Keyes' candidacy will expose rift within GOP

St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | 08/07/2004 | Kevin McDermott

[Graybeard58]

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - At one point during last week's Republican leadership gathering in Chicago, the debate over conservative activist Alan Keyes grew so contentious that journalists standing outside the closed doors heard - and reported - the shouting.

The Illinois Republican State Central Committee later barred reporters from the entire floor where they were meeting to choose their party's new candidate for the U.S. Senate.

But with Keyes' candidacy likely to become official Sunday, it will be much tougher for Republican leaders to hide the internal strife in their divided party.

On Wednesday night the committee formally asked Keyes - a former United Nations ambassador and two-time presidential candidate who has never lived in Illinois - to run against Democratic candidate Barack Obama for Illinois' open Senate seat. All indications are that Keyes will accept, kicking off his campaign Sunday at a Chicago-area rally.

Keyes will replace Jack Ryan, whom Republicans nominated in the primaries for the Senate. Ryan bowed out of the race last month amid embarrassing sexual allegations.

While Keyes' candidacy solves one problem for the GOP, it generates another: His far-right views on most major issues will, once again, highlight the deep fissure in the Illinois GOP between moderates - like former Govs. Jim Edgar and James Thompson - and the more conservative wing, which has been trying for years to move the party rightward.

"The state party is divided in the same way the national party is divided. The difference in Illinois is that the more moderate branch tends to run the board," noted political scientist John S. Jackson of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. "The hard-right decided they wanted this ... but it will magnify the fault lines" with moderates.

Shouts and silence

The first rumblings of that fault line were heard through the cl

[Howlin]

Freeper who were there say he did; the transcripts I read looked that way to me.

The Keyes supporters who were there say no.

[deport]

Yep. Crossed three states since this thread started. ;-)

---

Drive careful, I'm assuming you were driving, but guess you are there by now...... Hey after the Rally you can maybe make the Pig Roast..... I don't know how far they are apart...

Senator Kathleen Wojcik's 21st Annual Pig Roast and Brat Fest
Date:	8/8/2004
Event Time:	Starts: 5:00 PM
Location:	St. Peter's Grove, 208 E. Schaumburg Rd., Schaumburg
Details:	Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

[Dane]

I agree 100 percent; although I've been called a Obama supporter because I question Keyes

I know, there has to be some give and take, but I agree with you about some of the ardent Keyes supporters asking for 100% support while they trash Bush. It's not all of them just some of them.

I have gotten some complimentary and concilliatory responses from ardent Keyes supporters thanking me for my support.

And then there was one last night who called me bi-polar, because I proved to her that Hastert didn't stab Keyes in the back.

JMO, they are a small group always looking for a fight and they hide behind Keyes even though Alan Keyes and the Illinois GOP have agreed that the real political adversary is Obama.

[loveliberty2]

As I've said on another thread on this subject:

All Free Republic lovers of liberty should be thrilled when an articulate person steeped in an understanding of America's Constitutional republic and the philosophy expressed in the Declaration of Independence gets a chance to be heard by hundreds of thousands of people.

Let's not quibble about the win/lose question right now. Hadn't the election already been virtually conceded to Obama when Ryan dropped out? If so, let's just be glad that a controversial, outspoken advocate for liberty has a chance to be heard. Who knows, some future young leader may be influenced by the reasoned arguments Keyes will use to rebut the Liberal Left politics of the Democrats.

Every voice for the Founders' philosophy is needed right now. Keyes, by education and by talent and devotion to the Constitution, needs to be heard. Let him have the pulpit! Give him the vote. Fresh air and sunshine are needed--and the young rising star of the Liberal Left may learn some new debating skills, and a thing or two about America's founding philosophy too."

If Divine Providence did, indeed, as Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the other brave signers of the Declaration of Independence believed, have a hand in the formation of this great experiment in liberty, then perhaps there is a reason for one of its great defenders to have a chance, in 2004, to articulate the ideas of liberty today in a setting so controversial that it will draw attention!

"Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one," wrote James Madison, the 'Father' of our Constitution.

"The foundation of every government is some principle or passion in the minds of the people," said John Adams in 1776."

Clearly, their great and consuming principle and passion was LIBERTY! THAT IS WHAT WE'RE ABOUT TO LOSE IF THE FAR LEFT PREVAILS IN THE 'PUBLIC SQUARE' TODAY.

Let Alan Keyes enlighten a few (or many) minds--win or lose. A win would result in a great voice for liberty in the U. S. Senate. A loss is what will happen anyway. But, along the way, some common sense will enter the debate with Obama!

[ApesForEvolution]

Hillary chose the DemocRAT seat in NY and the RATs acquiesced, the NY RATs didn't choose her. The Illinois GOP invited Alan, Alan wasn't seeking the Illinois seat.

[NittanyLion]

Freeper who were there say he did; the transcripts I read looked that way to me.

When/where did it occur?

[Howlin]

You've been on this thread since the beginning; I just saw some of your earlier posts to Luis.

Find it yourself.

[loveliberty2]

That we're "hearing things about his finances" should be put into perspective--especially by any in Illinois (The Land of Lincoln). Here's Lincoln's record:

Here is a sketch of Lincoln’s road to the White House:

1816 His family was forced out of their home.
1818 His mother died.
1831 Failed in business.
1832 Ran for state legislature - lost
1832 Lost his job - wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in.
1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.
1834 Ran for state legislature again - won.
1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.
1836 Had a nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.
1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature - defeated
1840 Sought to become elector - defeated
1843 Ran for Congress - lost
1846 Ran for Congress again - this time he won - went to Washington and did a good job.
1848 Ran for re-election to Congress - lost
1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state - rejected
1854 Ran for Senate of the United States - lost
1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention - got less than 100 votes.
1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again - again he lost
1860 Elected president of the United States

The path was worn and slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other out of the way, but I recovered and said to myself, "It’s a slip and not a fall."

- Abraham Lincoln after losing a senate race.

[sinkspur]

Did Keyes really call Bush "evil"?

He did.

Keyes said Bush's decision was more damaging than anything that Bill Clinton, often called the villain of the right, could have done.

"The evil that you know, the evil that inspires you to fight again is not the worst evil," Keyes said.

"The worst evil creeps behind your lines and dominates your leadership."

Source .

[deport]

If the Illinois GOP has decided that Keyes is their candidate then you have to support him. Now that support can come to a screeching halt the minute Keyes decides he needs to trash the President. That is my efforts in this case and if Keyes can bring some help to electing the President then more power to him. But if he decides that he needs to bash the President then that becomes another issue for me.

Until then I wish Keyes the best and hope he causes the democrats some headaches in IL.

[Dane]

Until then I wish Keyes the best and hope he causes the democrats some headaches in IL

I agree.

[gitmo]

His far-right views on most major issues will, once again, highlight the deep fissure in the Illinois GOP between moderates - like former Govs. Jim Edgar and James Thompson - and the more conservative wing, which has been trying for years to move the party rightward.

How do reporters count cadence?

Moderate, Moderate, Moderate Right Moderate.

Moderate, Moderate, Moderate Right Moderate.

Eenie Meenie Miney Moe. Let me hear that moderate foot go!.

[WalterSkinner]

I see the wisdom of this.

A victory is not going to happen, but forcing the electorate to see that Black America is not a leftist monolith. Dr. Keyes is brilliant, articulate and right. I pray that he doesn't get in even deeeper debt over this. We owe him huge!

[NittanyLion]

You've been on this thread since the beginning; I just saw some of your earlier posts to Luis.

My first post on this thread was #267. I've been trading comments with Luis on a different thread.

Find it yourself.

Ask an honest question, get this kind of response?

So much for letting bygones be bygones, eh?

[EternalVigilance]

Sounds awesome! I love roast pig!

But I'm afraid I'll be tied up the rest of the day in meetinggs.

Thanks for the heads-up, though. We'll have to talk later about how Alan's campaign can help down ticket candidates.

[Bob J]

Your tagline is very cute. What I would like to know is why you, or any others (mostly undercover antifreepers looking to throw some mud around) who claim to have innocent questions about FRN activities, have never once FReepmailed or emailed your questions to anyone in the FRN?

I get questions that way all the time (two just yesterday) and always answer them to the best of my ability. Not once have you, Sabertooth, or any of the antifreepers in sheeps clothing contacted us privately, that I am aware of. The question is why?

The answer is easy, it's because you don't want answers, you want to engage in public performance art and throw around enough hateful slime (disguised as "I'm just asking a question!") hoping that some of it will stick. Every public answer, no matter how fully explained, is the basis for five more, all based on an inferred premise of unethical innuendo.

I got an offer for you. You FReepmail me all your questions about the FRN and I will answer them to the best of my ability. In return, I will ask you questions about SAS and you answer them the best you can. When we are done, we will post the results her on FR.

Sounds fair to me.

[Howlin]

Now, I think you all have to ask yourselves, when you see somebody agonizing about something that's clear and making a decision they are under no particular pressure to make, where the facts don't bear out your opponents and yet, at the end of the day, they come down with a view that crosses the line between complicity and principle, they didn't do that because they were forced to it. See, my problem is that I sit in front of a decision like that and I say this is a decision where somebody sat down to figure out how much evil they could get away with. Now, I know, my friends, that after many years of Bill Clinton we may have lowered our standards to such an extent that all we care about is this, this evil [we've avoided]. That's not what built this country.

[NittanyLion]

Thanks for the source. I think Keyes meant it in the metaphorical sense (slightly better than directly calling Bush "evil"), but that's still pretty inexcusable rhetoric.

[Howlin]

I was wrong about the thread; it's posted on that thread and many others.

[Amelia]

Yep. Crossed three states since this thread started. ;-)

Dang. I hope you aren't driving!