By Joey Kennedy
Alabama Political Reporter
In the special U.S. Senate General Election on Dec. 12 between Democrat Doug Jones and twice-ousted state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, I guess I’m with former Auburn University and NBA great Charles Barkley.
Before Saturday’s Iron Bowl, Barkley made it simple to reporters before the game won impressively by Auburn:
“I mean Roy Moore is running with (former Donald Trump aide) Steve Bannon as his right-hand man, who is a white separatist. I’m not even get(ting) into the women stuff, but … how can you be a white separatist and represent all the constituents in your state? I mean, everybody is going crazy over the sexual allegations. Roy Moore to me, when he brought in Steve Bannon, should have been disqualified.”
And then: “You can’t have a guy running for office who’s a white separatist. That’s just wrong.”
Barkley said if he voted in Alabama, he’d choose Doug Jones.
Folks, it really is that simple.
Roy Moore was not qualified to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate long before he was accused by a number of women of improper sexual contact when they were younger, some as young as 14 years old. He wasn’t qualified when he was thrown out of his Chief Justice position the first time over his mammoth Ten Commandments monument. Certainly not after the second time over defying an order legalizing marriage equality.
Still, Moore has bigger problems than just getting kicked off the court because he couldn’t obey the nation’s higher courts.
Moore makes rulings based on his hyper-fundamentalist Christian sect (cult?). Imagine being a Muslim or LGBTQ community member standing before Moore. Moore has said transgender people have no rights. He’s against allowing gays and lesbians to marry and adopt children. He doesn’t believe Muslims should be allowed to serve in the U.S. Congress.
Moore is against immigration and in favor of deporting hardworking undocumented immigrants, whether they’ve broken any U.S. laws.
And, yes, there’s Steve Bannon, who is returning to Alabama to campaign with Moore next week. Bannon, who runs a white nationalist website that truly does publish fake news stories and white supremist stories.
Moore (along with President Donald Trump) embraces Bannon. If voters embrace Moore, they’re embracing Bannon’s severe philosophy as well.
Charles Barkley gets it.
Too, people who vote for Moore are embracing his sick infatuation with teenaged girls.
What does that say about Alabama voters who also support Moore? It says nothing good.
Remember, Moore refuses to debate Jones. He refuses to directly address questions about most issues, including the accusations of child molestation.
But for those Republican voters who can’t vote for the clearly better candidate, Jones, because he’s a Democrat, there are other choices on Dec. 12.
They can always write in their favorite uncle or aunt or neighbor. Or they can go with a now-declared write-in independent candidate Retired Marine Corps Col. Lee Busby.
Busby, who lives in Tuscaloosa, told Alabama Political Reporter’s Chip Brownlee that he doesn’t know if the allegations against Moore are true, and he doesn’t care. He said he wasn’t going to vote for Moore to begin with, and the allegations were enough to solidify that decision.
And Busby sees Jones as “too liberal,” an empty phrase nearly always thrown around when a Democrat is running in this blood-red state.
Busby, 60, is a Trump supporter, however, so he’s more likely to draw dissatisfied Republicans than Democrats.
In truth, though, a write-in candidacy stands a snowball’s chance in hell of success.
It’ll either be Moore or Jones. For Alabama’s sake, please let it be Jones.
Charles Barkley made the call.
Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner, writes a column every week for Alabama Political Reporter. Email: jkennedy@alreporter.com.
