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Alan Keyes won the first ever Republican straw poll held in Alabama. Not publicized any where near as much as the recent Iowa Straw Poll, Keyes proved himself to still be a viable Republican conservative commodity by capturing twenty-nine percent of the vote. Last Saturday ( August 27th ), the ex-ambassador, talk show host turned welcome candidate for president, edged out Senator Orrin Hatch with twenty-seven percent and Governor George Bush with twenty-five percent! Gary Bauer came in fourth, Elizabeth Dole was fifth and Steve Forbes placed sixth, with all the other candidates only recording single digit performances. To their credit, only Angel Rocker ( if you don't know who that is, check it out; you will be amazed ) joined Hatch and Keyes in Birmingham.
Okay, so the Bush Brigade can croon that they got twenty-five percent without showing up, but with fifty million bucks or so in his coffers, Bush undoubtedly spent a dollar or two, even in his absence. Though a pay per vote event like Iowa, the similarity ends there, with each candidate limited to only 100 delegates. It was reported that a sideshow attraction included a dunking booth with a Bill Clinton look-a-like ( I bet he stayed wet all day long ).
Obviously nobody puts any import on this straw poll, but nonetheless, Keyes won it baby!
Keyes faced the reality of a Bush landslide with a candidate who is trying to appeal to everyone, preaching, " If you keep voting for people who are vague on the issues important to this country, you will be defeated and you deserve to be defeated ". Hatch faced another reality with, " George Bush has it wrapped up because the party hierarchy is with him ". Come on man, this is not a coronation like the Democrats nominating Gore Clinton's un-holy heir apparent!
Today, August 31st, Keyes made a couple of those statements that only he can make with the correct inflection on the Clinton/Gore War in Yugoslavia. He has always raised his voice on America's targetting of innocent civilians in NATO's aerial butchery, saying, " You don't fight evil by becoming evil yourself ", and " The Yugoslavian campaign is a stain on America's record ". Keyes is one of the only Republicans in the limelight who is willing to tell it like it is in the Kosovo debacle!
Okay, I got myself going again; after all I have taken almost all of August off, in an unsuccessful attempt to try to avoid reality. C-Span, back in July had a panel on War Crimes Investigations in Kosovo, at the Washington D.C. National Press Club ( sorry the exact date escapes me ). Professor Ruth Wedgewood of Yale University said, " We know it was an undeclared war...we know they ( NATO? The Clinton Administration? ) went around the United Nations ". She did weenie out later, though, with, " The Allies did the best they could "? Don't you just love it when a liberal is trying to defend the indefensible and whines like an infant? Judge Patricia Wald of the Circuit Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, talked about how NATO manipulated the War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague with, " Waging aggressive war was purposely taken out of this tribunal ". We all know why it was taken out; so that NATO could be free of embarrasment and litigation! She continued to illustrate how NATO constructed the Hague investigations to overlook NATO's obvious war crimes, with, " The jurisdiction is to try individuals and not countries ". I would ask; what about trying whole criminal alliances?
Alright, so I got a little off topic, but Alan Keyes is one of the only candidiates with enough morality and integrity to address problems that may be tough for most, even those considered to be truthful and honest!
- Bongo ( Can you dig it?
