Posted on 07/09/2009 10:50:24 PM PDT by Jacob Kell
For we may well be guided by those fundamental principles of justice which I laid down at the outset: first, that no harm be done to anyone; second, that the common interests be conserved. When these are modified under changed circumstances, moral duty also undergoes a change, and it does not always remain the same. For a given promise or agreement may turn out in such a way that its performance will prove detrimental either to the one to whom the promise has been made or to the one who has made it.
– Cicero, De Officiis I. x.
In the speech announcing her decision to resign as Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin made an argument that tracks with Cicero reasoning as to the requirements of moral duty. This was entirely appropriate. Though officeholders are inclined to forget its derivation, the word "office" has its root in the Latin word from which Cicero's treatise on duty takes its name. Someone who takes an office undertakes a duty. The oath of office is the public and solemn vow to fulfill that duty.
Palin argues that the circumstances of her promise changed because others practiced "the politics of personal destruction" after "August 29th last year – the day John McCain tapped me to be his running mate ... . The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice … all of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We've won! But it hasn't been cheap – the state has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some two million of your dollars to respond to "opposition research"… . And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn't cost them a dime so they're not going to stop draining public resources ... ."
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Your guy is about to get pounded, methinks
kyes lost to obama, now it’s sarah’s turn
The Palin Amen Chorus will now brand Keyes a traitor and a RINO and boycott WND.
Perhaps people should file ethics complaints against Alan Keyes and wipe his bank account dry, see how he likes it
But his whole point is that the fact she couldn’t fore see it constitute a failure on her part.
One that point, I think Keyes has a point. The ethics law in Alaska was probably ill conceived if it could be so easily abused.
I don’t agree with his overall point though. Sometimes soldiers do pull back from their post, it’s called a tactical retreat. In the end the goal is to win the war, and sometimes retreats from one front of the war to fight another is necessary for victory. Keyes seems to be implying that a tactic retreat is the same thing as desertion.
So Sarah Palin is stepping down as governor of Alaska. This is really making some media reporters and RINOs happy. They absolutely cannot stand a woman who is married to the father of her five children, religious, good looking, articulate, smart, experienced in running a city and state, and who helped operate a profitable business with her husband.
That she’s not a minority, homosexual, or chose not to kill her handicapped baby just can’t be tolerated.
Someone burned down the church she attended. David Letterman told a filthy joke about her 14-year-old daughter on national television, and people are making fun of her Down-Syndrome baby.
She and her husband also are being bankrupted defending spurious charges against her by people who don’t agree with her.
I don’t understand why decent people (and especially women) are not rioting in the street. What’s wrong with being decent and successful any more?
This country is going to Hell. ... If good people do not start defending decent individuals, especially women running for political office, we’ll soon be back to a Third World country — where many of the so-called talking heads and Democrats seem to want us to be.
Keyes is a media whore
Amazing the delusional folks on FR who think Keyes who receiving around 59,000 votes could beat a candidate
who would receive millions of votes.
Defending against a tsunami of frivolous ethics complaints filed against her by political enemies wasn’t exactly part of the job description.
And this guy is going to lecture Sarah about duty and dereliction? Hey Alan, try getting a real job.
I see your point and Keys and well taken! I still support Sarah Palin though! This might harm her though! I hope not!
BTTT
It’s just that Keyes is quick to judge Sarah without walking the proverbial mile in her shoes, IMO.
I wonder what the taxpayers of Alaska would think of the only alternative, Sarah staying and making a heroic attempt to get the loophole plugged (presumably by calling an emergency session of the legislature). All the while incurring more of these bogus ethics pot shots for every step of it.
I don’t think he would like it much. He might have to get a real job.
Keyes is sometimes brilliant, but more often bonkers, and the bonkers/brilliance ratio seems to be increasing.
Were the Lieutanant Governor a liberal or had different views than Palin, then Keyes might have a point, but since he will push for everything Palin was pushing for, Keyes is talking out of his rear end. So is everyone else who is claiming that Palin “abandoned” Alaskans.
Keyes is singularly unhelpful here. He should just zip his lip.
Keyes would be about the only Republican who could lose running against Obama in 2012.
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