My, but Mr Keyes had himself a busy day, didn't he?
Republican Alan Keyes opened up with both barrels Sunday, blasting Democratic front-runner Barack Obama for taking "the wicked and evil position" on issues such as abortion and vowing to stay in Illinois to rebuild the tattered Republican Party -- whether he wins or loses Tuesday. "There is no way on this Earth that I would leave the good people of the Republican Party I've met prey to some of the leadership I've seen ... that is corrupt, that lacks integrity and has betrayed their best values and their best interests," Keyes said. "They are history."
Oh, and then there was this stunningly lovely item:
Illinois' U.S. Senate candidates spent much of Halloween at churches Sunday, but Republican Alan Keyes was the one who openly mixed his faith with politics as he declared that any Roman Catholic who votes for Democrat Barack Obama would be committing a mortal sin.
Keyes, who earlier told GOP leaders of his intention to make provocative campaign statements to get attention, ratcheted up the rhetoric further as he declared that there was no difference between Catholics who support Obama and Germans who voted for the Nazi Party.
The media cycles and attention spans being what they are, you know the only parts of the above statements that will filter through all the other shouting are the terms "Catholic" and "Nazi", and people will assume that he said something that he did not quite say. Misinterpretations notwithstanding, the central core of the Illinois GOP tends to be moderate pro-choice -- they hate the idea of abortion (as most people do, really), they support some regulation of the process, but in general, they are in favor of the right to choose. These people, who might or might not have voted for Obama anyway, will strongly resent the portrayal of their political beliefs as the equivalent of German National Socialism, as well they should.
Regarding his announcement that he plans to inflict his brand of rhetoric upon the state and the poor misguided GOP for the foreseeable future, I'd think there will be three different sets of reactions:
Illinois Democratic Party machinery: YAY! One of the wingnuttiest people on the planet could be one of the public voices of the Republicans! The moderates hate him because he's an archconservative, and the archconservatives hate him because he's black and he's (at the moment) a carpetbagger! What a win-win situation!
Illinois GOP Politburo: Oh, dear gawd, NO! What have we done? What have we done? What, will these hands ne'er be clean of the wound we have inflicted on our own party? ... hey, he just called us all crooks!
Alan Keyes' family: .... what do you mean, you're staying out there? We're not moving, that's for damn sure.
The near future of Illinois politics promises to be relentlessly entertaining. Not necessarily terribly informative, but relentlessly entertaining ... whether we want to be entertained or not.
Posted by iain at November 01, 2004 12:05 PM
