Roy Moore could give the GOP even more heartburn

June 14, 2005

The Boston Globe had an interesting item today on former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, the theocrat who was removed from the bench for refusing to abide by a federal court order (Moore believes he can pick and choose which court orders to ignore and which to follow because federal law, as he sees it, has no jurisdiction over his religious crusade).

The Globe’s Nina Easton noted that Moore’s popularity could be a “problem” for Republicans. I thought she meant in Alabama. She didn’t.

As Republican strategists weigh the party’s prospects for 2006 and 2008, they are increasingly worried about a political confrontation with Roy S. Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who became a hero to religious conservatives when he refused to follow a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state’s judicial building.

Moore, a Republican who enjoys widespread support in his home state, is poised to run against a vulnerable Republican governor. If he wins, some party strategists speculate, he could defy a federal court order again by erecting a religious monument outside the Alabama state Capitol building. With the 2008 presidential race looming, President Bush would then face a no-win decision: either call out the National Guard to enforce a court order against a religious display on state grounds or allow a fellow born-again Christian to defy the courts.

And wouldn’t that be interesting.

This came up briefly in mid 2003. Alabama’s favorite theocrat had been ordered to move his religious monument from the state courthouse after having lost every court fight at every level of the judiciary. He refused. State officials ultimately intervened to enforce the order, but the system got lucky — had Alabama officials taken Moore’s side, it would have been up to Bush, Ashcroft, and federal marshals to intervene and support the rule of law and our constitutional system.

Which brings us to the next likely problem — what to do when Roy Moore, representing the Taliban-wing of the Republican Party, becomes the top state official in Alabama.

It’s not too big a stretch here. Moore’s already planning to run for governor, a race in which he’ll be favored to win. Once elected, Moore would likely start using his position to promote and endorse his fundamentalist beliefs all over again. Moore will get sued, he’ll lose, and he will once again ignore federal court orders.

What, exactly, would Bush do under the circumstances? I honestly have no idea.

He take his widdle pilly and go to bed wif it, or fall of his couch watching tv, or go for a bike ride, or turn the whole problem over to Paris Hilton.

  • Unfortunately, it’d have to go through the court system and probably wouldn’t happen fast enough to be Bush’s problem. With Democrats’ luck, they’d win in 2008 and then they’d have to enforce the order. That’d be even worse.

  • Can’t say I am fealing sorry for the national GOP on this one. This is a problem that they helped create – now their creation could bight them on the a double s.

  • I think Rick has it pegged. Moore was on “Now” last week, I could barely belive that someone so ignorant could be allowed to be a judge, much less a governor. God help the people of Alabama.

  • This is all assuming that Moore could win the general election, which isn’t a given since there are still some strong Dems in AL (believe it or not

  • Run Roy Run!!!

    Next up, Ted Nugent for Senator of Michigan and Dobson for whatever, wherever he crawled out of. The more crazy Republicans in big races the better. Bring the freak show into the big tent.

  • Before we root for the reincarnation of Orval Faubus, this poll has a Democratic woman (!) with a larger lead over Moore than over unpopular incumbent governor Bob Riley.

    Just because some crackpot is a national figure does not mean that he’d win the governor’s race.

  • Forget Alabama. He should run for president! Split the fundy vote off from the republicans and it’s all over for them. Maybe some dems should fund his presidential run on the sly. He’d be such a threat I wouldn’t be surprized if had some unfortunate plane or car “accident”.

  • Should this scenario come to pass, an even more fundamental question arises: because of Bush’s mis-adventure in Iraq, will there be sufficient National Guard personnel available to enforce a court order against a then-Governor Moore. This assumes, a priori, that Bush would have the political will to use the National Guard to enforce a federal court order, a very debateable issue if you ask me.

    There are several influential Rethug Congress-critters who have (especially during the Schiavo fiasco) stated that it would be up to the courts, NOT the executive branch, to enforce its orders — this in spite of the Constitutional mandate to the contrary.

    Seeing what Bush did with Schiavo, it is clearly within the realm of possibility — maybe even likelihood — that Bush would cop a “it’s a state’s rights issue for Alabama to settle itself” pose, and let Moore’s insurrection stand. The theocracy grows …

  • I can’t let “10 Comments” stand (sounds to much like “10 Commandments”), so I’ll use this one to ask: Didn’t Andrew Jackson do something like that with a decision by the Supreme Court? The Court had said that the laws of Georgia didn’t apply (in a case involving the Cherokee Indians). Jackson said something like “This is Mr. Marshall’s decision, let him enforce it”.

  • From the link to the Mobile Register provided by Nick Beaudrot above:

    “In last week’s poll, each of the candidates drew at least some support from opposing party voters, with Moore and Baxley faring the best across party lines. It was the former chief justice, though, who registered the single lowest instance of internal party support, garnering 51 percent of Republicans in his matchup against Baxley.”

    “Baxley had the most consistent internal party support, commanding 62 percent of Democrats when pitted against Moore and 65 percent when matched against Siegelman. Riley generated the highest single instance of party loyalty — 72 percent of Republicans — in a head-to-head with Siegelman. The governor’s GOP support dropped to 59 percent against Baxley.”

    It’s very encouraging to see how strong Lt. Gov. Baxley show’s in this poll. I wasn’t aware there was such a fine Democratic candidate to back in Alabama.

    I’ve got relatives in Mobile and I’ve enjoyed traveling down there for years. The state get’s written off as a redneck backwater and it does have it’s issues but there’s also a lot to like. It would be great to see what could happen with intelligent, open minded and NON-CORRUPT leadership.

    With Gov. Baxley in office the whole sad scenario concerning nitwit Moore and his rock could disappear like a bad dream.

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