Posted on 08/13/2004 11:22:59 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
SPRINGFIELD - If Illinois voters elect Alan Keyes to the U.S. Senate, he'd prefer they not get another chance.
Keyes, a Maryland Republican who just moved to Calumet City for the campaign, supports returning to a system abolished nearly a century ago of letting state legislators pick U.S. senators rather than voters.
In fact, he's dubbed the constitutional amendment that switched to public election of senators one of the country's greatest mistakes, vowing in past campaigns to re-examine it if voters ever sent him to Washington, D.C.
"He does still support repeal of the 17th Amendment," Keyes campaign adviser Dan Proft said Thursday, but added it is "not near the top of his agenda."
"This is not to be a centerpiece item of his legislative agenda should he be elected," Proft added. He described it as an issue befitting debate in "the hallowed halls of academia" or a "PBS special."
Obama contends the switch to voters was good for democracy.
"I certainly trust the people of Illinois and other states to choose who they want to represent them in the U.S. Senate. That is the very basis of our democracy," Obama said. "I would hope that Alan Keyes would trust those voters too."
Before approval of the 17th Amendment in 1913, state lawmakers picked their U.S. senators. The amendment moved that power to the people. Illinois supported the switch.
Although his aides say it is not a top issue now, Keyes highlighted the topic in the past. During a discussion with a caller on the Feb. 19, 1999, episode of Keyes' radio program, he said the change ignored the fundamental difference the nation's founding fathers wanted between the U.S. House and Senate. Originally, the House represented the people, while the Senate was considered to represent state governments.
"And we changed that, disregarded that, and I think it's hurt us deeply," Keyes said, according to a program transcript.
The push in the late 1800s and early 1900s to publicly elect senators was provoked by lingering impasses at the state level to name senators and questionable appointments.
During one of his presidential bids, Keyes named the switch to public voting for senators as one of the federal government's biggest mistakes along with income taxes and the Federal Reserve Bank. A news account in the Riverside Press-Enterprise from a 1995 fund-raiser in California includes Keyes promising to re-examine those topics if elected.
Asked about the irony of the situation, Proft replied: "You run under the system that's in place."
Of course, if the old system was in place Keyes would be a political underdog. Democrats control the Illinois House and Senate.
smartly done
Bingo. But we're in good shape if this is the best that they can do. Besides, I'd love for Obama to try to hang this on Keyes in the debate.
LOL!
Umm.. I'm the master of bad ideas.. so any idea I come up with is likely a bad idea.
It does when the media has the power to present the issue and filter Keyes' arguments.
A key element in the carefully constructed checks and balances by our founding fathers.
Are we better off as a result of the 17th amendment? I, for one, think definitely not. History has proven the Founding Fathers right, again. The more populous states (perverts) run roughshod over the more traditional states (normal).
The result would be a bigger incentive to improve the content of the state legislatures...
I remember the first time someone mentioned his desire to repeal the 17th amendment. Of course, at the time I was a "moderate" and had no idea what he was talking about. I got a copy of the Constitution, read it, and asked why this was a problem. The answer, similar to yours, contributed to my desire to embark on a course of study that took me from John Locke to Alan Keyes.
With stories like this it almost sounds like the Dems are worried.
We would have been deprived of the services of senator's for life Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. - Tom
Sounds like a good idea to me.
I can't relate to that particular concept. (Party loyality?,,Kinda like George Ryan?)
Otherwise, I won't vote for him because he's carpetbagging.
I don't have a problem with so called "carpetbagging". The candidate who stands for the same things as I will get my vote regardless of his address.
I do not believe he has a chance in this state.
Right. And neither did any other candidate they had in mind.
What I do have is an opportunity to let the SCC know how I feel about outsourcing the candidacy to somebody from out of state.
Write them a letter.
Voting Libertarian, or showing up to still vote for the president without voting in the Senatorial election allows me to express my disgust with the SCC.
Ummm,,you will be the only one to know what you meant.
Do you know who the Libertarian candidate is?
Who are you trying to kid? The legislature is consistently picked by the Leftists in Berkeley, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The conservatives are consistently drowned out by those Leftist municipalities.
And in those rare occasions in which the conservatives do win, the Leftists take the matter to the Leftist-leaning courts and prevail via the judicial tyranny.
Why do you think so many good people are fleeing this state?
"How about this, we kick EVERYONE out of washington DC, walk up to teh average Joe on the street and ask him if he wants to represent his neighbors and fellow statesmen in DC, if he says no, send him because he's the guy you likely want to be there.
Sound like a plan?"
Sounds like the end of Tom Clancy's "DEBT OF HONOR." Didn't the entire government get zapped? Jack Ryan was a freshly signed SECDEF or some such, and had to basically start from scratch.
read "HOPE" by L Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman.
Our form of government is not a Democracy. Obama and his ilk like the fact that things like the 17th Amend. have been done to slowly change our republican form of government into a democracy.
He is right though, the switch to voters was good for democracy, but it sure as hell was bad for the Republic.
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