The Rockford Register-Star’s Aaron Chambers has another fine column on the continuing saga of Alan Keyes, state Sen. Dave Syverson (who brought Keyes to the dance) and the future of the Illinois Republican Party. In this segment, state party chair Judy Baar Topinka argues for moderation and Syverson doesn’t listen.

Topinka, a social moderate, argued that the party should stay clear of such [social] issues altogether.

“We are good managers. We deal very well with fiscal issues. We work very well with solving problems,” she said. “When we start getting into people’s bedrooms and when we start getting into some of these divisive, social, splintering, factionalized issues, we don’t do the party any good and ultimately wind up disassembled and unable to elect candidates.”

Syverson, a social conservative, says party leaders are focused on reinforcing the notion that conservative candidates can’t get elected. Yet, on one point, he agrees with Topinka.

“What Keyes is doing is wrong and what Topinka is doing is wrong,” Syverson said. “Both are alienating the other side of the Republican Party by continuing to raise the social issues instead of raising the issues that ought to be the focal point of the discussion.”

Um, Dave, try paying attention the next time you talk to Chambers.