Former Reagan administration official Alan Keyes has taken up a second career – losing political elections. The Maryland resident’s announcement on Sunday that he will accept the Republican Party’s invitation to run against Democratic Senate nominee Barack Obama in Illinois is bound to keep his record intact as a serial loser.

It also keeps his record intact as a hypocrite.

In a March 17, 2000 appearance on FOX News’ “Special Report with Brit Hume,” Keyes said: “And I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton’s willingness to go into a state she doesn’t even live in and pretend to represent people there. So I certainly wouldn’t imitate it.”

But that’s exactly what he is now doing.

Keyes is seeking to represent Illinois, a state in which he has never lived. Candidates for office have until Nov. 2, Election Day, to establish residency in the state.

By saying one thing and doing another, Keyes joins many of his Republican brethren in the unofficial Hall of Shame. Exhibit #1 is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who was admitted to Yale University’s Law School under an affirmative action program, according to the dean. Yet, he opposed the concept once he had obtained his law degree and moved to the workplace.

Ward Connerly personally benefited from a special California program for women and people of color. Later, he led state and national campaigns to outlaw affirmative action. Even George W. Bush, who received extra points under a legacy program because his father and grandfather had graduated from Yale University, now says such programs are unfair and should be eliminated.

Interestingly, Keyes and his Black conservative compatriots have a habit of expressing a strong preference for a race-neutral society. Of course, it lasts until they feel a need to exploit their race for personal gain.

Take the case of Keyes, who served as an assistant secretary of state and an ambassador to the United Nations in the Reagan administration. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate from Maryland in 1988, capturing 38.2 percent of the vote. He ran again in 1992, slipping to 29 percent against Barbara Mukulski.

Disappointed that the GOP didn’t go all-out to support him, Keyes did what he had accused others of doing – he played the race card. Actually, it was more like the whole deck. According to the Washington Post, Keyes accused GOP leaders of “basically sending the message that beyond a certain level blacks need not apply.” He added, “If I can work out in the fields, I think I ought to be allowed to come into the house for dinner.” I’ll resist the temptation to point out that Keyes was already a House Negro.

Keyes received unfavorable publicity over his practice of paying himself a hefty salary out of campaign funds.

In 1996 and 2000, he launched long-shot presidential bids for the White House. He plunged deeply into debt and still owes $524,169 from his two presidential runs, according to federal election records.

He gets to be the Republican nominee against State Sen. Obama because other well-known public figures rejected the overture to run. GOP Sen. Peter Fitzgerald is retiring and the leading Republican to replace him, Jack Ryan, was forced to withdraw after embarrassing sex-related disclosures from his divorce proceedings were unsealed.

Former GOP governors Jim Edgar and James Thompson and former Chicago Bears football coach were approached, but opted not to run against Obama.

Considering Obama’s mixed-raced background, his centrist views, his loose ties to the Civil Rights Establishment and commanding lead in the polls, some are surprised that Keyes is taking on a rising star in the Democratic Party.

Keyes was recruited to run against Obama, in part, because he’s Black.

The candidate who has asked to be judged by the content of his character is being judged by the pigmentation of his skin.

After losing in 1996, Keyes expressed disappointment that many Christians voted against him.

“This must be a terrible feeling,” he said at the time. “You make a decision based on expediency, and it doesn’t work out. And then you’re left without expediency and without principle. With nothing. This is sad, I never want to wake up the day after an election or any time else with that emptiness in me, knowing I have given away things that matter the most for the sake of what I thought would win and finding that, I have lost and have nothing.”

Keyes just might find himself in that position on Nov. 3.