By By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
EDWARDSBURG - Declaring war on “career politicians” and special interests causing “crisis in Washington today,” U.S. Senate candidate the Rev. Keith Butler Saturday night conceded that the problem is not confined to the Democratic Party.
Butler echoed U.S. Rep. Fred Upton in calling for a line-item veto.
Though raised as a Democrat - Butler jokes he never met a Republican until he got to college at the University of MIchigan-Dearborn - Butler, then 24, was so impressed by Ronald Reagan when the Republican National Convention convened in Detroit in 1980, he decided to read both political party platforms.
The rhetoric about full employment without inflation through economic growth for black and white Americans alike, opposition to abortion and the formulation of all domestic policies with the family in mind so appealed to Butler that he joined the Republican Party in 1982.
Just as Reagan said when he converted to the GOP, Butler figured, “I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.”
Butler said Michigan also needs a Republican governor to replace Gov. Jennifer Granholm. “Whether I am the Republican nominee for the Senate or not, I pledge to help whoever is the candidate….”
A majority of the American people - between 65 and 90 percent - support prayer in school, display of the Ten Commandments and nativity scenes and traditional marriage between one man and one woman only and 55 Republican senators, yet “we cannot get even 50 Republicans to stand up for traditional marriage. We have a problem, and I believe that the problem we have is the intersection of career politicians and special interests. We need to have a balanced budget. Instead we're running record deficits and massive pork-barrel spending and we have scandals on both sides of the aisle. I'm very concerned about what's happening in Washington. I believe something has to happen, that you and I have a responsibility to the people of this nation, to our children and our grandchildren to straighten out this mess.”
The tax code “reflects the problem I'm talking about. It's over 60,000 pages long, over 9 million words. I'm a minister. The Bible's only 750,000 words. The tax code has been amended over 14,000 times since Ronald Reagan was president. One in every six jobs in Washington is a lobbyist. The tax code is uneven, unfair and discourages investors.”
The father of a son and two daughters, Butler has two granddaughters, 2 1/2 and eight weeks old.