How bad are things for Alan Keyes in Illinois? The Bush White House, which is usually desperate to help GOP Senate candidates, was offered an opportunity to publicly support Keyes’ campaign yesterday — but instead dodged a question about his candidacy.
During yesterday’s press briefing with Scott McClellan, some smart-ass reporter asked about the president’s support for Keyes. McClellan not only avoided the subject, he didn’t even want to say Keyes’ name out loud.
Reporter: Maryland — I have a two-part. Maryland’s ambassador, Alan Keyes’ decision to run in Illinois against State Senator Barak Obama has provoked the absolute editorial fury of the Washington Post this morning, which quoted Dr. Keyes objection four years ago to Hillary Clinton of Illinois and Arkansas running in New York. And my question. Since New York has preferred to elect outsiders like Bobby Kennedy and Hillary, and since Alfred Lord Tennyson’s classic, “new occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,” the President will surely support Ambassador Keyes’ right to change his mind, and he’ll look forward to those Illinois debates, won’t he?
McClellan: Les, if there is more to say on this, I’ll let you know. But the committee in Illinois recently just made a selection in this race. The President is certainly going to compete for the votes in Illinois for his own campaign, and I’ll let you know if there’s more to say on this.
This was even worse than Hastert’s defense of Keyes’ selection, which emphasized the fact that he was “out of town” when it happened.
I assumed McClellan would give some generic response such as, “Bush supports qualified Republican candidates nationwide who will be ready to work with the president on a positive agenda next year.” Instead, we effectively heard, “Alan who?”
Yeah, that’ll fire up the GOP’s far-right base in Illinois.