You might recall Percy was one of those up n’comer types from the business sector in the ‘60s who really coveted the Presidency (very similar in style and ideology to Slick Willard). He actually, however, took a reverse course to the Slickster. The crooked Gov. Otto Kerner looked quite vulnerable for 1964, so Percy used his fortune to beat another up and comer, State Treasurer William Scott, in the GOP primary (Scott, of course, has enough of a story to tell separately). Percy got caught in the undertow of the anti-GOP landslide of that November (although Kerner won by an unimpressive 52-48%). He opted for the “consolation prize” of a Senate seat and beat the venerable old liberal Sen. Paul Douglas by a wide 11% margin on the anti-LBJ landslide of ‘66. Had Percy won the Governorship in ‘64, it’s quite conceivable he might’ve ended up as Nixon’s running mate in ‘68... and we know where that would’ve led.
Two years after Congressman Tom Corcoran failed to knock Percy off in the ‘84 GOP primary, I remember, was when I started to get more actively involved in politics (that in high school), and specifically became a Republican. I had been under the naive assumption that ALL Republicans were Reaganites and had no idea liberal scumbags equally infested the party as well, acting as termites to the Conservative cause. We still see some of that naivete on FR with the “any Republican is better than any Democrat” attitude, failing to take into consideration how some liberal Republicans can cause far worse damage. Kirk seems the epitome of that kind of destructive RINO who will relish inflicting damage to the Conservative agenda, especially after he gets the Senate seat, and is one reason why he should be just as vigorously opposed as we did with Percy back in ‘84.