Watching the recent Republican presidential candidates debate, we’ve seen plenty of nonsense, dissembling, errors of fact and judgment, but we haven’t seen any true lunacy. The candidates are too busy trying to appear presidential to unleash the real crazy.
And where’s the fun in that? Clearly, what we need is Alan Keyes.
An organization calling itself “We Need Alan Keyes for President” has launched a website to press the former Reagan administration diplomat to enter the field of Republican presidential contenders.
According to a statement at the website — AlanKeyes.com — the organization’s purpose is to “determine and rally support for a presidential candidacy by Dr. Keyes.”
The statement adds, “We Need Alan Keyes for President, Inc., is a political action committee . . . not managed by Alan Keyes.”
The effort is spearheaded by several individuals at RenewAmerica, a grassroots organization affiliated with Keyes.
Stephen Stone, president of RenewAmerica, said, “At this point, Alan has not indicated that he will run. In fact, he has said that he would run only if enough people at the grassroots come forward to say they want him to run. Our job is to give them a chance to do so.”
There’s actually two angles to all of this. First is the painful notion of imagining Keyes becoming the 12th, and least stable, Republican to throw his hat into the ring.
The second is more amusing. The group calling itself “We Need Alan Keyes for President” insists that this endeavor is “not managed by Alan Keyes.” There are a variety of reasons to believe this isn’t true.
Here’s the evidence:
* The two people launching the Draft Keyes campaign lead an organization (RenewAmerica) chaired by Alan Keyes.
* The Draft Keyes campaign has a website registered to Alan Keyes Enterprises.
* The money being raised for the Draft Keyes effort is apparently headed to Keyes. (A donation disclaimer on the site tells contributors, “Should Alan decide not to enter the race, your donation will be used to support one or more organizations that are consistent with the vision and Declarationist ideals of Alan Keyes, as selected by the principals of We Need Alan Keyes for President, Inc.”)
As my friends at RWW summarized:
Considering that We Need Alan Keyes for President is not in any way being “managed by Alan Keyes,” it sure was generous of Keyes to allow the president and legal counsel of his organization to take time out of their schedules to try and gin up support for his own presidential campaign. And it was even more generous of him to hand over his website to help them in their effort.
Keep an eye out for Keyes. One gets the sense he’ll be popping up more and more sometime soon.