Reply #3: That's The Wrong Move If They Want To Save Crane & Hyde

[KharmaTrain]

I posted this elsewhere but the locals in my area (I'm in the Crain Drain...hic)...are very restless, but not for Alan Keyes. Their pissed about how Fitzgerald (who lives in our "hood"...if you call $1,000,000+ mansions a hood) was handled, the regular party (and Hastert) selling out in the O'hare expansion and then slighting Steve Rauschenberger in both the primaries and then after Jack Ryan was forced out. Lots are looking very close at the Liberatarians.

Ironically, I was driving to DeKalb today and popped on WRMN in Elgin. There was a "Liberatarian" talking about the Keyes candidacy and taking phone calls. The host said he could never vote for keys based on his votes in favor of the Iraq invasion (his words) and the war on drugs (of course). The hour turned into a bash session, first of Keyes (citing his flip-flop on Hillary "carpetbagging", his defense of the patriot act and abortion (yes, abortion...remember this is a liberatarian).

A lot of the callers were half attempting to sell the host on Keyes, and it wasn't too convincing. He had most of them doing the "and...buts"...and on the defensive about Keyes and the state party in general. That's when the show got fun. One caller claimed that Keyes candidacy was a set-up by the DEMOCRATS...yes, folks, it our fault...the host laughed at him, asking why would they put up someone for what appeared to be an uncontested seat? Silence. Then the caller starting tearing in on Judy Topinka (why do they have a woman in charge of the party?), Corrine Wood (she's so "liberal" she should be a Democrat), Hastert (he's too "beltway", he doesn't are about us anymore) and the state party "establishment" for allowing all the corruption to go on. I could hear the host egging him on and within a few minutes had the caller agreeing with a lot of what the Liberatarians stand for. The caller said he had to vote for *, but he'd look at the Liberatarians. The host then asked why he had to do that? The caller went silent again and said "maybe I should look at the whole thing". Damn I wish I could have taped this.

I still look back on our local 4th of July parade and Crane, who used to show, was a no-show for the second year in a row...and the first election. He was here in 2000 right after his drunk tank stay. In fact, there was only the local state rep and that was it. I later found out that he's having lots of problems getting people involved in the election...and many around here are talking about sitting this election out. Not a bad thing at all.

It was an intersting ride as I only saw ONE Bu__Sh__ sticker, but a whole bunch of Kerrys...in DeKalb AND KANE counties. Near the NIU campus I ran into a stretch of houses (not dorm or apartments) that had Kerry posters in their windows. My guess is those are professors.

If this were a homegrown "true Conservative" (isn't that an oxymoron?), I'd agree with your premise, but Keyes is more an embarassment and an insult to these people than an inspiration.

The clock's now running on Keyes to get some statewide support or it'll tear that party further apart. The blame list is long enough already and if Keyes goes down bad, we'll have some fun times. I wouldn't be suprised if you see a third party develop out of this...maybe a harbinger of what will happen on the national level.

Cheers!