Minor point- the 2004 GOP Senate candidacy of Ambassador Keyes, is a brilliant, accomplished and principled man (the most conservative candidate in the 1996 GOP presidential primary- was my first election and while I voted for Buchanan supported Amb Keyes)- he waded into the fray after the GOPe’s preferred candidate, leading in the polls at the times, Jack Ryan (whose ex wife was Gerri Ryan, 7of9 in one of the Star Trek spinoffs) was driven out when partisan lawfare unsealed divorce records which included allegations of sex clubs and “swapping” with his then wife (shocking, I know, for Hollywood types). All of the odds seemed to mysteriously favor the Manchurian candidate, then as now. No one else would come in and take the proverbial hit, which was a failure of the Illinois Republican Party, so Ambassador Keyes lost in a landslide. He is a good man, IMO, and shouldn’t be disparaged in this oblique manner in the article.
In spite of having no money or campaign organization or party support, he still managed to get more votes than Judy Barr Topinka did when she ran for governor in 2006, and won a handful of counties. I am proud to have voted for him, under the circumstances.
If the corrupt and inept Illinois Republicans hadn’t pulled their support from Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a lot of things could have been different.