Alan Keyes makes
third bid for presidency

Alan Keyes, a Republican whose two previous runs for president ended in failure, is making a third try for the White House.

The Maryland conservative announced on his Web site that he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Friday to make his candidacy official. He joins a crowded Republican field of nine candidates and is scheduled to participate Monday night at a debate involving lesser-known candidates in Florida.

Keyes, a former State Department official under President Reagan, made unsuccessful presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. He also has been a Senate candidate from Maryland and in 2004 suffered a 43-percentage-point loss to Democrat Barack Obama in the Senate race in Illinois. Republicans drafted Keyes after primary winner Jack Ryan dropped out amid a scandal.

In an interview with radio talk-show host Janet Parshall, Keyes noted the wide-open nature of the GOP race. ''There isn't a standout,'' Keyes said. ''I'm like a lot of folks who have just looked at it and been unmoved.''

Keyes publicly called Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, a "selfish hedonist" during a 2005 radio interview. Keyes said that if his daughter, Maya, were a lesbian, "I'd look at her and say, 'That is a relationship that is based on selfish hedonism.' I would also tell my daughter that it's a sin and she needs to pray to the Lord God to help her deal with that sin."

It was later revealed that Maya Keyes is indeed a lesbian, and in 2005, after assisting her father's unsuccessful Illinois Senate run against Obama, she became estranged from her family. (AP, with additional reporting from The Advocate)