Lawmakers debate Obama comments

SPRINGFIELD -- Barack Obama hasn't served at the Illinois Capitol since 2004, but Republicans here chose to turn their attention to the Democratic presidential hopeful Tuesday.

At issue were recent Obama comments about small-town Americans turning to God and guns in times of economic struggle.

State Rep. Ron Stephens, a downstate Greenville Republican, took to the microphone on the House floor to offer a different view of his rural constituents.

State Rep. Monique Davis, a Chicago Democrat, then came to Obama's defense. "Barack Obama was doing what many of us do as we campaign, and that's speaking from the heart."

But Stephens wasn't done.

"If the candidate in question was speaking from his heart, and he is a man of words, and he values those words, I wondered why the next morning he said he misspoke?" Stephens asked.

The last time Illinois Republicans squared off against Obama, he dispatched their hand-picked nominee, Alan Keyes, in record-setting fashion to win a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Tuesday's comments in Springfield come as state lawmakers remain mired in political gridlock with no agreement on how to fix the state's growing budgetary problems with only six weeks left in the scheduled spring session.