We smell hypocrisy. Alan Keyes, the Illinois Republican Party's last hope candidate for the U.S. Senate against Democrat Barack Obama, called Hillary Clinton a carpetbagger in 2000 because she took up residence in New York just so she could run for the Senate from there. Fast-forward to 2004 and we find Keyes, an ultraconservative national commentator, running for the Senate from Illinois even though he lives in Maryland.
In fact he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate from Maryland twice. The difference, Keyes explained, is that Clinton went looking for a race to enter, while the Keyes had no plans to run this year until the Illinois Republicans came looking for him.
The Republicans asked Keyes after Jack Ryan, who won the nomination in the Illinois primary, withdrew because of a divorce scandal. The party recruited Keyes after several other Illinois Republicans, including former Chicago Bears Coach Mike Ditka, said no.
Colonels do battle
A title woven into the very fabric of Kentucky went before a federal judge Friday, as a minor league basketball team and a venerable service organization argued over who had the right to be called "Kentucky Colonels."
The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, whose commissions have been bestowed upon everyone from Harlan Sanders to Pope John Paul II, argued in a trademark infringement case that the American Basketball Association team shouldn't be allowed to sell merchandise bearing the name. U.S. District Judge John Heyburn II of Louisville took the case under advisement. Traditionally, the state's governor is commander in chief of The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, which seems to have the basketball team outranked.
Perhaps they should consider a name change - to, say, the Kentucky Generals.
Trail Mix: News and notes from the political campaign
A federal judge in Washington ruled Thursday that the Federal Election Commission should investigate why supporters of Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan were kept out of the debate halls for the 2000 presidential debates. But District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. said FEC does not have to make its findings before this year's debates between George W. Bush and John Kerry. The commission only allows candidates with 15 percent support in national polls to participate in the debate.
Nader hasn't reached the 15 percent mark this year, but he could be a factor. A national Gallup Poll of likely voters taken Aug. 9 through Aug. 11 found 48 percent favored Bush, 46 percent favored Kerry and 3 percent favored Nader.
Sound bites
Sensitivity I
"I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history."
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, speaking at a minority journalists' convention Aug. 5
---
Sensitivity II
"America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive. Those who threaten us and kill innocents around the world do not need to be treated more sensitively. They need to be destroyed."
Vice President Dick Cheney, in Dayton last week, questioning Kerry's call for a more sensitive war
---
Sensitivity III
"We need to be very sensitive" when gathering intelligence against potential terrorists.
President Bush, earlier this month
---
True confession
"My truth is that I am a gay American."
New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey, announcing his resignation while acknowledging he had an extramarital affair with another man
---
Just plain Julia
"We'd go to the market, and she'd buy Wonder Bread. She had no snobbism about food whatsoever. She loved iceberg lettuce."
French chef Jacques Pepin, remembering Julia Child, who died Friday
