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What Are the Leader Editorial Writer’s On?

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 4 Comments

Because they need to take some more to make the next three months seem palatable.

— If all goes as expected tomorrow, Illinois will enjoy a U.S. Senate campaign like none this nation has seen literally since 1858. That campaign also happened to be in Illinois and featured our state’s standard-bearer, Abraham Lincoln, and Stephen Douglas.

In 1858 Douglas won the race but Lincoln won the history. It is our hope that this year the Republican will win the election as well as the history.

Lincoln’s going to rise from the grave and sue someone for libel if they are actually comparing him to Alan Keyes.

That said, the basic problem left out of this whole process is this clown has run two campaigns for Senate and lost handily both times. Why is this going to be different? Did anyone in the Central Committee meeting bring this up? Or did everyone not bother to think about why he lost the last two times? If he’s so damn inspiring why isn’t he speaking from the Senate Floor instead of on the radio?

What? Is he all of a sudden going to hit Illinois voters with a wingnut spell of quackery and all of a sudden they start yabbering about Natural Law?

But They Sure Remembered Him

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 2 Comments

From the AP, August 1, 2000 in an article on Keyes and the Maryland GOP

Keyes’ unwillingness to compromise cost him his 1992 campaign against incumbent Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Terhes said. His first and major blunder was his insistence on taking an $8,000 a month salary from his campaign funds, she said.

Terhes tried in vain to dissuade Keys, but said he wanted to do things his way. “We pleaded, begged, cajoled and did everything we could and he would not listen,” Terhes said.

To make matters worse, Keyes called the Republican senatorial campaign committee racist because it would not sink money into his campaign.

He also scolded members of his state GOP when they didn’t back his bid for a prime-time speaking slot at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston.

“He called us racists,” recalls Carol Arscott, a Republican, who works as a political consultant in Annapolis. If Keyes gets no respect, she said there’s a reason why: “Because he gives zero respect.”

About a week ago, I wondered how this trainwreck could possibly be made worse. I now have about a million different ways and they are all revolving around Alan Keyes.

Does anyone at the GOP have Google or Lexis?

Four Years Later

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 No Comments

On October 25, 1992 The Washington Post writes almost the same thing:

In the Senate, Democrat Barbara Mikulski — rising quickly through the ranks to become a member of key committees — has clearly earned reelection. Her Republican opponent, Alan Keyes, is every bit the aggressive conservative that he was during his unsuccessful 1988 challenge of Paul Sarbanes — only this year his frenetic doctrinal outbursts have been coupled with self-righteous, wing-to-wing trashing of his own party. Adding to this self-destructive political performance was his decision to draw a salary from his campaign funds and his near-total lack of familiarity with constituent concerns.

Keyes Didn’t Even Know Much About Maryland

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 No Comments

Washington Post, November 6, 1988

MARYLAND has been blessed with an unusually strong and representative congressional delegation — senators and members of the House who by and large are respected and given important assignments. Leading the list for reelection this year is Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, who clearly has earned reelection. His hard work and off-stage contributions as a member of key committees continue to outweigh criticisms that he has to yet exercise his talents to the fullest or move out into a vocal leadership role on behalf of his constituents. Republican challenger Alan Keyes is an aggressive conservative intellectual. Energetically, Mr. Keyes has been pronouncing doctrine that surely has put more philosophical distance between these two candidates than any others paired for the Senate this year. Absent from his theories, however, has often been much evidence of a knowledge of Maryland or of familiarity with the concerns of its many constituencies.

Well, at least he’s had some practice at not knowing much about the state he is running to represent.

Keyes Split the Maryland GOP

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 No Comments

Did you know that Keyes didn’t run in the 1988 primary for the Republican nomination for the US Senate seat from Maryland? Nope, he replaced a guy who dropped out.

From the Washington Post, June 26, 1988:

But for all the talk of unity, there were noticeable no-shows at the convention. Neither of the two Republican members of Congress from Maryland — Helen D. Bentley of Baltimore nor Constance A. Morella of Montgomery County — attended the convention, nor did any of the Republicans who serve in the Maryland General Assembly.

Keyes at first shrugged this off and then became angry at reporters who pressed the issue. The news conference ended with Keyes in a shouting match with a radio talk show host from Baltimore.

It’s like history repeating itself–just farther west.

Keyes Fundraising For Randall Terry

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 No Comments

Dandy

Dear Pro-life Activist:

An outrage has occurred. And together, we need to right this wrong.

Randall Terry, the Founder of Operation Rescue, has lost everything because of his work in rescuing babies from abortion. Abortion clinics, Planned Parenthood, NOW, and the ACLU have been suing Randall in court for over ten years. They finally won, and took everything Randall owned.

It is our strong conviction that Randall has endured this prolonged conflict not only on behalf of unborn babies, but also on behalf of the entire pro-life community. And it is our strong belief that the pro-life community should join together to replace what was “consumed by the locusts.”

We want to restore what the enemy took, and help equip Randall for the battles that lie ahead. In spite of everything he has endured, he is still in the fight.

If you have appreciated and been inspired by Randall Terry’s many years of unselfish work for Christ and for the unborn, we encourage you to join us in helping him rebuild his life.

Please make as generous a contribution as possible, would you? $25, $50, or $1,000 if you can, and then show this letter to a pro-life friend and your church and ask them if they would like to give to our fund too.

Randall has stood in the line of fire for years. Now let’s stand up for him. Please do what you can! Make your check out to the Terry Family Trust.

God bless you,

Former Ambassador Alan Keyes
U.S.Congressman Ron Paul, 14th District, Texas
Fr. Frank Pavone, Founding Director, Priests for Life
Rich Buhler, Author, Speaker, Broadcaster
Joe Costello, Pres., Kylea Health and Nutrition
Warren Duffy, Host, Live From LA
Fr. Terry Gensemer, Director, CEC for Life
Norma McCorvey, Roe No More Ministries
Gary McCullough, Christian Communication Network
Rev. Bruce Moore, Pastor, ClearCreek Christian Assembly
Carl Thompson, Head of Operations, PromiseVision

Praising Randall Terry for his efforts of course raises the interesting questions of just how much does Keyes agree with Terry. Randall has some unfortunate baggage in his personal life including a daughter who converted to Islam when she became pregnant and a gay adopted son Randall has disowned (neither kid is unfortunate other than in relation to the Terry’s views). But even more unfortunate is his belief in theocracy. Usually people joke about someone being a theocrat, but in the case of Randall Terry, it is no joke.

Of course, one of the more pedantic lectures from sensitive pony-tail guy in college always involved the overuse of the word patriarchy and some babbling about overthrowing it. Randall outdoes SPTG with a stirring defense of patriarchy:

Randall Terry and many other Christian Right leaders earnestly believe that someday they will be running this country. What kind of “Christian nation” do Terry and his comrades envision? Well, in referring to doctors who perform abortions, Terry said, “When I, or people like me, are running the country, you’d better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we’ll execute you. I mean every word of it.” He added, “I will make it part of my mission to see to it that they are tried and executed.”

“You say, ‘This is extreme!'” he continued, “Yeah, you’re right. But imagine God Almighty sending people to hell just because they didn’t follow His son? That’s extreme. That’s intolerance. Imagine Jesus saying that all other religions are false. Christianity claims to be the only way.”

In a “Christian America” women would lose more than their right of privacy; women would be pushed back to second class citizenship. Terry emphasized the need for male leadership in America.

“The greatest crisis we face is not child killing,” he declared, “it’s not the sodomites, it’s not land tax, it’s not the intrusion of the federal government into our lives, our families, as they crush our liberties. The greatest crisis we face tonight is a crisis of leadership. We are facing a crisis of righteous, courageous, physically oriented, male leadership. Male leadership!”

“God established patriarchy when he established the world. God established a patriarchal world, Terry said.” “If we’re going to have true reformation in America, it is because men once again, if I may use a worn out expression, have righteous testosterone flowing through their veins. They are not afraid of the contempt of their contemporaries. They are not here to get along. They are not even here to take issue. They are here to take over!”

I gotta give Alan this, he has some interesting friends. Of course, Alan is in favor of a theocracy so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising.

A bit more over at Emily’s Blog

Contraception Threatens Marriage

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 5 Comments

I believe Josh Marshall suggested his rants about gay marriage would discuss how that would lead to the weakening of marriage, but Alan takes it a step further, contraception is a cause of marriage breakdown.

No-fault divorce introduced the breakdown of marriage, said Keyes. Contraception greatly advanced it. And now the suppression of the child from marriage from marriage has become a fundamental right – even if the most extreme means are called for.

Now, of course, some people are personally against contraception and that is their business, but claiming it leads to the dissolution of marriage is wacky. As the father of twins, trust me, contraception can strengthen a marriage.

On top of this, we know, Keyes would end Griswold–the case that said contraception was covered under the right to privacy, but would he legislate against the availabitity of contraceptives?

Homosexuality Leads to Totalitarianism

ArchPundit August 8, 2004 No Comments

Did anyone at the Republican Central Committee try google for a couple minutes?

“That would destroy, by the way, the very idea of freedom itself. The whole concept of freedom is based on the notion that human beings do, in fact, have a capacity for moral choice for which they can be held accountable and responsible. . If we are going to turn away from that, and see ourselves as a function of our national passions, helpless in the face of all of these whims of passionate desire that blow us hither and thither, than we are little better, in fact, than animals in a maze. And the best you could hope for is to structure society in such a way that we don’t harm each other and ourselves too much. That’s called totalitarianism – and that is exactly what is implied if we accept the key premise of the homosexual agenda.”
-Alan Keyes

The Church of Illinois

ArchPundit August 7, 2004 No Comments

Oh, that would be fun wouldn’t it? Hell, George Ryan could have sold indulgences instead of drivers licences.

But where does this come from? Alan Keyes who thinks states ought to be able to establish religions:

Americans should demand that they be granted “what the tyranny of the courts has sought to wrest from us — the freedom to live in communities that are governed by laws that reflect our beliefs,” Keyes said, adding that what a state does regarding religion is “none of the federal government’s business.”

When the First Amendment was passed, he noted, “there were a majority of states in the United States … where there were religious tests” and there were “established churches.”

If religious tests and established churches were unconstitutional, Keyes said, then they would have been abolished prior to the First Amendment’s passage. Such a state-sanctioned church would be sanctioned not by the federal government but instead by an individual state, he said.

Of course, what Alan misses is the minor addition of the 14 amendment that actually applied the First Amendment to the states, but, you know, details, schmetails.

Even better, he was at a rally to defend Judge Roy Moore.

Keyes On Evolution

ArchPundit August 7, 2004 3 Comments

It just gets better and better:

Even at the highest level of discourse in our religion, in our faith, in our society, you have folks who are actually willing to act as if this is some kind of secondary matter where one can easily cede to the authority of ?modern science? without much detrimental effect upon anything else. And yet, if you even think about it for a minute, the implications of the understanding of the world, but especially of ourselves, that evolution represents, utterly destroys the foundation for any sense of a transcendent basis for human justice. And as a matter of fact, one ought to see that in the natural paradigm that evolution itself represents, the one that is most often, of course, presented ? and they’ll always tell you that it’s an oversimplification and so forth and so on, but at some level they’re lying ? because whoever stood up and made it clear that you summarize the whole business, at least in terms of what you might consider its social relevance, with the old phrase, ?the survival of the fittest,? right? Well, however you want to and with whatever complexity you want to interpret it, what that really suggests is that outcome validates existence. That’s what you’re really talking about. And in that sense, we’re looking at a situation in which, if there is any standard at all, that standard is simply what works. Whether you want to call it survival, dominance, whatever, the standard is simply ‘what works.’ But not what works in some general or cosmic sense, no, because the whole disappears. By this understanding, what works is to be understood only from the point of view of the particular being. And it reminds me, I think it was the start of an old TV show, ‘Hunter,’ and at the end of the m?lange that used to open the show, the hero would be beating up on somebody, and would be standing over him and they’d be closing out the credits and he would say, ?It works for me!?

Bad science meets bad religion meets bad politics.