organization in the United States". La Raza responded to Tancredo as reported by the Colorado Independent:

La Raza blasts Tancredo for Klan comparison: ‘Get his facts straight’:

The National Council of La Raza doesn’t think much of former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo’s attack on the 40-year-old civil rights organization as “a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses.” The Littleton Republican made the claim Thursday afternoon in an interview on CNN, arguing his claim that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sottomayor “appears to be racist.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” National Council of La Raza spokesperson Lisa Navarrete told The Colorado Independent. “He’s defamed our organization and told falsehoods about our organization without any basis in fact or evidence. That’s not who we are or what we do.

“If you look at Mr. Tancredos’ record, he’s often spoken about things he doesn’t know anything about.”

While the stakes couldn’t be higher, with Sotomayor poised to become the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court, Navarrete sounded more weary than incensed over Tancredo’s latest antic.

“He’s at the far extreme of the Republican Party,” she said. “He’s someone who has been instrumental in alienating the Republican Party from the Latino community. We’ve been urging the Republican Party to try to outreach to the Latino community, and they did a good job of it until they let people like Tom Tancredo take over the debate on immigration.”