This whole fiasco in Illinois just has to make any intellectually honest Republican (granted, speaking to few) cringe. Now Mr. Keyes decides to throw his hat in the ring. This after Denny Hastert has stated, "I got down into last week interviewing a 70-year-old guy who was a great farm broadcaster in Illinois.... He decided because of his health problems he couldn't do it." Wow, just pathetic.

So they needed to go outside the state to find someone (Keyes is resident of Maryland). It might just be me but doesn't this say that Illinois is pretty much wrapped up for Kerry?!

As cited at TalkingPointsMemo, Keyes was a very vocal critic of Hillary Clinton running in NY despite not being a resident. He stated then, "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."

What a joke. These Republicans love to throw around the "flip flopper" term, as if they're immune to it. Here we have exhibit #8,986,566, your honor! Will we hear anything about Keyes flip-flopping? Hah!

As the Washington Post reports, Keyes acknowledged that he "gave no remote thought of coming to Illinois until six days ago" and said he told state party officials last week that when it comes to switching states to run for office, "as a matter of principle, I don't think it's a good idea."

Illinois newspaper Rockford Register Star has it right when they state, "The whole thing is an embarrassment.... The choice of an out-of-stater makes the Illinois GOP hierarchy a national laughingstock. It sends the message that this scandal-ridden state party organization is in such bad shape that it can't even find a decent candidate from its own ranks."