Describing Alan Keyes
I learned from Josh Marshall that Alan Keyes may be the GOP choice to run for the Illinois Senate seat against Barack Obama.
I thought Keyes lived in Maryland. Is Maryland part of Chicago or is it downstate? Regardless, I am rooting hard for a Keyes candidacy.
I attended a Keyes’ campaign event in the 1996 election cycle and he really has to be seen to be believed. Josh describes him as “completely crazy” but that does not even begin to do justice to the Keyes campaign experience.
Although I can not find a link (and my hard copy was long ago eaten by Bobby), I believe that the best description of Alan Keyes was penned by Michael Lewis in his coverage of the 1996 Presidential campaign. While perhaps not exact, my memory is that Lewis described Keyes as the “candidate most likely to douse himself with gasoline and light a match.”
I really, really hope that Keyes is the choice. It will add greatly to the entertainment value of the fall campaign.
Comments
now that's funny.
MT seems to have hiccup'd. Let me know if you have any unusual moments of "huh?" with the blog today.
Posted by: Eric | August 4, 2004 06:22 PM
Oh, I'm sure he's going to run, and let me tell you why.
He's going to run because after literally years of putting it off I've finally gotten most, not all but most, of remainder of the books around the house that I really don't want to spend the rest of my life with into (fifteen) shopping bags and (three) packing cases and they're in the living room waiting to go upstate with my mom to that fabled land outside of New York City where there are still used book stores which will give you credit for used books (we're still looking for someone to take the twenty-five cases in the garage, but that's another story).
And at the very bottom of one of those multitudinous boxes and bags, my droogies, is Michael Lewis' book about the 1996 presidential campaign.
Miserable bastards.
Posted by: julia | August 5, 2004 12:00 PM
Julia, if he runs and you have to dig the book out, also look for a passage in which Lewis describes Phil Gramm's converation with a New Hampshire family. With most people, a conversation consists of talking, then listening, then talking again. With Phil Gramm it consists of talking, waiting to talk, and then talking again. A priceless description.
Posted by: dwight meredith | August 5, 2004 02:56 PM
I was all excited about Keyes run, but now am
having second thoughts. I'm concerned about his
debt. Debt makes people do interesting things. I
don't want to donate large sums of time and money
and then find out something negative. I know he is
a Christian and vocal about it, so I am confused.
Any suggestions?
Posted by: kathy | August 9, 2004 03:37 PM