Posted on 08/09/2004 6:31:20 PM PDT by wagglebee
Republican Alan Keyes ripped into Democratic rival Barack Obama's views on abortion Monday, calling them "the slaveholder's position," as the U.S. Senate race roared back to life in Illinois.
Up at dawn for a whirlwind round of broadcast interviews, the conservative former diplomat started his first full day of campaigning as the GOP candidate by saying Obama, a state senator from Chicago, had violated the principle that all men are created equal by voting against a bill that would have outlawed a form of late-term abortion.
Keyes said legalizing abortion deprives the unborn of their equal rights.
"I would still be picking cotton if the country's moral principles had not been shaped by the Declaration of Independence," Keyes said. He said Obama "has broken and rejected those principles-- he has taken the slaveholder's position."
The remarks underscore the uniqueness of this Senate race in which both candidates, one an outspoken conservative and the other a favorite of party liberals, are black.
Obama, who has been basking in national celebrity since delivering the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, suggested Keyes is outside the moderate mainstream of state Republicans.
He said he voted against the late-term abortion ban in Springfield because it contained no exception to protect the life of the mother. He noted that Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and federal appeals Judge Richard Posner, both appointed by President Ronald Reagan, had voted to strike down laws banning late-term abortions.
Asked specifically about the phrase "slaveholder's position," Obama said Keyes "should look to members of his own party to see if that's appropriate if he's going to use that kind of language."
Keyes, who is from Maryland and lost two Senate races in that state, on Sunday accepted the GOP nomination to replace primary winner Jack Ryan, who dropped out of the race in June over embarrassing sex club allegations.
Illinois conservatives, who have long taken a back seat to business-oriented party moderates, engineered the selection of Keyes as the replacement candidate.
Monday afternoon, he was officially listed by the State Board of Elections as the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. The Keyes campaign confirmed that the Calumet City address listed, in Chicago's southern suburbs, is Keyes' new Illinois home.
Obama said he didn't question the sincerity of those who are deeply concerned about abortion, but he said he believed there are many other issues on the minds of voters.
"As I travel around this state, I don't get asked about gay marriage, I don't get asked about abortion," Obama said. "I get asked, 'How can I find a job that allows me to support my family.' I get asked, 'How can I pay those medical bills without going into bankruptcy."
He said that if Keyes uses the Senate campaign only as a platform "to espouse his socially conservative views, then I think the voters of Illinois are going to be disappointed and they will respond appropriately."
One issue of importance for Illinois right now is delays caused by congestion at O'Hare International Airport. Mayor Richard M. Daley has been pushing for expansion of O'Hare, backed by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., but opposed by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., whose announced retirement launched the scramble for his seat.
Asked about O'Hare on WBEZ radio Monday, Keyes said he had not yet developed any position on the issue of expansion.
"The problem must be addressed," Keyes said. He promised to "try to reach a conclusion that is in the best interests of the economic future of the state and the quality of life" of those who live in the area. "The one thing I won't be bound by is any existing set of political obligations."
In the same interview, he defended his belief that gay marriage is wrong, brushing aside a suggestion from an interviewer that sexual preference might be biologically determined.
"We as human beings cannot assert that our sexual desires cannot be controlled," Keyes said. He said such a claim would "consign us to the real of instinctual animal nature-- and we are not there."
The race between Keyes and Obama sets up the first U.S. Senate election with two black candidates representing the major parties and almost assures Illinois will produce only the fifth black U.S. Senator in history.
Obama said Monday that there would be "a sufficient number of debates" between himself and Keyes-- both men are Harvard-educated, polished debaters-- but not the seven such clashes he had promised Ryan.
"That was the home-state special," Obama cracked. He declined to set a specific number, adding that staffers in the two campaigns would iron on the details later.
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The first debate, when obamito gets hit with something like this, his eyes are gonna roll up inside his skull and he'll turn to jello.
There is justice in this world!
Thank you Jesus! (I hope the bishops are learning).
So what have yall got aginst morals? Besides yall not having any?
A shoe-sized IQ is a terrible thing, jpsb.
Exhibiting it is even worse.
The Republican party was extablished on the foundation of abolitionism and opposition to slavery.
"I mentioned slavery earlier. If you’re anything like me, you attended public schools for 13 years and somehow never learned that slavery ended peacefully in many countries just years before the Civil War. Of course, I come from Jersey, where even the Founding Fathers aren’t safe from revisionist school boards. But the point is, we ended one contradiction to freedom—slavery—with a series of further contradictions. Big Gov’t solutions, I mean, like military conscription, the suspension of habeas corpus, the silencing of presses, and the introduction of income taxes. So slaves are free now, and thank God for that, but 600,000 black and white Americans died in a war that, again, didn’t necessarily have to happen to bring slavery to its demise."And that’s not to say it wasn’t worth freeing the slaves. It was. But the same Big Gov’t that the Civil War gave us persists to this day, running schools that teach children—like yours truly, once upon a time—its one-sided view of said war. The point I’m trying to make here is that when we treat liberty irresponsibly, we create problems that threaten to destroy it. "
I am excited! I feel like having a party.
Or a BBQ!
Keyes is going to make this race interesteing. At least there will be some debate and thought on the issues.
How very Christ-like of you. Good job, Keyes supporter!
I was just wondering why yall are bashing Keyes for taking a moral stand against abortion. Guess yall think it is ok to kill babies, even late term after they've been born.
I would have preferred Ditka. If Ditka attacked Obama, the media would consider it cute. With Keyes, the media will consider it hateful. Just wait until somebody calls Keyes "the house N*gger". You know somebody's gonna say it before November gets here.
I DIDN'T DO THAT, AND I DON'T THINK THAT. Neither did/do either of the other people you pinged. Good GRIEF.
You're either stupid, or you're a liar.
Anybody else notice that in the notices in papers around the country yesterday about the GOP choice of Keyes in Illinois, Keyes was referred to as A Maryland CONSERVATIVE Republican.
On the other hand, Obama was NOT referred to as a LIBERAL. Instead, he was called a "rising star" in the Democratic Party.
How's that for not-so-subtle liberal slant of the news?
OReilly should latch on to that one!!! That is, if he still cares about the journalistic bias toward the Left and against any who dare hold for "conserving" and preserving the Founders' views.
You said "Now he has given Obama the chance to look like the reasonable candidate"
Then yall bashed Keyes for several more posts. So I was wondering why yall think being pro life makes one look like a "kook" and being pro death makes one look "reasonable".
I was talking about the LANGUAGE Keyes used to express his point! I even said that I hope he knows what he's doing. Did you not read that, or did you just omit it on purpose?
I don't like Keyes. I think he uses a sledgehammer for a job a fly-swatter would do. I hate the way he has gone after President Bush.
But he is a conservative Republican, and if I lived in Illinois, I would vote for him. Reluctantly, of course, because my fear is that he would be about as loyal to the POTUS as John McCain - someone you can't quite count on - and he would make sure everyone knew it.
That's my problem with him. NOT his pro-life views.
He was making a very improtant point, that point being that the declaration of indepedance sets the MORAL foundation for the nation and that just as slavegy was evil and immoral so is killing babies via abortion. His opponent supported killing babies AFTER they are born (by mistake). Saying that his opponent is siding with the immorallity of the past (owning slaves) that greatly harmed blacks (and whites) is fact very true. Slave owners only took the a slaves freedom, abortion takes everything the death baby has or would ever have. It is a far greater crime.
I only posted what I had heard. I report...you decide. :-)
With all due respect to everyone involved, I do not believe comments like these are constructive to our goals.
Let us reason together, not bash each other.
For my part, I disagree with the language used here as well from a purely logical standpoint. To wit: Stephen Douglas was not a slaveholder. If you must use the slaveholder language (because it has received a lot of ink in a situation where ink is necessary), at least apply it to someone who fits, or modify the definition to "slaveholder enabler" or something of the sort.
If you understand the context of the Lincoln/Douglas debates, though, you can understand the relationship between the slaveholder comment and the position of those who deny the truth of the Declaration in the cases of both slavery and abortion. However, most people will sadly not understand this context and will not quote you in context. This will either get their attention or it will turn them off. With less than 90 days left, I don't think there is time to play this one timid.
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