Posted on 10/11/2004 11:11:38 AM PDT by SJackson
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.
After his part in this fiasco, methinks it's back to envelope-stuffing for Mr. Syverson....
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.
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.
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.
If they had, the whole nonsense would have blown over by now.
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).
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.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.