Dr. Alan Keyes Brought In to Counter Dr. Ron Paul?

"If he's entered the race it's almost surely as a hit man going after Ron Paul," says "love the girls" in his Comments to my post three posts down from this one. He also brings up something about the "Theocon" of which I was not aware: "[I]n the past he entered the primaries to take out Pat Buchanan."

Over at the LewRockwell.com Blog, they also see this potentially worrisome development in the same light. The man himself calls Keyes the "[o]ne the cross-and-flag fascists really love"─Another Neocon for President. Casey Khan speculates "that Keyes was drafted after Ron Paul's defeat of Huckabee"─On the Coming Ron Paul v. Alan Keyes Showdown. Our commenter's mention of "[Keyes'] worship of the plaster saint Lincoln" is corroborated by Lincoln-debuker Thomas DiLorenzo─re: Ron Paul vs. Alan Keyes. Recalls Prof. DiLorenzo:

Howard Phillips once told me that Keyes turned down his request to join the Constitution Party, where Ron would be perfectly comfortable, because of only one thing he (Keyes) disagreed with vehemently: Howard is strongly anti-Lincoln.

Keyes is a card-carrying, Lincoln-quoting, Straussian neocon who, naturally, supports the war in Iraq. Another big government, Christo-fascist "conservative" just like the rest of the pack, in other words.

Perhaps his motive is more mercenary; in the past, he's found campaigning to be quite lucrative, paying himself a six-figure salary─Keyes '92 campaign salary- was it legal?