Keyes comments on Romney, McCain & Huckabee

Says he 'wouldn't vote for any of them'

Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes commented last week on the exit of Mitt Romney from the race for president, and weighed in on leading contenders John McCain and Mike Huckabee.

Keyes' assessment? He wouldn't support any of them at the ballot box.

When asked by Seattle radio host Thor Tolo if he could have publicly supported the departed Romney, the former Reagan administration diplomat said,

"Well, no. I've made it very clear with respect to Rudy Giuliani, with respect to Mitt Romney, and others, that I'm not buying into this whole phony business that's been going on. I think that these candidates were reinventing themselves when what they said contradicted their records. The same is happening with John McCain. There's not a single constituency of true conservatives that doesn't have one of John McCain's knives stickin' out of our backs."

Regarding McCain and Huckabee, Keyes said he couldn't support either candidate without abandoning his conservative principles.

Thoughts on Romney

KGNW's Tolo introduced Keyes to his listeners by citing the former UN ambassador's recent statements about Romney's hand in instituting same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.

Keyes responded by recounting how Romney, "without any basis in the law," pushed through same-sex marriage in Massachusetts as governor in 2004, and "ordered the justices of the peace in Massachusetts to perform gay marriage, even though that order itself was both unconstitutional and illegal."

According to Keyes, Romney "had made a promise to the Log Cabin Republicans, and he was just determined, regardless, to keep it, and to make sure they were placated."

Keyes added that "even as [Romney] now tells us that he's always had these [recent] pro-life convictions," the former governor "was so interested . . . in fulfilling his ambition that he was willing to sign into law bills that paid for abortion and tell the people of Massachusetts that he was in favor of a woman's right to choose, and would defend that right, even as babies were dying."

Ultimately, Keyes said, "A lot of people saw through the Romney candidacy — the reality that it was not about principle, it was not about issues. It was about his ambition and his willingness to do whatever it took to promote that ambition."

Comments about McCain

Asked about Senator McCain, Keyes said,

"He [has] betrayed conservatism in the name of bipartisanship, but actually in the name of trying to serve his own presidential ambition. And that includes the McCain-Feingold bill, a direct assault on freedom of speech, on the ability of conservative grassroots organizations to raise money, on their ability to communicate with the electorate."

Continued Keyes, "[McCain] has made a determined effort to shut down true democratic self-government in this country, so that people can't organize, can't raise money, can't associate, and can't communicate about the records of their representatives. And that kind of assault is a deadly blow against the possibility of self-government and constitutionalism in America."

"And we're just supposed to forget about it now," Keyes said, "and listen to his words that his pollsters tell him he's got to say to please and placate people, but I don't think people are that stupid. I really don't," Keyes said.

"The same is true of the border security issue," Keyes remarked. "[McCain] fought tooth and nail against the Minutemen and others who wanted to see the barriers put up and border security assured. Instead, he promoted an amnesty bill that would have devastated the sovereignty of the American people and would have produced demographic changes that confirm the invasion that, in effect, has taken place on our nation's territory and soil."

Said Keyes, "And now he wants us to believe, 'Oh, I'm in favor of strong border security, because I know you people won't vote for me if you know the truth.' Are we that stupid? Have we really become that gullible as a people that we let these politicians change their words and will ignore their actual work and record in the process? I hope not, and don't think so."

In regard to judicial appointments, Keyes said of McCain, "Other conservatives fought hard to get good judicial nominees set up there, and this guy, looking to refurbish or build up his reputation for bipartisanship, torpedoed their efforts to get good conservative justices through and joined hands with the Teddy Kennedys of the world to defeat the effort."

"This is not soon to be forgotten, by people who understand what it takes, the sacrifices that have been involved in trying to elect good solid conservative majorities in the Senate and the House, only to see them betrayed because of the actions of people like John McCain," Keyes said.

"So, I find it entirely implausible that good hearted and good conscienced conservatives are suddenly going to forget that whole record, which in point of fact means that [McCain's] been moving in a direction indistinguishable from Hillary Clinton. The only difference will be the label," Keyes suggested.

Remarks about Huckabee

The interview turned to Keyes' thoughts on former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Keyes commented:

"Both Huckabee and McCain stood in their careers for the amnesty approach. Mike Huckabee wanted to extend college scholarships and other benefits to illegal aliens. He even would compensate for slavery somehow in the way we treated illegal immigrants, rather than understanding and committing ourselves to what has, in fact, been a generous immigration policy. But no policy makes any sense if you're not enforcing border security, which our elites have betrayed us on, and if you're not enforcing the laws you then put on the books. It's all worthless — it's all just words — if it's not properly enforced by a commitment to defend the sovereignty of the American people."

Keyes noted, "Neither Huckabee nor McCain cared anything about this commitment until they read some polls that told them how angry people are over the betrayal of American sovereignty that has taken place in the last 15 years and more. We are angry. We're angry at the prospect that they have allowed a demographic invasion that shifts control of this country out of the hands of its people for the sake of a greedy elite that's serving their own selfish purposes. People aren't stupid. They understand what's happened. And they want it stopped, and so do I."

Asked to outline his differences with Huckabee, Keyes said,

"People started getting in touch with me some months ago, and saying that our big hope is Mike Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas, he's pro-life. And then I started looking at his record, and it turns out that he's a liberal on everything else — expanding the size of government in Arkansas; raising the taxes in Arkansas by a net of a half a billion dollars; expanding, as I said, this amnesty mentality, rather than defending our borders and our sovereignty; defending the big government takeover that actually was represented by a lot of the Bush policies on education, rather than championing school choice and the kinds of things that will put control back in the hands of parents and local communities, where it belongs on education."

Keyes elaborated, "These are the approaches of what they call the 'big government conservatives.' That's a term somebody invented, in order to cover up the reality that these people are liberals. And though [Huckabee] is good in his record on pro-life, do I have to sell-out every other element of conservatism? Do I have to adopt approaches that are, in fact, inconsistent with the concept of liberty I defend by defending the innocent life of the child — a concept that sees us as responsible before God, and therefore there's a necessity for responsibility, moral character, all of which big government approaches destroy."

"Socialism and liberty are incompatible, and I think Mike Huckabee simply in his career doesn't realize it," Keyes said.

Keyes ended by commenting on Huckabee's faith in the political arena — which Keyes says Huckabee isn't consistent about:

"It's all well and good to try, when you're campaigning, to get votes on the basis of exemplification of faith, but you've got to apply that to your policy decisions. You've got to think them all through on the basis of their consistency with the godly premises of our foundation as expressed in our Declaration."

Said Keyes, "And I don't think big government approaches do that. I think that socialism and liberalism contradict the implications of that doctrine of godly authority that's presented in the Declaration, because it goes hand in hand with individual responsibility, individual obligation, individual and family empowerment, and respect for the kind of self-government that leaves critical judgment — especially about faith and education and the raising of children — in the hands of the family, not in the hands of the government bureaucrats."

"And so the whole idea of big government conservatism that [Huckabee's] career has represented makes my head ache, it's such a contradiction in terms. It doesn't make any sense. And this is not the only choice we've got, because we can stand firm in the kind of conservatism that Ronald Reagan represented," Keyes said.

Note about Keyes

On the presidential primary ballot in at least 27 states, Keyes holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard and wrote his dissertation on American constitutional theory. In addition to his ambassadorship to the UN, he served as President Reagan's Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations.