Ramesh Ponnuru writes in NRO’s Corner
This is the third time in a row that the national Republican party has intervened in the primary for the third district in the House on the losing side. It managed to be against Adam Taff when he won the primary (in 2002), and with him when he lost it (as he appears to have lost yesterday). Every time I asked a party operative about the support this year for Taff over conservative Kris Kobach, I was told that Taff was going to win the primary going away. I figure that Kobach will now get party support; the incumbent Democrat, Dennis Moore, is one of the GOP’s top targets. But winning the race is going to be difficult, and the NRCC, by supporting a primary campaign that harshly attacked Kobach and depleted his funds, has made it harder. I’m not against national-party intervention in principle. Given this awful track record, maybe next time around the D.C. party should let Kansans choose their own candidate without the benefit of its expertise.
As is often the case, the national Republican leadership opposed the more conservative candidate in the party primary. Who needs them, when it’s clear that the NRCC sees its job as preventing the Republican Party from moving to the right? I note that Alan Keyes, despite his credentials, only appears to have become acceptable as a candidate for the Senate in Illinois since the candidates preferred by the state party leadership have dropped out. Keyes looks like a sacrificial lamb at the moment, but he’s a bright man and perhaps he can turn it around.
He’s one Republican candidate for whom I would vote, along with Ron Paul.