David Keene
Columns by David Keene
Donald Trump’s secretary of state list narrows
President-elect Donald Trump is having a heckuva time deciding on who to nominate as secretary of State. It began with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's insistence that he wanted and deserves the job as payback for the yeoman work he did for candidate Trump when many leading Republicans were, shall we say, less than enthusiastic in their support of his fellow New Yorker. Published December 1, 2016
Democrats ‘A pack of sore losers’
It was election night 1960 and as the votes trickled in, those surrounding Vice President Richard Nixon were convinced Democratic vote fraud in Illinois and Texas were about to cost their man the White House in the closest presidential election since 1840. Published November 28, 2016
Hillary Clinton’s election would mean saying goodbye to guns
Earlier this year when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre addressed the NRA's annual meeting both claimed that if she ever becomes president, Hillary Clinton will do all in her power to eviscerate or, in Mr. Trump's words, "abolish" the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Mrs. Clinton and her supporters called the charges lies and claim there is no evidence that she wants to do either. Published November 1, 2016
Election offers controversial choice
Former Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld once said that when a nation goes to war it must by necessity rely on "the army it has rather than the army it wishes it had." Anyone contemplating the political struggle in which the nation, the Republican Party and America's conservatives find themselves in today should think about those words because in a political campaign voters have a choice between not the candidates they might have wanted, but the candidates on the ballot. Published October 16, 2016
Preserving the ‘genius’ of the Constitution
The success of the American Republic is directly traceable to the wisdom and work of the 55 men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft a constitution designed not so much to empower government, but to limit that power. Forrest McDonald, perhaps the most influential of historians on the intellectual origins of the Constitution, claimed it could not have been written by any other 55 men at any other time in history. At fewer than 8,000 words, it's a short document when compared to the fundamental documents of other nations and it has, in spite of its critics, stood up remarkably well since its adoption in 1789. Published September 12, 2016
Phyllis Schlafly, the queen of conservatism
Phyllis Schlafly's death last weekend came not so much as a shock, but a surprise. Mrs. Schlafly was 92 years old and had stepped down as head of Eagle Forum, but many of those who knew her and worked with her find it difficult to imagine a world without the lady from Alton, Ill., who helped shape and lead the modern conservative movement. Published September 7, 2016
Blocking animal research is unethical
Some years ago, my West Virginia hunting and fishing buddy was invited to appear on a local television station high in the mountains with an animal rights activist, a young vegan mother who brought her one-year-old daughter with her. In the midst of the discussion after the young lady argued that we humans ought to stop treating animals as our inferiors, my friend turned to her and asked a simple question. Published September 6, 2016
A big slush fund for the Clinton Foundation
Hillary Clinton, after learning there is a chance that hackers could release potentially embarrassing Clinton Foundation emails before the November elections, has announced that if she is elected president the foundation will no longer accept the foreign and corporate donations that have convinced all but her most loyal sycophants that she may well have been peddling influence to the highest bidder as secretary of State Published August 22, 2016
Venezuela faces collapse because of socialist government, disarmed populace
Last week the socialist government of Venezuela began seizing and destroying handguns, rifles and shotguns -- continuing the late Hugo Chavez's effort to solve the nation's crime problem by disarming the nation. However, since Chavez imposed what he and his followers proudly called "21st- Century Socialism" on one of the wealthiest nations in South America, Venezuela has been in economic, political and social free fall. Published August 21, 2016
Of arms and the man named Jacob Zuma
I first met Jacob Zuma, South Africa's controversial president, in 2002 when he was serving as then-President Thabo Mbeki's vice president. I was in South Africa at the behest of a number of South African outfitters and professional hunters to urge the government to reject a British-inspired laundry list of firearms regulations that would have crippled big-game hunting in South Africa. Published August 11, 2016
Helen Bentley, Baltimore’s ‘unforgettable’ advocate
Anyone growing up in the '50s and '60s would be hard pressed to avoid the Reader's Digest, which was read by, well, just about everybody, including a lot of folks too pretentious to actually admit they read it. You could find it at the barbershop or the doctor's office if you didn't get it at home and every issue seemed to include something you would find interesting or informative or both. Published August 8, 2016
Hillary Clinton’s firearms falsehoods
Donald Trump keeps calling his Democratic opponent "Lyin' Hillary," and poll after poll shows that though most voters might shy away from Mr. Trump's blunt characterization of Hillary Clinton, they share his belief that the lady cannot really be trusted or believed. Published August 1, 2016
Ted Cruz’s risky strategy
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz went "all in" Wednesday as he addressed the Republican Convention delegates in Cleveland, laid out his vision and pointedly ignored the opportunity to endorse the candidacy of Donald Trump. It was a risky move and may not work out as well for the ambitious Texan as he hopes. Published July 21, 2016
Republicans hold their course
The political disaster that many predicted last week would begin here in Cleveland with a divisive rules fight, and put a fractured and dysfunctional Republican Party on display for all to see, hasn't happened. Published July 19, 2016
Bill Armstrong a model of strong values in Senate
When a congressman or senator leaves Washington as Bill Armstrong did in 1990, it doesn't take long for the political class to move on as if he or she never existed. Published July 11, 2016
Brexit vote will be boon to Britons
Much has been written since the British voted to leave the European Union in part because so many believed that nation's voters would do as their establishment "betters" advised them without realizing that they were in fact ready to revolt against just such advice from people who believe they know best how others should live their lives. Published June 30, 2016
Remembering Mohamed Abdelaziz
Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic passed away May 31. Published June 12, 2016
DAVID A. KEENE: Jeff Sessions’ Senate decorum
Alabama's Jeff Sessions is a senator from a different day. He's unfailingly polite, rarely has a bad thing to say even about those of his colleagues with whom he strongly disagrees, and truly seems to revere the institution of which he is a part. Published May 31, 2016
DAVID KEENE: Hillary Clinton’s false endorsement of gun rights
To suggest that President Obama and his managers downplayed the president's lifelong hostility to the private ownership of firearms during his 2012 re-election campaign is an understatement. Published May 25, 2016
DAVID KEENE: Republican also-rans who denounce Donald Trump are breaking their word
In 1996, 10 Republican presidential wannabes initially entered the race to battle for the nomination that ultimately went to Bob Dole. The initial list of candidates included a number of credible contenders and a few that never had a chance. Published May 16, 2016
