Backlash builds against Keyes' remarks

Chicago Tribune ^ | September 1, 2004 | Jennifer Skalka

[MikeJ75]

NEW YORK -- U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes stridently defended his statements about the vice president's gay daughter today even as Illinois Republican leaders expressed reactions ranging from dismay to disgust.

[MikeJ75]

Illinois Republican Party leaders seem to be deserting Alan Keyes. Ambassador Keyes needs to get this situation under control quickly, and Illinios Republican Party leaders need to develop some talking points for this issue.

Here are some quotes from the article:

"I think those views are not only extreme but offensive," former Gov. James Thompson told reporters during a state delegation breakfast today. "I think the people of Illinois will find those remarks offensive," Thompson said, "and I think it's an offense to the political process that we have to suffer a candidate on our ticket who says things like that."

Judy Baar Topinka, the state party chairwoman, today railed against Keyes, calling his remarks about Cheney "idiotic." "I think it's nasty, and I don't like nasty politics," she said. "You don't pick on people's kids. Kids are off limits."

State Rep. Tom Cross, the House Republican leader, joked with reporters about the length of Keyes' lease on his apartment in Calumet City. "My suspicion is we will see and hear from candidate Keyes for the next 60 days, and after that he'll probably be out of Illinois," Cross said.

[HitmanLV]

Keyes is clearly well off the reservation. Nip him in the bud and have the GOP run a sock puppet.

[psjones]

They should have kept Ryan.

[sarasota]

Keyes went too far and he's lost me.

[BunnySlippers]

His comments could have been tempered and avoided. Instead he stepped in a puddle. Keyes never was ready for Primetime.

[AD from SpringBay]

Go Keyes!

The Illinois GOP Juggernaut will surely help him overcome this fo-pa.

[muawiyah]

There's an older theory that regards homosexuality as being entirely voluntary. Folks who indulge in it are, under that theory, considered hedonists.

If there's a problem here it's that so many of the people mouthing off about what Amb. Keyes said are ignorant of the history of homosexual analysis and evaluation, as well as of what terms mean.

If anything, this sounds like a "white folks" version of the outrage some African-Americans exhibit in the face of the word "niggardly".

I would imagine Amb. Keyes will have to learn how to talk more politely, and more PC, around "whitey", eh?!

[CzarNicky]

Keyes is right. He has nothing to be sorry for.

[flashbunny]

yep.

I'm thinking keyes may have laid a bet against himself in vegas and wants to make sure he beats the spread.

[MaineRepublic]

I can only feel pity for bigoted dinosaurs who still think their loud opinions are right.

[ahadams2]

just the usual complaints from the usual RINO types who have kept the GOP in IL down for years....

[vox humana]

Keyes is DOA. With his offensive remarks he just wrote his own political obituary.

[TBarnett34]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is why Keyes has never won an election.

[GSlob]

"...Cheney's daughter is just as bad as all of them, I don't care who her father is."
Really? There are homosexuals who quietly go about their lives, as they have every right to do unobstructed, and then there is in-your-face variety, who insist on the right to engage in it in the streets and in the process frighten the horses. I'd say that the latter are bad, while the former could be charitably overlooked.

[MarcoPolo]

What exactly did he say? Seriously, I don't have a subscription to the Tribune, so it won't let me read the article.

If Keyes called her degenerate, immoral, hedonistic, or any such term then I'm with him totally. I don't care who her daddy is. Nobody gets a pass on immorality, period.

[Texas Eagle]

LOL! Speaking of selfish hedonists.

[sinkspur]

If Keyes called her degenerate, immoral, hedonistic, or any such term then I'm with him totally. I don't care who her daddy is. Nobody gets a pass on immorality, period.

Hope you never masturbated as a teenager.

Otherwise, you're a friggin' degenerate, by your own definition.