Posted on 08/07/2004 7:24:44 PM PDT by 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
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
We need a poll to totally understand what's going on at this site. There could be some really strong and educational polling done here. What do we need, a petition? Series...AFE
Is that the FReeper Blue-Dog-Republican Women's brat-pack? Come on...
I haven't impugned Kesyes' supporter's IQs,called them LIBERALS,nor RINOS (neither of which applies to me or to others who aren't rabid Keyes supporters),or any of the rest of what they've done on this and other threads of late,and for the past four years.
Quite the opposite,in fact. I have,for the most part,been more than calm,factual,logical,proffered factual refutation,and knowledgeable opinion concerning what I know to be the state of a largish swath of the living and dead(because Chicago Dems DO vote the dead;at least once every election)in several heavily populated areas in Ill.
I participated in a champagne toast today. I think for awhile I had that 'breath of ideas' thing myself.
Thanks for your support.
Dane, you should know...there ain't no point wanting for the end of a sentence to make a point because in the end, life's too short...
Or do you suffer from Tourettes Syndrome?
Would you please do your best to describe U.S. Senate Candidate (R-Il) Amb. Alan Keyes in 3 words or less? Thank you in advance...
You would be a Tourettaphobe...figures.
If she doesn't use spaces, and therefre strings together eighteen words, does that count as one word?
Just trying to get a handle on the rules...
Rules? You can't *handle* the rules! lol
Tomorrow is a big day for America, Illinois, conservatives, minorities, Republicans and for me personally. G'night and God richly bless y'all!
I hear ya, man.
Headin' your direction. See you tomorrow.
"Finally, a conservative candidate I can vote for!"
(if I lived in Illinois instead of Texas)
"There are reasons those who've worked closest with Alan Keyes want the least to do with him - and, again, those reasons have nothing to do with his politics. Nothing."
You don't know what you're talking about.
I've worked for Dr. Keyes since 1999 and know him personally. He's an amazing person. You can't ask for a finer person to be associated with.
Amen.
Hi, EV.
Hey, friend, good to see ya!
Keyes will certainly be an interesting candidate, and certainly a more viable one than Mike Ditka, but I just can't see how they're going to get around the fact that he is a resident of Maryland. I look forward to hearing how this plays out.
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