Posts on David Keene

The Hill reports that even though John McCain has repeatedly and explicitly promised to nominate judges like John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, the Right is still a little unsure that they can trust him and so they decided to work explicit language into the GOP platform in order to send him a clear message:

Republican conservatives have given John McCain a warning on what kind of justices he may appoint to the Supreme Court as president.

Their message: no surprises.

Authors of the 2008 GOP platform have included specific language urging Sen. McCain (Ariz.), the party’s nominee, not to appoint “stealth nominees” to the court. That language was the result of lobbing by the conservative activists.

…

The platform makes clear that McCain should appoint jurists who have clearly defined views of constitutional interpretation.

It states: “We oppose stealth nominations to the federal bench, and especially the Supreme Court, whose lack of a clear and distinguished record leaves doubt about their respect for the Constitution.”

Conservative activists led by Manuel Miranda, chairman of the Third Branch Conference, a coalition of conservative leaders active on judicial matters, began pushing for the platform changes in May. It began a minuet between the McCain campaign and its conservative skeptics that eventually shaped the presidential platform.

The last time the Right was sending McCain explicit messages about what it expected from him, they were telling him that his choices of running mate were patently unacceptable, to which he responded by utterly capitulating and giving them everything they wanted in Sarah Palin.  In fact, it seems as if his caving to their demands on Palin has actually helped assuage their concerns about his willingness to do their bidding:

Conservative leaders who worked on the platform said the strength of the document and McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate eased concerns that lingered right up until the convention.

“The two combined changed everything,” said [David] Keene [of the American Conservative Union.]

Ronald Reagan’s disembodied voice opened the Conservative Political Action Conference, and the host, American Conservative Union President David Keene, boasted that Reagan spoke at CPAC seventeen times. Indeed, the very first panel was a discussion of the former president. “What better way to start a Conservative Political Action Conference than with a conversation about Ronald Reagan?” asked right-wing publisher Al Regnery.

But while the activists gathered at CPAC are unanimous in invoking Reagan’s legacy, confusion about what that means was evident from the start.

Starting off the first panel (the one about Reagan), Robert Novak posed the question, “Is George W. Bush really Ronald Reagan’s disciple?” If Reagan were president, he asked, would we still be in Iraq? This panel agreed: Nope.

However, this moment of agreement was interrupted by the early arrival of the next speaker: Vice President Dick Cheney, who received standing ovations for his hard-line statements on the war, domestic surveillance, and the administration’s “tough” interrogation policy. The Bush Administration’s legacy appeared secure with this crowd.

And then the Reagan panel resumed: Would Reagan, Novak asked, “conceivably” have proposed such projects as No Child Left Behind or the Medicare prescription drug plan?

"As a Christian minister, understanding fully as an evangelical Christian, this man has those values and belief systems that will absolutely give this nation the direction that it needs," said Traditional Values Coalition founder Lou Sheldon---but "this man" is Romney, not minister Huckabee. More effective: Jay Sekulow, ACU's David Keene, and Mark DeMoss conference-calling 20,000 households.

Right-wing activists are livid that President Bush did not pardon convicted Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean over Thanksgiving: "A group of Christian and evangelical leaders -- including Paul M. Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition and David A. Keene of the American Conservative Union -- excoriated Bush, saying his inaction ran counter to compassionate conservatism and Christian values. 'It's unfortunate that the president missed the opportunity to demonstrate his compassion,' the group said Friday. 'Such an act would have exemplified the fellowship and spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday and put to rest heartfelt concerns over the inhumane treatment of these two agents.'"

Right-wing stalwarts want former gov., who recently dropped out of pres. race, to replace retiring Sen. Warner.

American Freedom Agenda (ACU’s Keene, Richard Viguerie, Bob Barr, Bruce Fein) cites checks and balances, rule of law. Meanwhile: US Attorney hires based on Federalist Society membership and GOP work.

For Hillary Clinton, while others hang back, apparently including funder Scaife.

Like Potomac: “looks beautiful” but “polluted.” Other candidates criticized for “liberal bent.” Also: Gingrich’s back-door campaign features new policy outreach organization.

What he calls “Leave Us Alone coalition.” ISI’s McCarthy questions this “fusionism,” while ACU defends it.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins isn’t the only right-wing leader unhappy with President Bush’s State of the Union speech.

“We're disappointed that he didn't mention cultural issues at all,” said National Review editor Rich Lowry. The Institute for Policy Innovation, a strong supporter of Bush’s plan two years ago to privatize Social Security, now asserts that he “lacked leadership in that he failed to propose any [specific] solutions.” Bush “left a lot of conservatives shaking their heads” with the speech, according to Bill Lauderback of the American Conservative Union. A spokesperson for Gary Bauer’s American Values lamented that the president “lost a golden opportunity to set the stage” by emphasizing right-wing issues.

After staying out of last year’s contentious immigration debate that drove a wedge among the GOP, mainstays of the Religious Right have now joined the debate saying they will support legalization of those already in this country – but only in exchange for doing away with the guarantee of birthright citizenship granted under the 14th Amendment. As CBN reported on Friday, Manuel Miranda, one of the chief activists organizing the Right in support of Bush’s extreme judicial nominees, has now put together a coalition of Religious Right leaders to influence immigration policymaking. In an attempt to supplant the anti-immigrant rhetoric that dominated discussions last year which analysts agree resulted in damaging the image of the GOP among Latino voters and decreased support for GOP candidates, Miranda claims “This new coalition is bigger and broader than the Secure Border Coalition that dominated the debate on the right in the last go round.”

Headline members include Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of “movement conservatism,” Donald Wildmon of American Family Association, Gary Bauer, American Conservative Union President David Keene, and Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition.

Today The Washington Times gives some details of the “grand compromise” sought by Families First on Immigration.  

In letters sent today and obtained by The Washington Times, Families First on Immigration urges President Bush and leaders of the new Democratic Congress to adopt a grand compromise on the divisive issue that includes strong border security, an amnesty for illegals already here who are relatives of citizens and an end to birthright citizenship. ...

[In addition,] Families First tells Mr. Bush -- who was supported by most of the members of the new coalition -- to abandon his proposal for a guest-worker program until the rest of the issues such as birthright citizenship and border security are resolved.

While legalization of undocumented immigrants is anathema to the anti-immigrant activists of last year, the group has taken up one unusual item of the anti-immigrant Right’s agenda: the effort to eradicate so-called “anchor babies.” Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, anyone born in the United States is a citizen. The Right has proposed skirting this constitutional mandate through a dicey regulatory change.

In another indication that the religious right is often at odds with the economic right, the coalition also wants President Bush and others to drop their strong support for guest workers. While allowing for some legalization, Families First on Immigration is borrowing the “enforcement first” stand of right-wing House members such as former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Arizona), who was defeated in November’s mid-term election.

The new coalition’s position would lend support to presidential candidate Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), who has billed himself as the “full scale conservative” in the race but supported the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill, much to the dismay of many on the far Right.

The group hopes to draw support from fellow religious conservatives in Congress such as Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican.

Mr. Brownback caused deep consternation in conservative circles last year when he enthusiastically embraced the Senate immigration bill, which was reviled by most conservatives because it would grant citizenship rights to most illegals. A member of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Brownback argued that it was his Christian duty to support a bill that would help illegal aliens who came here in search of a new home away from the tyranny and squalor from which they came.

Support from Families First on Immigration would bolster Brownback’s already-strong credibility on the Right.

Families First in Immigration, organized by judges-activist Manuel Miranda, includes Weyrich, Wildmon, Bauer, Keene.

“[T]he American people didn’t quit the Contract with America, we did,” proclaimed Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) of the Republicans’ loss of the House. As rumored in September, Pence has announced his intent to run for minority leader in the next Congress. His “new vision” is, in fact, the old vision: to “rededicate [the party] to the ideals and standards that minted our majority in 1994.”

Already, Pence has garnered the endorsement of Human Events, which certainly sounds a lot like the magazine’s attempt to make him majority leader last winter, when they named him “Man of the Year” after his rise to prominence for his dramatic plan to address the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by cutting funding to safety-net programs and a grab bag right-wing bugbears.

Other right-wing leaders seeking to regroup and ensure they don’t get left behind as the GOP assesses its political options are also rushing to bolster Pence’s early claim. Pat Toomey, whose Club for Growth worked hard to unseat supposedly moderate Republicans in primaries this year, was nonplussed about the prospect of his PAC helping to topple the Republican’s hold on Congress, and he looked forward to the Club playing an “enormous role” in “rebuild[ing]” the GOP. Today, he says: “I think that Mike Pence would be a great leader for House Republicans.”

David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, insisted that yesterday’s vote was not a rejection of the “ideological vision[]” of the modern GOP, presumably represented by right-wing groups like his, but merely an expression of dissatisfaction in “Republicans' performance in taking us there.” Keene also expressed early support for Pence.

Other groups have yet to weigh in, perhaps preoccupied as they scramble for their own spin on yesterday’s results – see, for example, “Integrity Voters Reveal Values Gap,” from the Family Research Council. But Pence did receive a standing ovation at FRC’s “Values Voter Summit.”

Anticipating a Republican loss in November, right-wing activists are already trying to establish who to blame. James Dobson, who cast aside his stated disillusionment with the GOP to commit to working to maintain its majority, has suggested that liberals or the liberal media are using bad news to “suppress” the turnout of those he calls “values voters,” but his comrade Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is blaming conservative media.

ACU head David Keene: Some will say, “If it's Sodom and Gomorrah out there, we're not interested.” Grassroots veteran Richard Viguerie: Base already felt abandoned.