(hat tip to constant reader wilfred for this item)
OK, so unless Barack Obama is caught in a strip joint, smoking crack and spitting on the Bible, the odds of Alan Keyes winning the Illinois Senate seat seem pretty damn* remote (a recent Chicago Tribune poll showed Keyes trailing Obama 65 percent to 24 percent).
So my guess is Keyes is running this race not to win, but to earn some points and land himself a cushy cabinet post or something should W get re-elected. Clearly, stunts like this will earn him Cheney’s support in that effort:
Illinois Republican Senate candidate Alan Keyes labeled homosexuality “selfish hedonism” and said Vice President Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter is a sinner.
The former talk show host who has made two unsuccessful runs for the White House made the comments Monday night in an interview with Sirius OutQ, a satellite radio station that provides programming aimed at gays and lesbians.
After saying homosexuality is “selfish hedonism,” Keyes was asked if that made Mary Cheney “a selfish hedonist.”
“Of course she is,” Keyes replied. “That goes by definition.”
The Cheneys are not dignifying the comment with a response.
*That’s allowed, you know.
Well, hot damn!
You still haven’t provided enough evidence to overturn my preferred hypothesis, “Keyes is a rampant egomaniac who loves seeing his name (and crackpot ideas) in print”. That’s leaving aside any issues of whether a second Bush Administration would be daft enough to award Keyes with a Cabinet post in the first place…
Cabinet post? More likely to be locked in a cabinet and left there to rot, methinks.
One has to wonder what goes through Keyes’ head. “How can I further my political ambitions today? I know – I’ll turn one of the most powerful men in Washington into my mortal enemy!”
It was a nice “career” while it lasted, Alan.
I’d dismiss this as pure speculation, but John Ashcroft keeps coming to mind. At least Keyes will be able to claim he lost to an actual breathing, live candidate.
I’m thinking Bush has him in mind for HHS Secretary if Tommy Thompson bails.
Ashcroft at least had experience as both an elected official (you know, being the incumbent senator before the dead guy beat him, as well as governor of Missouri) and as Missouri’s attorney general. Complain all you want about his conservatism, if you like, but he actually held meaningful elected office.
Keyes’ resume is, literally, “ran for president a few times” and “ambassador to UNESCO.” I am hard-pressed to find any worthwhile function he has held in national or state government (including the UNESCO post). The comparison doesn’t wash.
That doesn’t mean that in Keyes’ personal fantasy universe he doesn’t think he’s going to be in the cabinet, mind you… frankly, I think you’re more likely to see Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader given a joint appointment as co-chief trade negotiators.