Over the weekend, it looked like the Illinois GOP had finally focused in on a candidate to take on Barack Obama: Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman. She’s a young, fresh face from the state’s biggest city, she’s a woman, and she’s considered a “rising star” among Illinois Republicans.
But just as the state committee charged with picking a candidate was preparing to move forward, Gorman did what every other Republican in the state has done: she withdrew herself from consideration.
With this in mind, the party’s decision to back Alan Keyes, announced yesterday, makes perfect sense. Sure, he was their 16th choice after the first 15 said no, but Keyes has a few things going for him.
The Illinois GOP wanted a candidate with some name recognition, some political experience, conservative enough to help rally the party’s base, and an attitude that tolerates failure. They couldn’t find anyone who fit that description in Illinois, so they tapped a guy from Maryland.
Keyes is not from, nor has ever lived, in Illinois. But late last week, he let it be known that he’d like to be considered. Why? Because he has nothing better to do.
Indeed, Keyes has made a hobby out of running unsuccessfully for public office, and parlaying the notoriety he generates into a semi-successful media career. Despite never having held elected office a day in his life, he’s run for president twice (without ever winning a primary), but only after failing by wide margins in two other Senate races in Maryland (in 1988 and 1992). This losing track record will come in handy this year.
Unable to otherwise find steady employment, Keyes generates an income spewing right-wing vitriol on talk shows. Taking on Obama will only help further his media career, so he has nothing to lose by entering the Illinois race.
As for Keyes never having lived anywhere near the state in which he’ll be running, it might be tough for him to shed his, ahem, “carpetbagger” label. Especially when the media keeps reminding people of this:
“I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton’s willingness to go into a state she doesn’t even live in and pretend to represent people there. So I certainly wouldn’t imitate it.” — Alan Keyes on Fox News Channel, 3/17/2000
Clinton lived in New York for a year before asking voters to support her and she owned a home in the state. I’m not even sure if Keyes has visited Illinois before this week.
He might also have a tough time convincing anyone of his experience in government. The AP said this week that Keyes was “a United Nations ambassador appointed by President Reagan.” That’s a little misleading; it makes it sound like Reagan tapped Keyes to be the ambassador to the UN, which is a fairly significant position. The truth is, Keyes was an “ambassador” to the UN’s Social and Economic Council. He was, in other words, a member of an inconsequential committee that no one’s ever heard of.
But putting all of this aside, perhaps the most important point to remember is that Keyes is stark raving mad. He’s an exceptional speaker, who can fire up a right-wing crowd as well as anyone in America, but to say this guy is “outside the mainstream” is to dramatically understate the case.
Keyes, for example, has equated the U.S. tax code to slavery and compared gays to Nazis.
“Hitler and his supporters were Satanists and homosexuals. That’s just a true statement.” Keyes added, “The notion that is involved in homosexuality, the unbridled sort of satisfaction of human passions leads to totalitarianism, Nazism, and communism.”
This is the guy Illinois Republicans want to represent them in the U.S. Senate. Great.
Of course, Keyes has been given an invitation; we don’t yet know if he’ll accept it.
Keyes said he needed a few days to think about it before deciding.
Considering his otherwise-empty calendar, this shouldn’t take too long.