I am inclined to agree with the Alan Keyes of 2000 who criticized Hillary Clinton’s decision to move to New York to run for the Senate over the Alan Keyes of 2004 who has jumped into the Illinois Senate race. But was this necessary? As a friend of mine pondered, why were none of the Illinois GOP House members willing to run? Reps. Hyde and Crane have both had full, distinguished careers, and would be giving up (at most) only a handful of congressional terms by running. Both would have had plenty of name recognition and fund-raising ability. Either could have mounted a credible campaign — more credible than Keyes. Were they not approached? Did they refuse to run? After Ryan’s implosion it was fun to speculate about celebrity candidates, but I would have thought Illinois could do better than to import a former ambassador and talk-show host from out-of-state.