Keynote speaker J.C. Watts preached to a packed crowd Thursday and railed against more taxes, Obama’s health care bill and the “liberal elite.”

It was the annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner attended by Republicans from near and far.

Watts told of “coming out of the closet” as a Republican when every member of his family was a Democrat.

“My uncle was the state president of the NAACP ... 98 percent of the black people in Oklahoma were Democrats.”

He said he did it out of conviction.

It didn’t take him long to get on the topic of the proposed health care bill.

“This health care bill scares me — it should,” he said. “It cuts benefits and raises taxes.”

He said when he arrives back in Washington, it will be 3:30 a.m.

“As soon as I land, I’m getting on my BlackBerry and start fighting and directing traffic” in opposition to the health care bill, he said.

He told the crowd that Canadians on national health care wait 18 months to two years to be checked for cancer or get some kind of surgery.

He’s concerned too many politicians in both major parties believe the only thing right is to get by and the only thing wrong is to get caught.

He said he’s tired of liberals saying compassion can be measured by how many people in the nation are on food stamps.

“I measure compassion by how many people aren’t on food stamps — not how many people you have dependent on the government.”

He praised his hero — U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma.

“Tom Coburn is a rare duck in Washington,” he said. “You can’t intimidate him and you can’t buy him. Tom Coburn has stood in the gap.

“I’d walk on coals for that man ... I’ve been on my knees to thank God for that man.”

He cautioned Republicans present who are running for office about the lure of power and listening too much to the applause of the crowd.

“You might be some of that — but you’re never all of that,” he said.

As to elite liberalism, he asked people to see what it had done for Europe, where he said there is an ideology of gracious decay.

He said he can’t comprehend America without God, and 91 percent of the American people still want God in the Pledge of Allegiance.

“We are endowed by our creator — not our government,” he said.

His comments resulted in resounding applause.



Meet J.C. Watts Jr.

AGE: 52

HOMETOWN: Eufaula

FAMILY: Wife, Frankie Watts, five children, six grandchildren.

EDUCATION: University of Oklahoma graduate.

CAREER: An ordained Baptist minister, Watts served four years on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and was elected in 1994 to serve Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected to three more terms before retiring in 2003.

He was honorary co-chairman of the 2000 Republican National Convention.

Watts is founder and chairman of the J.C. Watts Company based in Washington, D.C.

He is the author of “What Color is Conservative? My Life and My Politics.”

ETC.: As an outstanding quarterback, Watts led the University of Oklahoma Sooners to two Orange Bowl victories.