Former candidate speaks at rally for 10th District hopeful

Former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes spoke on the issues of immigration, abortion and the state of American politics Wednesday at a rally in Evans.

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Keyes, who was a diplomat during the Reagan administration, railed against a proposed immigration bill currently under consideration in the U.S. Congress. He called it amnesty and a threat to the sovereignty of the nation.

The bill, he said, is not at all about immigration.

"It's about who is going to rule America," he said, adding that illegal immigration is changing the nature of the country. "... Then you should understand that we are not talking about immigration. We are talking about a revolution that will overthrow the people of the United States, and we will no longer govern ourselves."

Keyes spoke during a campaign rally for Republican 10th Congressional candidate Bill Greene at Grand China Buffet on Washington Road. Greene said the pair met and became friends lobbying the Florida Legislature to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case in 2005.

After the rally, Keyes, a presidential candidate during the 1996 and 2000 elections, gave his impression of the current Republican presidential field. He said none of the presidential candidates has true conservative credentials across the board.

"All of them, to a man, top to bottom of this field, in my opinion suffer from a total deficit in foreign policy experience," among other deficiencies, he said.

Keyes also predicted a "crushing defeat" for the Republican party if a pro-choice candidate such as Rudy Guiliani were to become the GOP nominee for 2008.