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TV interview
Alan Keyes on the convention floor
September 1, 2004
(Larry King Live, CNN)

LARRY KING, HOST: Let's go down to the floor. Jacque Reid is with Alan Keyes, who will be the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois. Jacque?

JACQUE REID, B.E.T. REPORTER: That's right, he just came on board for the Republicans in Illinois, moving over from Maryland to take over this.

How's the campaign going?

ALAN KEYES, ILLINOIS U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: It's going very well. We're getting a wonderful, warm, enthusiastic response from people in Illinois. And we have already begun to take the issues to the people and to tell them the truth about Barak Obama, that he's really an extremist who has even countenanced infanticide in the hospitals in Illinois.

But also that we represent the kind of values--pro-life, pro-family, in favor of limited government and bringing jobs to Illinois by protecting our businesses and attracting new business--instead of taking measures, higher taxes and overregulation, that drive business out of the state.

REID: Speaking of the issues that you embrace, you made a little bit of controversy speaking out about Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, calling her a selfish hedonist. Those were your words. Do you regret that?

KEYES: Actually, that was a situation in which I described what's involved in gay sexual relations, and described it quite objectively--sexual relations with no other objective than that the parties involved should derive pleasure from this use of the organs intended for sexual purposes. That is selfish, that is oriented towards oneself; hedonism, which is the pursuit of pleasure.

REID: But even feeling that way, do you feel it was wrong to say it in this . . .

KEYES: I was then asked by the reporters, "Would that apply to Lynne Cheney's daughter, as a lesbian?" And I said, insofar as she engages in that kind of sexual relation, of course it applies. It is, by definition, applied to all those people who are engaging in sexual relations of that kind.

REID: So, you don't regret saying it here at this Republican Convention about the vice president, who's running for re-election with the president?

KEYES: If you don't mind saying so, this is a typical case of the media generating something with their words and then trying to put them in my mouth.

What is proper, however, is to apply the understanding of gay sexual relations, because what that means is that such sexual relations can't be a proper basis for marriage. Marriage requires a selfless commitment to the child and to the future that is necessarily involved in procreation.

REID: I understand that, but the Republican Party is calling what you said inappropriate. Your response to that?

KEYES: Giving a clear and accurate definition of gay sexual relations, in order to show why it is incompatible with marriage and why the Republican plank in the platform is in fact correct, is not inappropriate. It is necessary.

REID: All right, I know you have to run. Alan Keyes, Republican candidate for Senator in Illinois, thank you. And I do, Larry, want to give thanks to CNN's Dana Bash for setting this up. We were over there covering what was going on from the podium and she set this whole thing up.
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