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 ...
They are, but they won't admit it. Still, I think these types of folks are few and far between in the Republican party--I've never seen such Republican liberalism on display beyond the bounds of FR.
Not sure if you saw #607, but check out #620 and #621 for a summary. This is the kind of leftist mindset we're dealing with.
Go, Keyes, go!! :-)
The benefit that is good though is he will be heard and his arguments will make people think and question things.
There is nothing but an upside with Keyes being there.
He is a fantastic person and will keep his Democrat opponent at home instead of campaigning elsewhere.
And then I looked at his record, and what did I find?
[laughter]
I found, wait, I found somebody who, as we would expect from the kind of liberalism he professes, has never seen a spending bill he couldn't find some excuse for, and has never seen a tax increase he didn't like.
We find somebody who, in the tradition of a lot of the liberals, would rather that our children were educated in schools controlled by impersonal bureaucracy than in schools under the influence and control of the parents who love them and care about their future.
[cheering, applause]
I found someone who appears to believe that even when a criminal has entered into the sacred precinct of your home with intentions you couldn't possibly fathom, you don't have the right to defend your life and the lives of the people in your family!
[cheering, applause]
And as you might expect in someone who won't defend the right of citizens under the Second Amendment to defend themselves, he doesn't seem to understand the necessity that when terrorists that when terrorists and others come against the people of this country, the President of the United States does not have the right to neglect intelligence that suggests there are threats and dangers to the American people!
[cheering, applause]
And I'll tell you clearly and unequivocally. By the time I got through those parts of his record, I was absolutely convinced that SOMEBODY had to run against Barack Obama!
[cheering applause]
But I'll also tell you quite clearly and unequivocally that if those had been the only points of difference between us, it would not have been me!
[laughter]
What finally caught my eye, however, and what we have to spend some time thinking through so that we will understand, not just the significance of the decision I have taken, but the significance of this election overall, what we have to look at is what finally arrested my attention and forced me to consider whether I not only had the opportunity to oppose him, but the obligation.
And that was when I learned that he had actually, in April 2002, apparently cast a vote that would continue to allow live birth abortions in the state of Illinois.
[crowd: "Boo!"]
Now, wait a minute. And we have to understand. I hope everyone here will understand what I'm talking about. We are talking about a situation in which, in the course of an abortion procedure, a child has been born alive--is out of the womb, breathing and living on its own--and he cast a vote against the idea that we should not stand by and let that child die!
I saw that.
Lots of exposing going on all over the place.
Amazing how libs melt under the light of bold truthtelling.
POWERFUL, thanks I enjoyed that.
If you could care less and the FRN is not on your radar, then why do you continue to have that tagline?
It's a big job but we must do it!
The very first words out of Hannity's mouth on Monday were "Alan Keyes"...he interviewed him leading off the third hour and again on H&C that night.
This article has no(ZERO) quotes from Gillespie. It has 3 snippits "fiscal responsibility" - "a slower rate of growth" - "Those questions have been decided,"
[mark]
I am unable to follow the link you have provided so I do not know if there is more to this article. However the article you posted has no(ZERO) quotes from Gillespie.
Really? "fiscal responsibility" - "a slower rate of growth" - "Those questions have been decided," is "very clear?" I don't think you read very critically.
at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/08/10/do1002.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/08/10/ixop.html you will find an article by Mark Steyn.
In this article he quotes Sen. Kerry.
"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared seared in me."
and further...
"I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."
and further...
"the war that I fought in was a war where we saw America lose its support for the war, where the soldiers came back having had to do what our soldiers are doing today, carry an M-16 in another country, try to tell the difference between friend and foe. I know what it's like to go out at night on patrol",
and further...
"Visions of sugarplums really do dance through your head and you think of stockings and snow and roast chestnuts and fires with birch logs and all that is good and warm and real. It's Christmas Eve."
and still further with a quote from a different source than Kerry...
"Navy Lt John Kerry knew he had no business steering his Mekong River patrol boat across the border into Cambodia, but orders were orders
By Christmas 1968, part of Kerry's patrol extended across the border of South Vietnam into Cambodia."
These are all quotes that tell you something. "Fiscal responsibility" or "a slower rate of growth" don't tell you squat.
Sun Tsu wrote "1 Measurement; 2 Estimation of quantity; 3 Calculation; 4 Balancing of chances; 5 Victory." You should try to work on #2 a bit more.
When that fateful day comes, I may even vote straight-ticket Republican.
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.