Let's refresh your memory a tad bit on the matter. Jack Ryan won the GOP nod for that race. Jack Ryan bowed out June 25, 04 and no one would step in to replace him. {Why did he step out????} Keyes was ASKED on August 4, 2004 by the party to run and took four days to decide which is not an unreasonable time. Add to that the man had to move. Wasn't no one in Illinois capable of winning against Osbama? This sounds like the Perot made Poppy loose kinda stuff. That late in the senate race Keyes stood little chance. The fact he was an outsider made it more difficult. Name me one Republican who could have pulled that off then. I do believe you are blaming the wrong man for Osbama's win in that election.
The IL RINO establishment/Combine is responsible for the loss of that race on one simple ground, they despised the anti-Establishment Conservative incumbent Sen. Pete Fitzgerald and so undermined him that he opted not to run for reelection. The “Chief Enforcer” for the RINO Combine in DC was a scumbag named Ray LaHood “LaThug.” LaThug was rewarded for running Fitzgerald out by the False Messiah giving him a CABINET post.
There’s so much corruption in the GOP, people deliberately undermining it and aiding Democrats that need to be purged in a VERY public manner. RINO liberals are a cancer that are swiftly killing our party one state at a time.