Run Alan, run!

Alan Keyes has won the lottery for the Illinios Republican Senate nomination. Following a series of gaffes that included a previous candidate's divorce records being released, casting him in the role of kinky, perverted husband, and a famous football coach turning the state party down, the Republicans have found their man.

Keyes is most famous for being that fairly rare animal: an African-American conservative. He has run for national office before, including president, but has yet to win an election.

Keyes is most recognizable to me for his part in an episode of Michael Moore's old television series, TV Nation. In the run up to the 2000 election, Moore wnt about with a truck full of kids moshing to Rage Against The Machine's "Guerilla Radio." Moore promised to endorse the first candiate willing to hop into the mobile pit. Everyone turned him down, probably after realizing the chorus to the song goes like this:

Lights out!
Guerilla radio!
Turn that shit up!

The intrepid Keyes, never one to ignore any chance of public exposure, agreed, climbed into the truck, and was nearly trampled by the moshing. He looked like an idiot dressed in his suit, but I had to give him a small salute for bravery under fire. Moore did provide Keyes an endorsement, but apparently it wasn't enough to get him the Republican nomination.

Read the Talking Points Memo post on Keyes.