Writing for the Weekly Standard’s website yesterday,
Mike Murphy dripped scorn all over the Illinois GOP and Alan
Keyes. He referred to the move as a “thick-headed Grand Strategy”
motivated by the unsophisticated thought, “hmmm, they’ve got a
black candidate who can give one hell of a speech … we need
a black candidate who can give a fiery speech.” In making this
supremely insightful diagnosis, one wonders whether Mike Murphy
understands Alan Keyes, the pro-life movement, or conservative
Christian voters at all. Ask many members of those groups who their
favorite conservative is and they’ll say, “Alan Keyes.” That’s not,
“Who’s your favorite black conservative?” The Illinois GOP was
going to be hard-pressed to find a clearly competitive candidate,
why not try somebody who gets core GOP constituencies fired up?
That kind of sense of adventure and willingness to take risks is
completely lost on Mr. Murphy, which is a bit surprising since
Murphy is the maverick who came up with the brilliant strategy of
having John McCain attack evangelical voters in 2000. His
ham-handed attempts to paint Bush as an anti-Catholic
fundamentalist won McCain a great deal of admiration from the left,
but merely confused potential McCain voters who had previously
viewed the war hero as a strong Reagan conservative.
But let’s go back to Murphy’s supposedly trenchant critique of
the Keyes candidacy in Illinois. He claims “Keyes will be the
perfect foil for Obama to campaign against and the selection of
Keyes will seem exactly the shoddy and cynical move that it is.”
Right on, Murph. Let’s trot out unknown representative Steve
Whitebread from Suburban County, Illinois, and see how he does
against the articulate Mr. Obama. That’ll show those Democrats!
Murphy then goes on to gallantly admit that he’s no Keyes fan,
since his 1996 Presidential primary candidate Lamar Alexander
(another big win there, Murphy) almost got caught up in the debacle
of Keyes chaining himself to the front door of a television station
in the effort to be included in the debate. Alexander showed
surprising agility and avoided the scuffle. This, according to
Murphy, was the highlight of Alexander’s Georgia campaign. I’ve got
news for you, Murphy, that may have been the only highlight of
Alexander’s campaign. (The flannel shirt thing really kicked butt!
Was that your idea?)
In a particularly irritating and pointless jab, Murphy smugly
declares, “I’m certain Ambassador Keyes is now busily at work
printing up some ‘Crazy Times Demand a Crazy Senator’ yard signs
and oiling his trusty chains for a repeat performance in Chicago
this fall.” Why would the Weekly Standard run this kind of
trash? Weren’t Bill Kristol (the Standard’s editor) and
Alan Keyes good friends at one point? This attack perfectly
demonstrates the bizarre need of some Republicans to look good to
the liberal establishment. The Dems stand firmly behind the
crankiest of cranks, which includes Michael Moore and Howard Dean,
but let a conservative take on a strong, populist bent and we’ve
got to bend over backwards crapping on the guy to show how superior
we are. Frankly, it’s not a particularly flattering pose.
In closing, Murphy laments that Republicans “in the land of
Lincoln” didn’t know better. Murphy hasn’t spent much time looking
at the history of Lincoln’s career. How many races did Abraham
Lincoln lose at a variety of levels before finally winning the
Presidency? The land of Lincoln should prove to be the perfect
place for Alan Keyes to ply his craft. Illinois gave birth to the
surprising political career of one great orator with a cause in his
heart. It can do so with another.
