Lots of angry email about that email I posted. Here are a couple:

Jonah: Thanks for your consistently excellent work.
I’m a Gen-X conservative Simpsons-fan in Chicago (a rare breed, to be sure, but if you don’t believe me, ask our 18-mo. old daughter named Reagan).
Your correspondent deserves a round fisking, but as I am reading the Corner while I should be practicing other dark arts (I’m a lawyer; please withhold the name), let me be brief. Everyone, please repeat after me: Alan Keyes is taking one for the team – something not one Illinois Republican could be bothered to do. He did not actively seek this gig, in stark contrast to one Hillary Clinton. Rather, to help fellow Republicans out of an embarrassing mess of their own making, he has committed to come here, run an honorable campaign in the 85 short days that are left due to the dithering of Denny Hastert and other Illinois RINO clowns, incur considerable debt, and then certainly go down to resounding defeat in this now dark-blue state. And this state is dark blue precisely because “moderates” like your correspondent have completely enervated and discredited the GOP in Illinois.
Moreover, your correspondent’s suggestion that Republicans should stop fielding black conservatives (“the whole bunch” of whom, in a startlingly racist attack, are house Negroes) and start fielding black candidates who can “court black voters” is politically asinine. First of all, as everyone knows, black voters are liberal Democrats by an overwhelming margin. Why would any heretofore liberal black voter pull the lever for a Republican who co-opts Democratic themes when he/she can get the genuine article? Secondly, isn’t a staunchly Christian candidate more likely to make quicker inroads for the GOP among black voters (lots of churchgoers) than a standard-issue wonkish politico? And thirdly, how is a “moderate” candidate going to be better than a conservative candidate at demonstrating how liberal Barack Obama is?
No, the GOP should go about courting black voters the same way it courts all voters: by unashamedly espousing its principles and then translating those principles into action whenever elected. Yes, it will be a long slog, and yes, the GOP probably could steal a race here and there by imitating the Democrats, but in the long run all that does is solidify Democratic majorities (as has happened in Illinois) as conservatives disengage and voters in general grow to distrust a party that stands for nothing but seeking power.
Alan Keyes, of course, has no peer as an espouser of principles (Obama, who originally agreed to 6 debates with Jack Ryan, is already saying he will debate Keyes no more than twice). The fact that Keyes won’t win a race that circumstances have made unwinnable hardly should be interpreted as a repudiation of the conservative project.
And finally, if your correspondent thinks that you’re a “flaming liberal” next to Keyes, then I don’t think he/she knows either Alan Keyes or Jonah Goldberg very well. Keyes may wear his faith on his sleeve a little more than you, and he’s probably not a fan of either civil unions or the Simpsons (mainly due to his being a generation older), but you’re both well within the respectable mainstream of conservative thought, and I doubt there’s a whole lot of daylight between you on the other issues of the day. To put it another way, if you’re not a right-wing wacko, then neither is Keyes.
All the best to Lucy, Jessica, Cosmo and the Couch.

And…

Whoa! This guy feels strongly about this — and writes well about it!
But Jonah, it seems to me he is just superimposing the “blackness” question on the real issue I struggle with daily: Is the Republican Party the party for conservatives, or has it left us behind?
And since his inclusion of names like Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell on his list of black shills marginalizes some of our best conservative thinkers, the subtext is clearly: “You can’t ever be black and conservative, but if managed properly, you can be black and Republican.”

And…

Jonah,
Your correspondent apparently has never heard of J.C. Watts, nor of other less well known black Republicans: inexcusable ignorance for any making assertions on the subject.
He doesn’t hesitate to demean in the most insulting terms possible blacks who disagree with him. That many Republicans are not at all fond of Alan Keyes seems to elude him; Keyes takes positions which are far to the Right of many in the Republican party, hardly making him a sycophant (or, as your correspondent has it, “syncophant”).
The only worthwhile bit in the whole piece is the estimate of Jesse Jackson, who is simply a hustler’s hustler and not accustomed to constructive work.
Best wishes,
David