On April 15, Alan Keyes will announce he is defecting the GOP to join the Constitution Party and will begin circulating petitions to be on the November 2008 ballot as the party's presidential candidate.
Liberal flame throwers like to call us racists for publicizing so much on Illinois Review about Barack Obama and his black liberation theology-teaching pastor and church, and at the same time, they also ridicule IR editor's regrettable month-long, non-paid campaign position as Alan Keyes' coalition coordinator in his 2004 U.S. Senate bid here in Illinois.
For that reason, it seems incumbent upon us to offer our good-hearted, well-intentioned Illinois Constitution Party friends a word of caution:
While it's perfectly understandable to be frustrated with the GOP nationally and statewide, be forewarned that your hopes to ever establish a credible conservative-principled party will be seriously damaged if you jump on this bandwagon. Please do not make a mockery of solid moral beliefs and political ideology by encouraging Keyes' ludicrous effort at any level.
If anyone of substance could reason with the former ambassador, he or she should have tried to convince him to stay out of the Republican presidential primary and most certainly would do his or her best to squelch yet another national political embarrassment.
Keyes, at the very least, chose the wrong date to unveil his GOP defection and his latest insult to those who once promoted him. Keyes' big announcement should have been planned for two weeks earlier. April 1st would have been much more appropriate.