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I Did Not Personalize This

ArchPundit September 1, 2004 No Comments

That depends on your definition of personalize. From the Sun-Times:

NEW YORK?Illinois GOP chairwoman Judy Baar Topinka said today that her party?s nominee for the U.S. Senate, Alan Keyes, should apologize for what she called his ?idiotic? statement that vice presidential daughter Mary Cheney and all homosexuals, are ?selfish hedonists.?

But Keyes refused to back down today, saying he was merely stating what he believes is the truth, as he would to his own daughter if she engaged in lesbian acts.

?If my own daughter were a homosexual or lesbian, I would love my daughter, but I would tell her she was in sin,? Keyes said.

Keyes first made the remarks Monday night in his interview with a satellite radio network geared toward gays and lesbians. Keyes emphasized it was a reporter, not he, who brought up the name of Mary Cheney, who the vice president has publicly acknowledged is gay.

?I did not personalize this,? Keyes said, blaming the media for inserting Cheney?s name into his academic discussion.

Let’s take a look back:

Replied Keyes: “Dick Cheney may or many not like to hear the truth, but it can be spoken.”

Now, no one can resist setting Keyes up for this kind of hysterical fun, but when you talk about a father not wanting to hear the truth in relation to his daughter, you’ve very much personalized it.

Life on Planet Keyes

ArchPundit September 1, 2004 No Comments

Crain’s is having fun with the Keyes candidacy. The key to the article is the end:

Later, he belched forth several observations about “moral issues, the greatest challenge facing this country,” when I asked on which issues he intends to focus.

This despite the nearly universal fear among Illinois delegates that he needs to talk a whole lot more about economic issues or he’s going to drive swing voters away in droves. Says Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Ill., perhaps Mr. Keyes’ biggest supporter among Illinois GOP elected officials: “What is the likelihood of directing him? I’ve begged him to stay strictly on those issues.”

Judging from our talk over waffles and his fire-and-brimstone address to the delegates later?his first speech to them this week?Mr. Keyes clearly intends to keep the decay of family values, declining church attendance, abortion, gay marriage, et cetera, at the center of his campaign.

Which brings up his opponent, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who’s ahead in the polls by a few light years of his own.

Asked what government can do about getting more people to attend church, Mr. Keyes replies: “Nothing. Government can get out of the way and create an environment in which people take care of themselves.”

But Mr. Obama, to whom Keyes refers as not merely a liberal but a “socialist,” is one who “wants to tell people what to do.”

Funny, all this talk about morality sounds like Mr. Keyes is the one who wants people to start meeting his standards.

I guess that’s just the way it is on Planet Keyes.

You know, it might have been a wise idea to figure out his ‘style’ before you offered him the slot for GOP nominee. Just a thought.

Worst Headline For Keyes

ArchPundit September 1, 2004 7 Comments

From the Lincoln Courier

Keyes: No time for Illinoisans

Yes, I know the context, but that’s a bad start to any story.

Herald Has the Objection to Keyes Filing

ArchPundit September 1, 2004 4 Comments

And it’s potentially tied to Lipinski. My favorite Democrat right now (that’s sarcasm for the slower folks out there)

Leonard A. De Clue, a 54-year-old Oak Lawn Democrat, filed the objection Monday, citing a problem with the paperwork the Illinois Republican Party filed to put Maryland’s Keyes on the Nov. 2 ballot in place of the departed primary winner Jack Ryan.

The state GOP did not know where Keyes would be living when it offered him the Senate position, so it left that line blank on a required election form, then went back to fill in the address days later when it learned Keyes had chosen an apartment in Calumet City as his residence. That’s the basis for the objection.

De Clue could not be reached for comment late Tuesday night. But he has ties to Jerry Hurckes, who is retiring Chicago Democratic Congressman William Lipinski’s chief of staff. Hurckes and De Clue have served on Oak Lawn’s fair housing panel.

Ummm..don’t you dare get this man off of the ballot. He’s gold to Democrats and bloggers.

Syverson was Amazed

ArchPundit September 1, 2004 2 Comments

Buyer’s remorse is setting in

Other delegates, including state Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford), a Keyes supporter, was amazed, as was Judy Baar Topinka, the chairman of the Illinois Republicans, who can’t stand Keyes

Obama and Civil Unions

ArchPundit August 19, 2004 1 Comment

Obama Truth Squad’s newest bit is out, but not posted yet.

They take on Obama’s position on gay marriage, but misrepresent the questions being dealt with.

Oak Park, IL ? In a letter to the editor of the ?Windy City Times? on February 11, 2004 US Sen. candidate State Sen. Barack Obama wrote:

?For the record, I opposed DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act] in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.?

They then cite the Annenberg Poll that shows that 61% of people oppose gay marriage.

But that is a different question. Barack supports civil unions, not gay marriage and he opposes the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.

How does the public feel about civil unions?

In a CBS/New York Times poll

Support Gay marriage 28
Support Civil Unions 31
Oppose Both 38
Undecided 3

Oppose both stays right around 40% in several polls. A majority of people think there should be some sort of legal recognition available for gay couples. What exactly that entails is a good question as many people don’t seem to have firm understanding of all the issues.

To the other part of the critique, DOMA is significant because it forbids gay marriages where they may be legal from conveying the rights of married couples. So in Massachusetts one can legally have a same sex marriage, but cannot receive federal benefits that go with marriage. Repealing DOMA would allow the federal government to recognize a state’s choice as to what a marriage is.

Further muddying the issues in the post is the reference to Missouri’s State Constitutional Amendment. That amendment defined marriage as only between a man and a woman. But if you change the wording to a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage, support drops significantly–how the question is asked frames the question.

When phrased the following way:

“Would you favor or oppose a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman, thus barring marriages between gay or lesbian couples?” Form B (N=506, MoE ? 5)

7/19-21/04 Yes 48 No 46 D/K 6

But when asked this way:

“Would you favor or oppose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution saying that no state can allow two men to marry each other or two women to marry each other?”

Favor/Oppose Amendment
6/16-30/04 43 48
5/2-16/04 42 50
2/14-23/04 41 48

And finally when asked this way (most similar to Missouri’s language)

“Would you favor or oppose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would allow marriage ONLY between a man and a woman?” N=1,113 adults, MoE ? 3 (for all adults)

Favor 60 Oppose 37 D/K 3

Given the effect of the above is the same as a ban, the public views the issue different depending on how it is framed.

The public is squishy on the issue and if you delve deeper the public generally supports things like visitation rights and rights upon death, but the word marriage is a big sticking point. Barack’s views are close to the middle on this issue.

Proft checks Into the Leader Looper Boards

ArchPundit August 19, 2004 No Comments

Here:

Just so everyone is clear as they needlessly and erroneously (surpise) criticize ex-Ryan staffers about doing the Keyes race for the money, there is no monetary reason to do the Keyes race because we (me and other ex-Ryan people) make the same either way.

For the nabobs of nonsense out there, you will recall Jack agreed to pay staff to November or until they found other gainful employment, whichever came first. Thus, the actual incentive for those concerned was to have a three month vacation and let the ILGOP do what it wanted to do. Several of us chose not to do that in the interests of not giving up this important fight at this critical time in IL’s history and really our nation’s history as control of the US Senate hangs in the balance.

Criticize me all you want but the blanket critiques of ex-Jack Ryan staffers are preposterous and unfair…and coming from those, I suspect, who know not of what they speak.

I am always wary of interjecting facts in response to some of the posts made because I so hate to dampen the zeal with which some offer their delightful albeit baseless rants.

Ah well…which is more improbable I wonder: U.S. Senator Alan Keyes or an end to certain conservatives cursing the darkness and engaging in the very hypocrisy they relish pointing out when the targets are liberals? Perhaps the latter is key to begetting the former? Just a thought…

regards,

dan proft

Leader Looper Fun

ArchPundit August 19, 2004 1 Comment

From a hysterical thread on Keyes

Well I?ll just state the events of yesterday dampen my enthusiasm for a variety of reasons, not least of which is there is no mention of reparations for those who had their ?property? seized by the state without just compensation. So where are the reparations for the descendents of slave holders?

Yes, this man apparently wants reparations for slave holders who lost their ‘property’.