Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby is nobody's notion of a Republican-lite. He's a loyal soldier in the Republican battle to do every little thing they insist on doing. Nobody will ever mistake him for being a moderate on, well, anything.
But Sen. Richard Shelby is, presumably, more aware than the rest of us on just what the implications will be for his already-beleaguered home state if his state's Republican voters saddle him with a Senate compatriot revealed to be an actual child molester, and Sen. Richard Shelby is out.
The Alabama Republican said he's already cast his ballot, and that he chose a write-in candidate.
"I'd rather see the Republican win, but I'd rather see a Republican write-in. I couldn't vote for Roy Moore. I didn't vote for Roy Moore," Shelby told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union." [...]
"(W)e call it a tipping point," Shelby said. "I think, so many accusations, so many cuts, so many drip, drip, drip -- when it got to the 14-year-old's story, that was enough for me. I said I can't vote for Roy Moore."
Shelby isn't saying precisely what Senate Republicans will do, if Alabama voters insist on seating a child molester whose candidacy is at this point being most visibly propped up by the White House sex offender-in-chief. But unlike some of his colleagues, he appears to be of the opinion that he doesn't want to spend six years shaking this cretin's hand.
"The Senate has to look at who's fit to serve in the Senate," he said.
The obvious solution here is for Alabama Republicans to rebuff the efforts of the child molester to "represent" them. They could instead vote for, say, someone widely known for having integrity. It is true that Doug Jones will likely not turn Alabama into the talibanesque anti-Constitution religious state that Roy Moore is forever promising, but at least the state’s Republicans would not be led by a goddamned child molester.