Remember when Hillary Clinton decided to run for the Senate from New York? The Republicans jumped all over her like white on rice, calling her a carpetbagger, sneering at how she was from Arkansas but had to go all the way to New York to find people to vote for her. Red-meat commentator Alan Keyes put in his two cents by saying, "I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton's willingness to go into a state she doesn't even live in and pretend to represent people there. So I certainly wouldn't imitate it."
Now the GOP has hauled out the carpetbag for one of their own, all the while strenuously denying that anything of the sort is happening.
Back in June, the candidacy of Jack Ryan, the Republican contender for the Senate from Illinois, messily imploded over allegations that he had taken his then-wife, Star Trek and Boston Public actress Jeri Ryan, to sex clubs and tried to get her to do the nasty in front of a crowd. (Personally, my take is that as long as only consenting adults are involved and nobody gets hurt, people's private lives are their own business. After all, politicians are only human and they have the same drives as everyone else. Ryan, however, ran as a holier-than-thou "family values" candidate, and few things are more delicious than a hypocrite hoist on his own petard.) With Ryan out of the picture, and since Democratic candidate Barack Obama wowed the Democratic convention two weeks ago with his rousing keynote speech, the GOP had to find a candidate, and fast.
Enter none other than Alan Keyes. Despite the fact that he lives in Maryland and that his previous attempts at running for office all ended in disaster, he was quickly drafted to be the GOP candidate for the Senate from Illinois.
Why Keyes? The answer is simple: being ideological, conservative, and black, he is the GOP's perfect token black candidate; there is no better way to put it. Despite his loud and long-held opposition to basing any decision on race, he seems to have no problem with it when he's the beneficiary. I did not hear any kicking and screaming on his part when the Republicans asked him to step up.
When GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert appeared on NBC's Meet the Press yesterday, Tim Russert asked him why it's acceptable for Keyes to mount a carpetbagging campaign when it was unacceptable for Clinton to do so. He replied by making a rambling comparison to a football team drafting players from out of state, saying that since no one in Illinois was willing to do the job, he had to bring in a ringer. And when Russert pointed out what Hastert studiously avoided mentioning -- that Keyes was picked almost entirely because of his race -- his response was, "Well, I tell you what, I was out of town when that happened. That -- sure. But I went five levels. I've been working for five weeks trying to find a candidate. Here we are."
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That clarifies everything.
It seems to be perfectly acceptable for the GOP to import a candidate, especially when he is of a particular color. But when the Democrats try to import a candidate -- well, we saw what Clinton had to put up with four years ago.
Once again, we see the Republicans' double standard. What's OK for us is not OK for you.
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