For months, I have been hoping against hope that theocrat Roy Moore will accept the Constitution Party’s presidential nomination and become a critical counterweight to a certain former consumer advocate who shall remain nameless.
It all made sense and, for a while, Moore seemed to be moving closer to accepting such a challenge. He had appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court to get his job back, and while his appeal was pending, Moore insisted that he wouldn’t consider campaigning for public office.
Of course, justices in Alabama did what every judge has done when it comes to Moore’s radical crusade: rule against him. Suddenly, the door was open. The only other legal avenue Moore had available was a pointless appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. With limited other options, I had hoped he would launch a presidential bid, if for no other reason, because he had nothing better to do and it would give him plenty of attention, which he obviously craves.
Alas, Moore announced this week that he has made up his mind. For reasons that defy logic and common sense, Moore is taking his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result, it’s almost certain that he will not run for president this year.
Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said Wednesday he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his ouster from office over his refusal to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.
Moore said he felt it was his duty to the Alabama voters who elected him to appeal the Alabama Supreme Court decision upholding his removal from office.
In addition to killing my dream of a far-right challenge to Bush, this is a breathtaking waste of time.
Moore has appealed to the high court before and it’s never worked; the justices have brushed him aside as a crazed loon with no case. It’s even less likely to succeed now, since Moore is appealing the decision of a state judicial body which removed Moore from office on state judicial ethics grounds.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, another of the original plaintiffs, said there is nothing new in Moore’s arguments that would cause the court to hear the appeal.
“Judge Moore has a better chance of becoming American Idol than he does of having his case heard by the Supreme Court,” Lynn said.
That’s a good line, which happens to be completely true.
So Moore will file his appeal before an August 5 deadline, and a few months after that, the Supreme Court will once again blow off the latest ridiculous Moore scheme. In the meantime, he’ll charge willing dupes $10,000 a shot to deliver the same radical speech over and over again.
Maybe that’s why Moore chose to appeal to the Supremes instead of running for president — he didn’t want to take the pay cut.