Alan Keyes’ denial, or dishonesty, about his upcoming thumping borders on the pathological:

Media polls like the one showing him significantly trailing Democratic opponent Barack Obama are rarely accurate, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes said Wednesday.

Keyes, who spoke with reporters and a small group of supporters at the Peoria County Republican Party headquarters, said he’s finding people across the state are energized by his candidacy. His visit to the city came the same day his first campaign commercial hit televisions across the state.

“As I put it to my staff people, it’s like leaves on a tree in autumn. You get to a certain point where the leaves are ready to fall. Our commercials are the breeze,” Keyes said. “And the leaves will fall.”

Yeah, about 20 to 30 percent of them.

================================================

Keyes also had a few not-so-nice words about Illinois reporters:

“I have not been impressed with the standard of journalism in the state of Illinois,” he said. “I think it’s a disgrace to the people of this state that you all don’t do your jobs very well. You’ve got work to do because you’re not up to snuff.”

Any major party candidate who is trailing his opponent by 40 to 50 points less than a week before election day has no standing to tell anyone else that they suck at their jobs.

================================================

Here’s another media mention of the governor’s recent appearance in Elgin that barely drew a crowd:

Last week, the state’s most powerful Democrat, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, visited a county Democratic fund-raiser in Elgin, the first visit of his administration.

It was a powerful symbolic move to show county Democratic strength but at the same time exposed weaknesses in terms of political machines.

Only 70 people came to see the governor, far fewer than expected.

================================================

File this one under Oops:

Some state workers at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation are not only losing their jobs - they’re also in danger of becoming victims of identity theft.

Included with some of the job-elimination notices distributed Monday to the 97 affected workers was a list containing more than 500 employees’ Social Security numbers.

“It was an error in compiling the list,” said Susan Hofer, a DFPR spokeswoman. “Only a small fraction of the packets went out with the Social Security numbers. We stopped distribution immediately and redacted the Social Security numbers. We are in the process of retrieving the erroneous list, and the employees are being cooperative.”

================================================

Meanwhile, the State Journal-Register didn’t post Bernie Schoenburg’s column on its website this morning.