Vision Circle

Alan Keyes is the last Black Republican to discuss the GOP's failure to get Black votes.

Keyes has bailed on *EVERY* issue that may affect Blacks.

Elaborate please.

When Keyes was asked to comment when Trent Lott's association with the Council of Conservative Citizens _FIRST_ came out, Keyes provided a "no comment." Meanwhile, Armstrong Williams roasted the GOP over the issues.

When Pat Buchannon made his first run for the presidency, when told about Buchannon's racist AND anti-semetic statements, Keyes said he can't comment because he didn't hear the comments for himself, so for him to comment would be bearing false witness.

The only times Keyes comes near a racial issue is when it's to his personal benefit.

Darkstar couldn't be more correct.

If Keyes so worthless on the issues, can he be relied upon to give some insight to the ways and means of the Republican party? Perhaps he is just wrong on the issue of race, especially this third-order stuff of disrespect, namecalling and neglect. It is possible however that he knows something about raising money and .

On the other hand, he may be just the 'Jimmy Walker' of the Republican party. He's there now as a legacy when it wasn't important to have real talent. But how exactly can that be determined? Of what use could he be?

It seems to me that there are more involved questions that must be posed to Mr. Keyes. These litmus tests seem very simplistic.

I have dismissed him because of his staunch rigidity against abortion and his christian conservatism, and in some ways I considered him a shill candidate to shift the polity to the right. But I do think he had a legitimate complaint when he was locked out of debates in Atlanta. Surely there is more than a little irony that he is mentioned in the same has-been category as Buchannan.

Much of this depends upon how vital the new blood is in the Republican party, but I'm not sure that Alan Keyes has absolutely nothing to contribute to the future of black politics.

I wrote a paper on Keyes along with Hanes Walton...it's in the National Political Science Review but I forget which issue. Keyes is very very conservative on the dimension of race. We can learn something from him in as much as it is possible to learn something from EVERYONE.

But on the issue of black politics?

His stances are almost exactly the same as Buchanan's. If we can learn something from him, then why not Pat? I'm not sure the melanin litmus test should be our standard.