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The scene was just after the GOP debate Thursday, as all the Republican candidates, except George W. Bush, graced the press room at WMUR-TV -- where hundreds of reporters were typing out their stories -- to offer a bit of post-debate analysis.

And the topics we were arguing about were the press, race and Alan Keyes.

What started it all was another post-debate pressroom session, this after the GOP Dartmouth debate on Oct. 28. The fiery Keyes, mad that the members of the press assembled there weren't asking him any questions, burst into a string of invective at our apparent snub.

"The people of this country have gotten over their racial sickness -- I don't know that you folks have," Keyes said. "I think that merit means nothing to you because you can't look past race. And I think I'm deadly sick of it." It was a bizarre eruption, odder still because our reticence had nothing to do with his race, and everything to do with the fact that we were all busy writing our stories.

Even if we hadn't all been so busy, though, Keyes is at best a fringe candidate -- he's more than $80,000 in debt, an asterisk in the polls and couldn't even get elected to statewide office in Maryland.

Still, his rant was intriguing. In a story about the Dartmouth debate, Slate's Jacob Weisberg observed that "the racial factor works mildly in Keyes' favor" because, "if he were a white Republican, and thus less of a novelty, the press would portray him more directly as a fanatic. Ignoring Keyes is the kindest thing the press can do for him."

Keyes was queried about the outburst during last Thursday's debate. WMUR's Karen Brown asked if the "apparent [un]interest in you during a press availability" was "racism or is it a reflection of your standing in the polls?"

Keyes responded, "I think these polls are phony to begin with. They are a manipulated result aimed at trying to usurp and preempt the choice of the American people."

He suddenly decided to hang his hat on "some of these phony polls" -- specifically those that "show me ahead of people you've given more attention to, including folks who are standing right next to me right now. So by the criteria that the phony folks in the media use, you are violating your own criteria. And I have to look around for another explanation when that happens. And I know that explanation from the time I stepped forward. You know, when I first stepped forward, the only thing people in the media wanted to ask me about was race."

Keyes is right about one thing: The press should treat him equally. We should behave toward him no differently than we would a candidate who happens to be white.

Keyes may be brilliant, but he is also a hectoring megalomaniac. He should be analyzed and criticized the way any other candidate would be. For instance: He paid himself a salary of $100,000 out of campaign contributions to his losing 1992 Maryland Senate race. That's not illegal, but it is fairly sketchy.

And unlike many other Christians who "hate the sin but love the sinner," Keyes preaches an angry intolerance of gays and lesbians.

While Keyes demonstrated a command of the issues perhaps unrivaled among his fellow candidates Thursday, he also made some statements worth challenging. For instance, his assessment that the NATO operation in Kosovo had little merit and was a "propaganda war" was ludicrous and superficial at best. And for an ideologue, Keyes is remarkably inconsistent: The polls are "phony" when he's behind, but not so when he makes gains; reporters shouldn't bring up his race, though his comparisons between taxation and slavery -- and his sneers at "Massa Bush" -- are fine.

So when Keyes came to the pressroom Thursday night, there was no way I wasn't going to ask him a few questions. I had no idea it was going to get so ugly -- but given Keyes' unhinged way, I should have known better.

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