This week we have a "Republican" as the Asshat Of The Week.
Here are just a few reasons I have chosen him.
Reparations
Keyes once referred to reparations as "an insult to our slave ancestors" (more here). Then reversed himself and now says he's for it.
Illinois Leader
Keyes gave a brief tutorial on Roman history and said that in regard to reparations for slavery, the U.S. should do what the Romans did: "When a city had been devastated [in the Roman empire], for a certain length of time--a generation or two--they exempted the damaged city from taxation."
Keyes proposed that for a generation or two, African-Americans of slave heritage should be exempted from federal taxes--federal because slavery "was an egregious failure on the part of the federal establishment."
Mary Cheney
After the outrage over the below comments by Alan Keyes, you figure John Edwards and John Kerry would have avoided mentioning her, but they did not. The funny thing is Democrats.org even covered the statement.
UPI
Keyes said: "The essence of ... family life remains procreation. If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it's possible to have a marriage state that in principal excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism."
Asked whether that meant Mary Cheney "is a selfish hedonist," Keyes said: "That goes by definition. Of course she is."
Then, of course, about a month later the shit hits the fan with the news that his own daughter is a lesbian.
Politics 1 (via
Outside the Beltway)
In fact, Keyes frequently denounces gays on the campaign trail. However, it turns out that Keyes' own 19-year-old daughter Maya is an out lesbian.
She was apparnelty outed by
Modern Vertebrate's detective work.
Residency
I slammed Hillary for this and I slam Keyes as well. What makes you think you can go from your home state of Maryland, to Illinois, become their Senator and tell those people what to do? That's just asinine and I'm surprised there's not a law against it. The only law is that you must be a resident of the state on the day of election. The law should have a residency time requirement just like citizenship does.
The kicker is in March 2000 on Fox News Keyes said the following:
"I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton's willingness to go into a state she doesn't even live in and pretend to represent the people there," Keyes said. "So I certainly wouldn't imitate it."
Abortion is Terrorism
Moderate Voice
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes said Monday that women who choose to undergo abortions and the physicians who perform the procedure are essentially terrorists because "the evil is the same."
The remarks came as Keyes was explaining why three months ago he said that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were a "warning" from God to "wake up" and stop "the evil" of abortion.
Further Commentary On Alan Keyes
La Shawn Barber
James Joyner
Oliver Willis
Michelle Malkin
