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 ...
Keyes is now deader than Pat Buchanan...and this fling is the final nail in his coffin.
The left-wing media is in full attack mode.
I have a tough time figuring Arkansas out. The general voting population is very conservative, yet the Arkansas GOP has less power than the Illinois GOP has right now (and bear in mind that the IL GOP suffered a total meltdown at the state level in 2002 in the aftermath of the criminal RINO governor we had):
ILLINOIS 2004
Presidential vote:
Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Gore
U.S. Senate:
1 D, 1 R
U.S. House
10 R, 9 D (with 3 RINOS, 1 DINO)
Statewide offices:
All RAT except Treasurer, she's a RINO
Illinois Senate:
32 Ds, 26 Rs, 1 "Independant" who votes with RATs
Illinois House:
66 Ds, 52 Rs
Illinois Supreme Court (elected by voters):
5 Ds, 2 Rs (3 Ds are DINOs, meaning court leans conservative)
ARKANSAS 2004
Presidential vote:
Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush
U.S. Senate:
2 D, 0 R
U.S. House
3 D , 1 R (1 DINO?)
Statewide offices:
All RAT except Governor
Arkansas Senate:
28 Ds, 7 Rs, (the "Rs" must get lonely)
Arkansas House:
70 Ds, 30 Rs (also a veto-proof RAT majority)
Arkansas Supreme Court (elected by voters):
7 NPs?
Now, both states have the RATs running every branch, but it seems to me the Arkansas RATs have a super-majority. How did this happen in a state like Arkansas? The only scenario that makes sense is DINOs running throughout the state, although the two U.S. Senators from Arkansas are fairly reliable liberal votes and it's hard to defeat either of them.
My uncle was born in Ft. Smith, AR, but he lives in Florida now and really couldn't tell me, maybe you can shed some light on that. Arkansas is so heavily RAT now I'm beginning to worry that pretty-boy Edwards & the RAT Senators might be able to tilt the state to Kerry! ::Shudders::
Strife? What strife? Many of us have left the Republican Party and are no longer there to cause strife. They'll no longer get my vote.
I like Alan Keyes, and I like the poetry on this thread.
And so are the Keyes-haters on FR, unfortunately.
Add the defeatists, and we have our work cut out for us, even before we have had a chance to use our resources to win over swing votes.
Very sad.
But we can still win, and we intend to do everything in our power to do so.
His views are considered "far right" because he believes a document should mean what it says, not what some liberal nitwit political hack attorney who just happens to be wearing black robes says it is.
Alan Keyes should have been nominated last time around instead of Bush and I hope he runs again for President , and succeeds in rescuing the Republican Party from left-wing apologists.
I guess the WSJ has joined the ranks of the liberal print press in this country who have anointed Obama as a god in which no mortal should challenge.
I hoping for a good race. Keyes may energize the folks from downstate.
He would do well to run for, and get elected to, some office, somewhere, before cutting his electoral teeth on the highest office in the land.
Keyes will never connect with the electorate until he stops talking down to those he wants to vote for him.
Tell him that. It will help him.
Don't hope with the glass half empty.
Yep...I guess we're all moderates now eh?
You're exactly right (hehe). The media scream that anything to the right of Chairman Mao is "far right"; the reality is that Alan Keyes is a fine man, a traditional conservative and a constitutionalist. By comparison, the "moderates" preferred by the media are - barely - to the right of Chairman Mao.
Somehow this guy has to be brought down a few notches.
Does anybody know if he supports gay marriage? If he supports it, that doesn't seem very "mainstream".
How did he vote on granting in-state tuition to illegal aliens who are hiding in Illinois thus discriminating against citizens from other states? Most people I suspect would be opposed to it.
How would he have voted on the ban on partial birth abortions?
I've also hear he is quite the gun grabber. I would imagine thats not very popular outside of Chicago.
What happened to voting to public office residents of your State?
I like Keyes.
Why is he running to represent Illinois? He does not live there.
I hated it when HRC did it in NY, and I won't pretend to like it just because he claims to be a Republican.
I detest professional politicians.
This is just wrong!
You can't look me straight in the eyes and honestly say Illinois HAS to import an out of stater to run as the Republican State representative!
If the Republican party in that state is unable to get a local Republican elected, the party needs to rethink themselves, not import a minor character actor from another state.
SheesH!
If you can do so, than
Maybe someone local there in Arkansas can give a clearer picture, but thought I'd add a few words about the lack of GOP's there.
You might know this already, but the Southern states for years and years were Conservative Democrats. It's just been as the Dems party turned into liberal insanity that the Southern Republicans gained more power.
But some of the generations-of-Democrats families have continued to vote only Democrat, even though they may not agree with the more liberal social agenda of the party. They just cannot bring themselves to vote Republican.
This doesn't speak much for their principles, I know. But some things are so ingrained that it takes an act of God to get it out of the system.
Those who aren't sycophants must needs be haters?
Do you live in Illinois?
If it's a $75k lien and not a $7500, I actually find that comforting, in a way. It was hard to imagine anyone of his stature being unable to scrape up such a small amount of money! (Still...)
no
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.