ALAN KEYES, MR. RADIOACTIVE

Realclearpolitics.com ^ | 10-11-04

[SJackson]

Monday, October 11 2004
ALAN KEYES, MR. RADIOACTIVE: Just how bad is Alan Keyes doing in the Illinois Senate race? Let's just say it's hard to imagine him doing any worse. In the three latest polls taken during the past week, Keyes is drawing between 20-24% of the vote while Obama is pushing close to 70%.

To be fair, this was never really about Alan Keyes beating Barack Obama. The minute Jack Ryan dropped out of the race the GOP strategy shifted from winning to trying to field a credible challenger who could do two things: 1) keep Obama occupied and 2) run strong throughout the state to protect down-ballot Republicans from getting swamped. Keyes is failing miserably at both.

Today's Washington Post reports that Obama is so unconcerned with the threat being posed by Alan Keyes that he's now touring the country raising money and campaigning on behalf of John Kerry and other Democrats:

In the past week, Obama has mailed checks totaling $260,000 to Senate candidates in 13 states, including $53,000 to the do-or-die campaign of Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.). He donated $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $150,000 to party organizations in key states, including Florida, Wisconsin and Colorado.

Carrying his verbal assault on President Bush beyond state lines, Obama will fly to Los Angeles this week for a Democratic fundraiser and address rallies in Colorado and Nevada for John F. Kerry. In a close presidential race where turnout could prove decisive, Obama said in an interview that he is talking with Kerry advisers about where he can be most effective in the campaign's final days.

"Turnout is huge," Obama said after a Saturday morning rally in the hard-fought presidential battleground of Wisconsin. "If there are selective things that we can do that can be helpful, then we want to do them. The Kerry people are still making determinations as to what states remain in play. Safe to say we will probably have a couple more travel days this month."

Back in Illinois, Keyes is operating in complete isolation. He's alienated almost all of the Republican party operatives throughout the state, starting with his wild-eyed rhetoric about Barack Obama's pro-abortion stance (the "slaveholders'" position, similar to a terrorist, etc) and his attack on Dick Cheney's gay daughter (Keyes called Mary Cheney a "selfish hedonist").

Many members of the Illinois delegation, including the Chairperson of the Party, Judy Baar Topinka, condemned Keyes remarks as "idiotic" and called on him to apologize. (To make matters worse, rumors have been swirling about the sexual preference of Keyes' own daughter for a couple of weeks now. Keyes has refused to comment)

This is how bad it has become: the other night at a GOP fund raising dinner Keyes caused a stir by showing up unannounced - but more importantly, I was told, uninvited. At the dinner a sitting member Congress, speaking semi-privately to the guests at one of the tables, jokingly referred to Keyes as a "lunatic." Everyone at the table laughed and shook their heads in agreement.

The damage Keyes is doing to the GOP in Illinois, however, is no laughing matter. He will be lucky to win 25% of the vote in November and he's become not only a drag on the ballot for Republicans but a weapon for Democrats.

I'll give you a quick example. Beth Coulson is the State Senator from my district. She's a moderate Republican in a moderate to left-leaning district and always a top target of the Democrats. Here's a copy of the latest flier from the Illinois Democratic Party:

Keyes may very well cost Beth Coulson her seat, and perhaps a few others as well. And on November 3rd Alan Keyes will be sitting comfortably on a plane back to Maryland and the Illinois GOP will be in a bigger hole than they were in before Keyes arrived to help dig.

MOTHER TERESA: Can't resist this blurb on Teresa Heinz Kerry from Friday's Tucson Citizen:

In the middle of her [Heinz Kerry's] speech, Bush supporters chimed in with a chant of "four more years." Kerry supporters countered with "four more weeks."

Heinz Kerry told the Bush supporters, "I respect your positions, but you must have manners."

Adele Conover, 54, a science writer and Kerry supporter who had backed Howard Dean, described Heinz Kerry's talk as "sensational."

"She treated them like they were children," she said of how Heinz Kerry talked to the Bush supporters.

Those Bush supporters are just so uncouth, aren't they Teresa?

[EternalVigilance]

How much of his time did he spend on abortion, gays, and other cultural issues as opposed to national defense and economic issues?

Keyes gave the best apologetic for the Bush foreign policy that I've heard out of anyone. He left Obama looking like exactly what he is: a second-rate liberal state senator who could only mouth the Kerry talking points of the day, and who is naive to say the least about world affairs.

He killed Obama on agriculture. He killed him on Illinois infrastructure issues. He beat him on taxes. Etc.

You don't have to take my word for it. The whole debate is available on mp3 at Keyes' website.

Reality is nothing like your gross caricature of the man, sir.

[steve-b]

Syverson says he is not jockeying to be the next chairman of the Illinois Republican Party.

After his part in this fiasco, methinks it's back to envelope-stuffing for Mr. Syverson....

[steve-b]

I don't understand what the dynamic is, but there is SOMETHING that is motivating a small LOUD group to visiously demonize Keyes

The motivation is that Republicans, quite sensibly, don't want this loon to damage the state party to the point where Illinois can be written off for the next several election cycles.

[steve-b]

It's one think to argue he isn't the best candidate. It's another thing to absolutly trash the man and anyone who supports him when he IS in fact the nominee.

Basically, the Illinois GOP is in the same position that the Illinois Dems were in about twenty years ago, when a bunch of LaRouchies got themselves nominated by running under-the-radar primary campaigns. The Dems (correctly) decided that the only way to prevent their normal candidates from being dragged down by the outpatients was to firmly denounce the latter.

[steve-b]

To me, it's obvious, the state Republicans _wanted_ what is happening so that they could "prove" they are right in their estimations of what will win. It's all an internal power struggle.

IMO, the Religious Right faction of the party was hoping to prove that a hard-line Religious Right candidate can do well. Once the reality (that a hard-line Religious Right candidate will crash and burn) is demonstrated, this will fuel another intraparty catfight.

[steve-b]

They should have kept Jack Ryan on the ballot and defended him against the Democratic smear campaign.

If they had, the whole nonsense would have blown over by now.

[steve-b]

Worst case, he’s pure ego, milking this opportunity for publicity for all it’s worth.

He's not just milking it for publicity. He has a history of Jesse Jackson style use of political campaigns for personal gain (e.g. using campaign funds to pay himself a salary, stay in posh hotels, etc).

[dfwgator]

Worst political move since 1789.

[sasafras]

I feel sorry for Keyes - I agree with him on most issues. However, when he started talking reperations he lost me. Once a huge supporter of his, now I just hope he goes away for good.

[OHelix]

"The motivation is that Republicans, quite sensibly, don't want this loon to damage the state party to the point where Illinois can be written off for the next several election cycles."

I can understand the concept of not wanting someone to harm the party. But it appears to me what's really going on here is that there are those who despise the religious right, and call anyone who is in that group a "loon" or worse, and, in media and elsewhere, aggressively ENCOURAGE and REINFORCE the steroetypes they CLAIM they're trying to avoid.

"Basically, the Illinois GOP is in the same position that the Illinois Dems were in about twenty years ago, when a bunch of LaRouchies got themselves nominated by running under-the-radar primary campaigns. The Dems (correctly) decided that the only way to prevent their normal candidates from being dragged down by the outpatients was to firmly denounce the latter."

I can't claim to know the history you refer to here, but it seems like you're trying to give a historical precedent to acquit yourself of maliciously sabotaging your own candidate.

I DO know a little about the history of Jesse Helms from my state... He was just as aggressively demonized with many of the same bogus arguments and circular reasoning that you and the other regular Keyes thread disrupters throw around. Like Keyes, he was an EXCELLENT orator who thought and spoke with an amazing ability to discern right from wrong, and also to effectively indict the false logic of his oposition. But most never had the oportunity to hear him speak because there was such an effort to keep him from the public's ear. VERY similar to the treatment Keyes is receiving. But because of his indifference to the slander he received in the press, and his ability to make decisions on principle, and not on political expediency, he, despite continuous attacks, maintained the vital position as the chair for the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee until he retired, successfully preventing many attempts to submit our national soveraignty to the UN.

So if you want to offer LaRouche as a historical precedent. I'll see your Larouche, and raise you a Helms.