David Keene
Columns by David Keene
DAVID KEENE: American values in the Midwest
While few admit it, the Washington, D.C. area has about as much in common with the real America as John Phillips Sousa's marches have to do with rap music. We live in a very weird bubble. Virtually everyone has a government job or a job that exists in the private sector only because of the government. We're obsessed with politics and many of us spend hours at our televisions watching Fox, MSNBC, or CSPAN and public television. Published July 20, 2015
Mike Grebe named to head Scott Walker campaign
Every successful presidential candidate has a political whisperer, the one adviser with the stature to both channel the candidate's message and say "no" when it needs to be said. Published July 13, 2015
Scott Walker vows to turn back clock on taxes to Reagan era
NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW: Jumping into a crowded 2016 presidential field, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker vowed Monday to return federal tax rates to their levels under Ronald Reagan, eliminate the sequester cuts restraining Pentagon spending and tackle federal budget deficits by reforming entitlement programs and returning money and power to the states. Published July 13, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Rand Paul counters GOP’s nation-building mindset
The junior senator from Kentucky drives his colleagues nuts. They don't like Rand Paul or his positions on domestic spying and international adventurism. Arizona's John McCain warns that Mr. Paul would be "the worst possible [Republican presidential] candidate of the 20 or so [who] are running" because of his positions on these issues and he admitted that choosing between his GOP colleague and Hillary Rodham Clinton would be "tough." Mr. McCain's hostility is nothing new; last year his daughter Meghan told a television interviewer that Mr. McCain "hates" Mr. Paul and assumed that the feeling is mutual. Published June 9, 2015
NRA: Debunking the gun control myths with real voter polling
As president of the National Rifle Association during the days following the tragic school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, I was on the front lines defending Second Amendment rights against President Barack Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a network of gun control advocates who used that tragedy to promote a gun control agenda that, had it been in place on Dec. 14, 2012, would not have prevented the tragedy. Published May 19, 2015
Innovation Act: A ‘Big Government’ reform risks hurting everyday inventors
In a divisively partisan Washington, politicians and pundits lament the lack of bipartisanship, compromise and a willingness to put aside partisan and ideological interests in the name of the common good. Published April 28, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Halt Baltimore riots with threat of military force
As Baltimore burned on Monday evening, I was reminded of the riots that swept Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and other cities in the wake of the tragic murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, and of the rioting a year earlier in Cambridge, Maryland, and dozens of other cities around the country. Published April 28, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush are disappointing candidates
The "common wisdom" among politicos these days is that when the smoke clears, next year's presidential election will pit former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush against former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. They're both far better known, better financed with a wider network of activist supporters and more national experience than the rest of the wannabes. Published April 6, 2015
Be dubious of ‘comprehensive’ patent reform … when government and special interests get involved
In a divisively partisan Washington, politicians and pundits lament the lack of bi-partisanship, compromise and a willingness to put partisan and ideological interests aside in the name of the common good. Published March 14, 2015
KEENE: Remembering Minnie Minoso, ‘The Cuban Comet,’ who made baseball fun
Minoso, the first Cuban player in the major leagues, died this week, but those of us who grew up cheering him had come to the conclusion expressed by current team owner Jerry Reinsdorf that he would never die. Published March 3, 2015
Phyllis Schlafly: The queen of the conservative movement
As conservatives gather this week to celebrate Phyllis Schlafly, we should take a moment to reflect on the impact this truly remarkable woman has had and is continuing to have on the country, the Republican Party and the conservative movement. Published February 24, 2015
DAVID KEENE: No existential threats to the U.S., is that so National Security Adviser Susan Rice?
National Security Adviser Susan Rice echoes her boss. Published February 8, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Loretta Lynch moves toward Senate endorsement
Attorneys general are forced by the nature of their job to walk a tightrope. Some have been cronies of the president or even, as in the case of Robert Kennedy, relatives of their White House patron. They serve as the nation's top law enforcement officer, but when adhering to their oath threatens the administration, the president who selected and appointed them expects some special consideration. Published February 2, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Presidential candidates have motivation, but no clear plan
As John Sears prepared to wing his way west for a 1975 meeting with former California Gov. Ronald Reagan at which he intended to convince Reagan to hire his team to run Reagan's 1976 campaign against President Gerald R. Ford, I asked him what made him think that Reagan would turn things over to him. Mr. Sear's answer proved prophetic. He said, "because he's had a hundred people tell him that he ought to be president, but I'll be the first to tell him how to do it." Published January 27, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Joni Ernst breaks stereotype that women can’t be Republicans
Some years ago, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in responding to personal attacks on him as an "Uncle Tom" or worse observed that to the left, being black had less to do with skin color, genes and ancestry than with one's political ideology. That is certainly true for today's "progressive" Democrats who believe that they not only have a right to the support of every minority and female voter ever born, but that the apostasy of any who reject them makes them worthy of derision and attack as somehow inauthentic. Published January 21, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush vie for Republican establishment endorsement
The word last week that 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is thinking about a third run for the Oval Office took many Republicans and particularly many establishment Republicans by surprise. The Bush family's latest contender had already made it clear that he will run and his friends were working to clear the field for him, the talking heads were anointing him as the "adult" in the race, and other wannabes were supposedly reining in their ambitions. Published January 13, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Candidates for president struggle between ambition, ability
The race for the presidency never ends. More than a few politicians lusting after a desk in the Oval Office begin planning years and even decades in advance for the day when they'll get their shot. Published January 8, 2015
DAVID KEENE: Police shooting blame in New York points in wrong direction
Last week's police shootings in New York City have rather predictably set off an epidemic of finger-pointing. In the 1990s, when Timothy McVey blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, President Clinton hinted not very subtly that the real fault lay with the "militia" movement. Later, politicians and some pundits blamed Sarah Palin, of all people, for the shooting of Rep. Gaby Giffords of Arizona, and when an emotionally disturbed Adam Lanza killed his mother, stole her guns and wreaked havoc in Newtown, Connecticut, two years ago, a chorus of finger-pointers blamed not Lanza, but the National Rifle Association and the manufacturer of the guns he used. Published December 25, 2014
NRA shooting sports: The shooting sports, the AR-15 and a veteran close to my heart
My daughter enlisted in the Army not too long after Sept. 11, 2001. Before she was through, she managed to survive two tours in Iraq and a year in Afghanistan. Upon her return, she bought herself an AR-15, the semi-automatic version of the rifle she carried while on active duty. She takes it to the range and enjoys shooting. Published December 16, 2014
NRA shooting sports: A happy marriage between war veterans and the shooting sports
The American Revolution, and all that has followed, serves in many ways to explain the history of Americans and guns. From the farmers who confronted British regulars at Lexington and Concord to the men and women on the front lines fighting today as part of the War on Terror, Americans have relied on and developed a unique relationship with and appreciation for firearms and the shooting sports. Published December 16, 2014
