Birmingham Blues

In the most recent Mobile Register-University of South Alabama poll of likely Republican voters, Gov. Bob Riley leads Roy Moore 56% - 28%, with 16% undecided. October poll results had Riley at 44%, Moore at 25%, and 31% undecided. It looks like those who are making up their minds are making them up to vote for Bob.

Roy’s trying to put a good face on the bad news:

“It’s not about polls and politics — it’s about principle and people. The people of this state will send a clear message to the politicians and special interests in Montgomery on June 6,” Moore said in a statement.

I think the people of this state will send a clear message to Roy Moore on June 6: go home, sit down, and shut up.

Hat tip to Mac at War Liberal.

Roy Moore’s wife, Kayla, has sent out an email asking supporters for contributions to help Roy become a “national spokesperson for Christian conservatism”.

Kayla Moore wrote in an e-mail that Christmas was an appropriate time to begin their campaign “to return morality to our country and God to our public square.” Her husband is opposed by people who want to promote gay marriage and “remove Christ from Christmas,” she wrote. ..

…In the letter, Kayla Moore suggested the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State “will stop at nothing to keep Roy Moore out of the Governor’s office in Alabama!”

“In short, they want to continue to promote homosexual marriages, maintain abortion on demand and remove Christ from Christmas,” Kayla Moore wrote. “They FEAR nothing more than the emergence of a powerful national spokesperson for Christian conservatism.

“And make no mistake: If elected governor of Alabama, my husband will be that spokesman!” she wrote. “But again, he can’t get there alone which is why I am hoping you and thousands of other Christian conservatives will join with my husband in his campaign for governor.”

That’s just what the state of Alabama needs — a governor who knows nothing about running state government and who plans to spend his time as a “national spokesperson for Christian Conservatism”. As the email continues, the ick factor increases:

“I know I am asking a lot especially right in the middle of this Christmas season when your focus is on family, friends and loved ones,” the letter reads. “But, I can think of no better time than this Holy Season to begin our campaign to return morality to our country and God to our public square. We need a man like Roy Moore as governor of Alabama. With your help and God’s grace we can, and will prevail!”

Of course, Roy’s idea of morality includes defying federal court orders and executing homosexuals.

I saw my first Moore for Governor bumper sticker on Monday. Moore, for those of you who’ve had better things to worry about the last couple of years, is the “Ten Commandments Judge” who is challenging Alabama Gov. Bob Riley in the 2006 Republican primary. I confess that my reaction was, “How could anyone here be stupid enough to vote for him?”

“Here” is an affluent suburb of Birmingham, where the primary concern of most people I know is the maintenance of a truly excellent school system. That’s why we live here. Sure, they are Republicans (well, not all of them), but they’re not Roy Moore Republicans. Church membership might be tantamount to a residency requirement, but these folks aren’t about to sacrifice a science curriculum that will help their kids get into medical school in order to support intelligent design. They are Republicans because they are pro-business and pro-America and they’ve been convinced that the Republican Party embodies those values. And aren’t all upper middle class white people Republicans? (The answer to that question is NO, but I concede that most are.)

So why on earth would anyone here support Moore? I wish I knew, so I could figure out a way to change their minds. Roy would be an unmitigated disaster for this state, making us even more of a joke than we already are in the eyes of most Americans. Alabama needs a progressive governor who will push for constitutional reform (our current one has been amended 772 times and counting), tax reform (state income tax kicks in when a family of four makes $4,600 a year, while out of state landowners pay pennies per acre in property taxes), adequate funding for all public schools in the state, and a state-of-the-art regional public transportation system. We don’t need to have the Ten Commandments posted on schoolhouse walls, “God Bless America” squeezed onto our license plates, intelligent design taught in our schools, gay adoption banned and gay marriage re-banned – but all of these are being proposed by a Legislature full of pandering blowhards whose primary concern is re-election.

So far, none of the candidates for governor has shown the ability to lead the people of this state into the late 20th century, much less the 21st. Right now, the Democrats have a crook and a nonentity, and the Republicans have a pretty decent incumbent (who was badly burned in his first term when he pushed for real reform) and a religious demagogue. Can’t we do any better than this?

So Alan Keyes is supporting Roy Moore for Supreme Court Justice? The same Roy Moore who supports the execution of homosexuals?

“The State carries the power of the sword, that is, the power to prohibit conduct with physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution. It must use that power to prevent the subversion of children toward this [homosexual] lifestyle, to not encourage a criminal lifestyle.”

Wow, I bet family dinners at the Keyes’ house are a blast!