tapped to run for some office or been appointed to some prominate roll somewhere in the Bush Administration. We are now losing J.C. Watts a friend of gun owners. This is gonna leave an awful large opportunity for someone. I hope Watts is followed by somebody of his calibur. [no pun intended]
Is Keyes too straightforward for mainstream politics?

The surest way to negate your critics is to CO-OPT them.  Alan Keyes is far too conservative (and uncompromising) to join any mainstream organization/administration.
1.  Keyes' own comments/beliefs would be held against the administration as POLICY, not the opinion of one man.  Bush has enough trouble with his own supporters without having to justify the opinions of someone else.
2.  Keyes would not censor his own opinions for the benefit of an administration he doesn't support on a majority of issues.  Hiring Keyes as a paid member of the administration would effectively reduce his political capital to that of a hired gun, rather than an independent thinking Conservative.

Nothing particular against the current administration or Keyes, but there would be too much conflict to make it work.  There will (again) be a time for more conservative voices, and men (and women) like Keyes will be needed in elected/appointed positions.  Until then, I prefer to have them setting boundaries, not charting courses.

I think SJS has it right.

Too much controvery for Bush to handle. Every time Keyes would speak, Bush would get nailed for it. Just look at how Bush gets skewered for everything Colin Powell says.

Politics ain't about what's right. Its about what works. It pragmatism (i.e. the ends justifies the means) in action. (No that I'm happy about that)

Men of principle will NEVER succeed in politics. UNLESS your principles are like Bill Clintons. Bill Clinton is the prototypical successful politician for the next century.

And as I said before, George Bush is the Republican version of Bill Clinton. Better on the whole, but alot of the same methodology.

Crap - ok - I haven't heard - what is happening to J.C. Watts?

J.C. will not run for another term.

Keyes can't shut his mouth long enough to do much besides what he's doing.  I don't believe he'll keep his news show for long.  Too bad.

Well, well, well, [b]subdude[/b], I see you read the Hollywood Reporter up there in Oklahoma![:D]

[size=4]Alan Keyes stops making 'Sense'[/size=4]
July 01, 2002

NEW YORK -- MSNBC has canceled the 5-month-old "Alan Keyes Is Making Sense" -- the final telecast was Thursday night -- when he refused to move his show to a late-afternoon slot, according to a network spokeswoman, who said MSNBC wanted to move Keyes from his 10 p.m. ET slot to daytime because of his low ratings. "It wasn't showing any growth" from its late-January debut, the spokeswoman said. Keyes has lagged far behind his competitors. In May, his show averaged 258,000 viewers, compared with 773,000 for Fox News Channel's "On the Record With Greta Van Susteren" and 720,000 for CNN's "Newsnight With Aaron Brown." For now, MSNBC is running documentary longform programming at 10 p.m. until its new schedule kicks in July 15 and Ashleigh Banfield moves to that spot behind Phil Donahue at 8 p.m. and Chris Matthews at 9 p.m. (Andrew Grossman)

Eric The(DoYouDoSoapOperas,Too?)Hun[>]:)]