Illinois Republicans got their new Senate candidate today as the former presidential hopeful Alan Keyes of Maryland said he was willing to relocate to run against the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. But Mr. Keyes was obviously not the first choice of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, a powerful figure in Illinois Republican circles.
Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" to promote his new book, Mr. Hastert described his extensive efforts to find a replacement for the winner of the Republican primary, Jack Ryan, who decided to step aside in June after some embarrassing assertions by his ex-wife in their divorce file.
"I spent five weeks trying to find good people," said Mr. Hastert, who said he approached state legislators and the former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka and Gary Fencik, an Ivy Leaguer who was a hard-hitting safety.
"I got down into last week interviewing a 70-year-old guy who was a great farm broadcaster in Illinois," Mr. Hastert said. "He decided because of his health problems he couldn't do it. You know, we were down — we needed to find somebody to run, somebody who wanted to run. And, you know, Alan Keyes wants to run, and I hope he's a good candidate."
But Tim Russert pressed Mr. Hastert by saying it appeared that Illinois Republicans had gone out and recruited an out-of-state black candidate to oppose Mr. Obama, who is also black.
"I tell you what," Mr. Hastert. "I was out of town when it happened."
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" How come people always flip and think they're Jesus? Why not Buddha? Particularly in America, where more people resemble Buddha than Jesus. 'Ah'm BUDDHA!' 'You're Bubba!' 'Ah'm Buddha now..All I gotta do is change 3 letters on ma belt...' " - Bill Hicks