The Boston Globe has a
story this morning on former Alabama Sup. Ct. judge Roy Moore of Ten Commandments infamy. Although the headline says his popularity could be a problem for the GOP, the body of the story focuses on how good his chances are to win the GOP primary for governor and how he could easily win election. The problem for the GOP would then be if he puts the Ten Commandments on the Capitol grounds, forcing Bush to choose between sending the National Guard to enforce a court order that his base finds abhorent, or letting Moore get away with flouting the law.
I can live with Bush's discomfort. Far more disturbing is the article's description of Moore's growing national clout, and the beginnings of a movement to get him to run for president in 2008.
Yes, I know that when Pat Robertson tried it in 1988, he got shot down pretty fast. But in the new, "improved" Republican party, the radical religious right has much more control than in 1988, especially at the primary level, and this could give Moore a head start, more so if the other candidates have been seen to "compromise" their divine orders because of real world limitations (think McCain, fr'instance). It is quite possible he could win the hearts of Bush's base, and we've already seen how they operate in a take-no-prisoners fashion.
Moore evidently thought about running in 2004, either by challenging Bush in the primaries or as a thrid party candidate, but apparently decided doing so would put a Democrat back in instead. However, 2008 is an open election with no incumbent (including the VP), so Moore may see he has more of a chance. Certainly, if he wins the Alabama governorship, he can claim both electoral and executive experience, however short. (Yes, he won an election for Chief Justice, but that's not the same.)
Moore is dscribed by a county DA (who calls his own relations with Moore "cordial") as someone who "was never that interested in what the law was versus what he wanted to do...." A classic definition of an activist judge, of course, but than that, this is someone who would make Bush look like a paragon upholder of the law. In a fair world, Moore wouldn't stand a chance, but in the world of Diebold and Dobson, Moore could just be the dark horse (in the Four Horsemen sense as well as the political one) that nobody saw coming until it was too late.