Carpetbagger Keyes considers Illinois senate race

Marylanders know Alan Keyes the carpetbagger very well. Several times he ran for the Senate here but could never get elected. A few elections ago he made a run for the presidency.

Keyes doesn't have a chance of beating Obama. Keyes is a horrible debator and speaker. Obama was fabulous when he spoke at the Democratic convention.

Keyes is another token black put up by the GOP just like Condi Rice and Colin Powell.

Joe and Dog Lover,

I agree with both of you on the "carpetbagging" issue. I didn't like it when Mrs. Clinton ran for the Senate from New York, where she wasn't from. Likewise, if Mr. Keyes decides to run for the Senate from Illinois, I won't be enchanted with the idea for the same reason.

On the other hand, politically, I agree with most of what Mr. Keyes says. I agree he isn't the world's best speaker. I realize that in the real world that matters quite a bit, though it's a real shame. I guess I'm still naive enough to think that it's issues that should be important, and not personalities.

I agree that Hillary is a carpetbagger. She had no business running for Senator from New York.

When Keyes ran for the Senate here in Maryland it was rumored that he used some of the campaign contributions for his personal use. I simply don't trust him or his motives.

I do, however, agree with him on several issues and he is an intelligent man. I just don't think he is Senate or Presidential material.

BTW...you are far from naive Jim...LOL

So Keyes is a carpetbagger. So was Hillary Clinton, if anybody wants to remember that. Her supporters don't have any problem with it.

What's with defensive attitude Foxfyre...LOL!

Take them blinders off baby, they're blocking your objectivity.

Okay, guilty as charged. But in my own defense, most of Hillary's admirers would object to the term.

I'll actually be surprised if Keyes agrees to this. He has always struck me as a highly principled man and this would so go against his views re carpetbagging. But the idea of being a U.S. senator would be pretty alluring.

Here are some excerpts from Keyes's announcement of his candidacy. Regarding the "carpetbagger issue," Keyes noted that he had been approached before to run for office outside of his home state of Maryland. In the past, Keyes responded:

And on those occasions, I listened, as I always try to do, politely, and I told them no. And I told them no for a number of reasons. First, as I will talk to you about--because I actually have a clear and serious objection, in principle, to the notion that people of national reputation have the right to go around this country, cherry-picking the states as platforms for their ambition. I do. I have said it repeatedly, it's not a good thing to be done.

But, apparently, in looking at Barack Obama's stand on the issues, Keyes came to a realization:

And I'll tell you clearly and unequivocally. By the time I got through those parts of his record, I was absolutely convinced that SOMEBODY had to run against Barack Obama!

Still, that wasn't enough to convince Keyes to drop his longstanding opposition to out-of-state candidates "cherry-picking" electoral contests, until:

What finally caught my eye, however, and what we have to spend some time thinking through so that we will understand, not just the significance of the decision I have taken, but the significance of this election overall, what we have to look at is what finally arrested my attention and forced me to consider whether I not only had the opportunity to oppose him, but the obligation. And that is when I learned that he had actually, in April 2002, apparently cast a vote that would continue to allow live birth abortions in the state of Illinois.

And so we learn that some issues are so important that they excuse hypocrisy. Thus Dr. Alan Keyes, who had castigated Hillary Clinton for her decision to run for senate from New York, who long held to his belief that "carpetbagging" is "not a good thing," finally sacrificed his convictions on the sacred altar of fetophilia.

My prediction: Obama 75% of the popular vote, Keyes 24%, minor candidates 1%.

He seems anxious to make a bigger fool of himself. Keyes is better off remaining a talk show host.

Talk show host? LOL Keyes had a talk show on WCBM here in Baltimore for several years and the show was terrible.

I think he's more suited for a reality TV show like Nip & Tuck. :wink:

Did you know that Obama has attracted attention back here? A Dutch journalist who works for NOS, a large Dutch broadcasting station, even believed Obama would be fit for running for the presidency in 2008 if Kerry is not elected these elections.

Somehow I knew that within two or three posts on this thread, Hillary would be mentioned. Fair enough. I'm only surprised that McGentrix wasn't the first to out Hillary on this issue for the umpteenth time.

Having said that, I must say that the Illinois GOP is showing some imagination nominating Keyes, pitting two African Americans against each other. That's gotta be a first! Of course, they were running out of other potential candidates...

No doubt about it, Obama is a rising star in the democratic party.

As much as I would like to believe that America is ready to elect a black man to the presidency, I don't see it happening in 2008 and not for Obama in particuliar. However, should his star continue to shine, I think he would be either presidential or vice presidential material in twenty years or so. Maybe by then America will have evolved its way past the racism that still exists in 2004.

The Republicans have admitted they don't expect to win in IL. Their goal seems to be just to "rough" Obama up a little.

Bascially they won't spend time, money and effort trying to run on issues or a platform that would help the people of IL. Nope........Their sole purpose is to have an opportunity to smear, malign and engage in dirty politics because they just can't stand the idea of a Democrat not being pulled through the mud.

Alan Keye's role is that of his just loving to hear himself talk. So for a few months he gets to have the media cover his self bovating rantings. The fact that he's a hypocrite doesn't seem to have hindered him. I guess just the chance to smear someone and listen to your own voice while not actually working for the people is reason enough for Keye's to lay himself out as the sacraficial lamb.

I do believe that if Kerry had Obama's charisma, Bush would be backing his bags right now :wink:

I think you're right, Rick...

Did I say backing? I mean packing.

Illinois GOP failed to ask right questions about Keyes
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.kane04sep04,0,6885807.column?coll=bal-news-columnists

Illinois GOP failed to ask right questions about Keyes
Gregory Kane
September 4, 2004
Chicago Tribune

WE HAVE Alan Keyes, the Marylander running on the Republican ticket for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, for this week's lesson in what happens when erudite people are asked stupid questions.

We also have Keyes to thank for another question: How stupid are Illinois Republicans?

The first order of business is to deal with the stupid question a radio show host put to Keyes this week after he called homosexuality "selfish hedonism." The questioner asked if Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, was a selfish hedonist. Keyes answered, "Of course, she is."

The media had a field day reporting that Keyes had called Cheney's daughter a "selfish hedonist." But note that Keyes didn't bring up Mary Cheney's name. The questioner did. What was Keyes supposed to say? All homosexuals except Mary Cheney are selfish hedonists, and the only reason she's not is because she's Dick Cheney's daughter?

Keyes answered the question about a controversial social topic the way he always does: honest, straightforward, pulling no punches. He ran for the Senate here in Maryland partly on a platform that strongly opposed abortion. I was working part-time at the Maryland Science Center then and asked three or four young women who worked there what they thought of Keyes' position on abortion.

"That's none of his business," all replied.

"I don't think Keyes is going to win this election," I remember telling each of them.

Keyes never will win an election. He's too blunt and too uncompromising to be in public office. He also should be reminded -- I suspect Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Barack Obama, who actually lives in the state, will do this -- that the question isn't whether homosexuality is or isn't "selfish hedonism." We all have a bit of hedonism in us, and it seems odd to attribute it to gays alone. The question is whether even "selfish hedonists" -- of the gay and ungay variety -- have citizenship rights under state constitutions and the U.S. Constitution.

The 14th Amendment, with its clear language that all people born here are citizens (it makes no exception for "selfish hedonists"), seems to say yes. But the 10th Amendment, which succinctly distinguishes between federal and state powers, seems to say such matters as gay rights and gay marriage are best left to state legislatures. And for all the debate about both, here's where Keyes and I part company on "selfish hedonists": I'd vote for a gay conservative candidate for public office over a liberal heterosexual one, the way Democrats once did, which is to say early and often.

Keyes and other conservatives may not realize it, but a conservative gay legislator or judge who believes that things like abortion and gay marriage are the purviews of state legislatures -- not federal judges who root around in the "penumbra" of the Constitution where they don't belong -- will do far less damage than liberal heterosexual ones. Such a judge or legislator might be the one who will break the sad news to conservatives that a federal ruling that outlawed abortion in states where it was legal would have been just as wrong as the one that legalized it in states where it was outlawed, or who believes, as members of the gay group the Pink Pistols do, that the Second Amendment gives gays -- and by extension all people -- the right to publicly carry firearms to ward off gay-bashers.

Indeed, it is such conservatives who might be members of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay and lesbian GOP stalwarts. They took umbrage at Keyes' remarks, and I can't blame them.

Now Illinois Republicans are left tongue-tied and apologetic about the "selfish hedonism" controversy. It serves them right. By what logic do they ask a Marylander to run for the Senate in Illinois? Because he's black, Republican and conservative? Didn't they bother to ask anybody here why Keyes couldn't win a senatorial race in the state where he lived?

Folks will give various reasons why. I'll stick to the ones above. Keyes is a brilliant man, schooled in the Constitution, who believes, unlike many today, that the document means what it says: The powers of the federal government are extremely limited, and those powers not specifically delegated to it are reserved to the states and the people.

When Keyes is debating his opponents and making those points, that's when he's at his best. He wasn't earlier this week. But when you get Alan Keyes, you get the whole package. Someone should have told Illinois Republicans that when it comes to social issues, Keyes speaks his mind.

Or, since they figured they had to put one black guy up against another, they might have heeded that famous Afro-American adage: If you don't know, you'd better ask somebody.