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Keyes' candidacy will expose rift within GOP
St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | 08/07/2004 | Kevin McDermott

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 ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: alan; alankeyes; carpetbagger; grifter; hehasfaithingod; heisprogun; heisprolife; hypocricy; keyes; sameashillary; saveamerica; stophillary
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To: DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet
Something is horribly wrong with our Mainstream Media.

I just cannot believe what my eyes are not seeing;

Or something like that.

441 posted on 08/08/2004 12:16:32 PM PDT by Scenic Sounds (Sí, estamos libres sonreír otra vez - ahora y siempre.)
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To: churchillbuff
If you're down on Keyes, it only confirms my suspicions all along that you're a phony conservative.

Apparently 80% to 90% of registered Republicans are "phony convervatives." Given your continual let's cut and run from Iraq posts, that strikes me as a mouthful.

442 posted on 08/08/2004 12:16:33 PM PDT by Torie
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To: TaxPayer2000; onyx; ALOHA RONNIE; RonDog; Bob J; Pagey

<<I like the idea of Alan Keyes in the U.S. Senate.<<

Keyes isn't alone!! Larry Klayman, of Judicial Watch fame is also running for the Senate as a GOP candidate in Florida!

http://www.klaymansenate.com

Can you imagine Larry Klayman AND Keyes
surrounding Hillary Clinton to the Senate Floor??

Go Klayman!!!
Go Keyes!!!

Go Away, Hillary!!!


443 posted on 08/08/2004 12:17:38 PM PDT by Joy Angela (No More DINOs - Democrats In Name Only AKA The Enemy Within)
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To: NittanyLion

Well, I forgot the rest of that post:

What I meant to add was that those types of stories make ME squimy because of how I feel and I have to work hard to sort out whether I'm being objective when I'm reading that stuff.

Others may feel differently about it.


444 posted on 08/08/2004 12:20:36 PM PDT by Howlin (Saving Private Hamster)
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To: Joy Angela
Larry Klayman, of Judicial Watch fame is also running for the Senate as a GOP candidate in Florida!

You mean the guy who never won a lawsuit is now not going to win a Senate seat? How appropriate!

445 posted on 08/08/2004 12:20:48 PM PDT by sinkspur (If we were as good as our dogs think we are, what a wonderful world we'd have!)
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To: Joy Angela
Can you imagine Larry Klayman AND Keyes surrounding Hillary Clinton to the Senate Floor??

I heard Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny might run too.

446 posted on 08/08/2004 12:21:46 PM PDT by Amelia ("....so I certainly wouldn't imitate it.")
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To: All

Both Keyes and Larry Klayman
are in the Senate Race for this November!!!

Run, Hillary, Run
cause the Super Duo is ON the Way!!!


447 posted on 08/08/2004 12:25:16 PM PDT by Joy Angela (No More DINOs - Democrats In Name Only AKA The Enemy Within)
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To: Joy Angela

Where are they going?


448 posted on 08/08/2004 12:25:41 PM PDT by Howlin (Saving Private Hamster)
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To: Joy Angela

I notice that you put the same post on three different threads (so far). Quite the cut and paste artist aren't you?


449 posted on 08/08/2004 12:27:14 PM PDT by Torie
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To: Amelia
Hillary did at least buy a house in New York before announcing her candidacy, didn't she?

Depends on the meaning of "buy". LOL

I couldn't pass up the chance to comment that their first attempt to have McAuliffe purchase the house for them was so flagrantly unethical they had to find a bank to "finance" them.

450 posted on 08/08/2004 12:27:50 PM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: nopardons

I have no problem acknowledging the attacks WILL come (and on a side note, a greet with glee the observation that Kerry is unprepared to field such attacks)...I never implied otherwise. I just give Keyes more credit for being able to neutralize them than i do almost any other politician I've seen.


451 posted on 08/08/2004 12:29:56 PM PDT by WillRain
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To: Howlin
The Clintons bought a house in New York in September of 1999.

And had TWO huge trucks filled with God knows where they got it stuff pull up once they got the keys to the love-nest.

I wish the cameras had kept rolling as the trucks were unloaded but they were pulled 'round back out of sight.

452 posted on 08/08/2004 12:30:27 PM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: nopardons

caps for emphasis, or as acronyms? Not at all...given that these boards don't support just one code, I sometimes use them in place of bolding because I don't want to go back and add all the paragraph breaks and such...but the emotionalism was and is apparent.

You are of course entitled - you aren't breaking any rules or hurting any feelings - I just don't think that sort of thing changes many minds either.


453 posted on 08/08/2004 12:33:01 PM PDT by WillRain
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To: cyncooper
And had TWO huge trucks filled with God knows where they got it stuff pull up once they got the keys to the love-nest.

Exactly. And they came to Washington with all their worldly belongings in a SMALL Uhaul truck; Hillary said that herself! (Unless, of course, they cleaned out the Arkansas mansion, too!)

454 posted on 08/08/2004 12:33:10 PM PDT by Howlin (Saving Private Hamster)
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To: Willie Green
I'm looking forward to watching him on CSPAN while Frist and Hillary weep and console each other in the background.

Frist would be on Keyes' side.

455 posted on 08/08/2004 12:33:14 PM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: cyncooper

Imagine that, having to get REAL MONEY from a REAL bank. All new experiences for the Clintons!


456 posted on 08/08/2004 12:34:47 PM PDT by Howlin (Saving Private Hamster)
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To: Scenic Sounds

The ears have walls. Or the eyes have walls. Or maybe it's the walls have ears. I don't know. Something like that.


457 posted on 08/08/2004 12:35:47 PM PDT by DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet (Some of my best friends are white, middle-class males.)
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To: DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet

They've both got an advanced case of the "what's most important is what benefits me" pride disease. Both are flawed men. Dangerously so, if allowed too much power.


458 posted on 08/08/2004 12:36:37 PM PDT by 185JHP ( "If the Lord God is your Copilot, you need to change seats." (d,v,c)
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To: All

It's amazing how threatened some people are by
TRUE Conservatives getting into politics.

They resort to ridicule of our candidates and patriots to
try to destroy the backbone of the right.

I think one look at Hillary Clinton before her
botox treatment is enough to let a little ridicule
roll off our backs.

It's Time to Support GREAT MEN like Keyes in his
quest for the Senate!!


459 posted on 08/08/2004 12:37:25 PM PDT by Joy Angela (No More DINOs - Democrats In Name Only AKA The Enemy Within)
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To: Joy Angela
Both Keyes and Larry Klayman

Do you really think that the Mainstream Media is going to give Larry Klayman a fighting chance?

"Among Republican voters, the race is a little tighter -- 29 percent said they supported McCollum compared to 24 percent for Martinez. The rest of the Republican field received support in the single digits: Johnnie Byrd, 7 percent; Doug Gallagher, 5 percent; Larry Klayman, 2 percent; Billy Kogut, 1 percent; Karen Saull, 1 percent; and Sonya March with 1 percent. Thirty percent said they are undecided."

Don't kid yourself!

460 posted on 08/08/2004 12:38:01 PM PDT by Scenic Sounds (Sí, estamos libres sonreír otra vez - ahora y siempre.)
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