Illinois Leader opens up can of whup ass on Keyes

This in from the Illinois Leader: Is the Keyes Candidacy Disintegrating? by Lee Newcom, the 2004 Republican nominee for McLean County Recorder. He is a director and immediate past president of the United Republican Fund.

OPINION -- I am voting for Alan Keyes, trying to persuade others to do so, and want him to win and take the floor of the U.S. Senate to mightily defend our state and our republic. The problem is, the Alan Keyes candidacy for U.S. Senate is self-destructing. Despite the bum rap that some in the media have given him, Keyes himself has become the issue. It is time, for his good and ours, to call him to fulfill his primary responsibilities as a candidate and as the Republican standard-bearer for Illinois ... Keyes defends himself saying the media is responsible for making all of these sideshows the main show. To quote Keyes, “bunk!” A candidate is responsible for his agenda and keeping his message on the agenda. Keyes has failed to do so and once baited will apparently talk ad infinitum about the issue the “media” raised. ... Remarkably, Keyes is pursuing the same agenda that we fight: radical individualism. In refusing to work in a collegial manner with the Party and long time conservative leaders, he is pursuing his private agenda alone. No one can or will listen when you have them by the throat and are hitting them in the nose. And the last time I checked, the Biblical values he purports to represent did not include belligerence and rudeness. ... Last week I had the opportunity to speak with Ambassador Keyes at some length. He was intelligent, persuasive and reasonable. A few minutes later at a microphone, he was belligerent again, rejecting the sound advice a few conservative leaders were trying to give him. The Alan Keyes in the conversation is very electable. The Alan Keyes shouting behind the microphone may not be. I want Alan Keyes to be a great candidate, to beat Barack Obama, and to be the next U.S. senator from Illinois. But to accomplish that and be a great United States senator, he first must be a humble servant of the people.

I'm not sure why Newcom is even encouraging to people to vote for Keyes, even as he rips him to shreds. Imagine, horror of horrors, that Keyes ever won an election. What makes anyone think that he would be a better elected official than he is a candidate? He alienates even those who once supported him; therefore, he would be lonelier in his own party than Zell Miller. He has shown no ability to engage in the dialogue or consensus building that are required of a Senator. His name calling would mean that no one would never want their name tied to a bill that he sponsored. Keyes would be no better an elected official than he is a candidate and would do nothing more to advance the conservative cause than he is now. Conservatives should jump ship--vote libertarian, vote democratic, or don't vote at all. But don't vote for Alan Keyes. Update: To clarify, I don't think Keyes has any chance of winning. But I think that when you vote, you are voting for the person that you think will be the best Senator. There is no way that anyone can think that Keyes would be a good Senator. His candidacy has shown that.