Top 10 Most Interesting Questions: #2

One of the political insiders helping me with the Top 10 Most Interesting Questions to Be Answered by the Primary Elections suggested that the primary election may provide us with a pretty good answer for this question.

Two years ago, Roy Moore was being “treated like a rock star.”

A lot of people want him to run [for President]. Last Saturday, Mr. Moore was a featured speaker at the Christian Coalition’s “Family and Freedom” rally in Atlanta. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported he was “treated like a rock star, signing autographs and getting thunderous standing ovations.”

Standing ovations. National radio. Only two years ago, Judge Roy Moore was on tour with “Roy’s Rock,” the 5280-pound block of granite with the Ten Commandments. Crowds were turning out. Only two years ago people were talking about Roy Moore running for President. Inconveniently, Bush was up for re-election, but people still wanted Roy.

Judge Roy Moore, the Alabama jurist whose fight to display the Ten Commandments on state property drew national attention last year, is being courted by the right-wing Constitution Party as a potential presidential candidate. (The Constitution Party was on the ballot in 41 states in 2000, and retains a solid network of activist supporters nationwide.)

Even if the Constitution Party couldn’t have the poet judge as a presidential candidate, they were enthused about the 2006 governor’s race (from an archived Birmingham News story, March 1, 2004):

“Even if he were finished [with his legal battle] by our June convention, that’s really pushing the envelope for running a national race like this,” said Alabama party Chairman Don Crum of Holly Pond.

As the party’s candidate for governor in 2006, though, Moore would be “a shoo-in,” Crum said.

Thousands turn out in Montgomery in support of Roy Moore and his Ten Commandments monument in August 2003.

Yes, he was the bogeyman that had left-wing Alabamians making nervous jokes about moving out of state. Those were heady days after the dramatic removal of the two-and-a-half ton monument from the State Supreme Court building in 2003. Thousands had shown up in support of Moore who had defied a federal court order to remove the display. Jerry Falwell was there. Presidential candidate Alan Keyes. Said one account:

Down in Montgomery, vigilant Americans continue in prayer and are keeping watch in the courthouse. Some have camped out with sleeping bags for nearly two weeks. Some have been arrested. Volunteers are serving provisions while citizens pray, sing and hold signs. They’ve come from Washington, Indiana, Illinois, New England, New York, Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Canada.

A nationwide audience could watch the spectacle live on any number of national networks.

Even less than one year ago, the Washington Post reported on the movement to Draft Roy Moore for the U.S. Supreme Court. It added:

Moore travels the national evangelical church circuit to standing ovations. He is thinking of running for governor of Alabama and regularly polls 10 points ahead of the current Republican governor, Bob Riley. His Ten Commandments monument travels the country like a holy relic.

Riding the wave, Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker (who once worked for Roy Moore) created a slate of four religiously conservative Republicans running for the state Supreme Court that is closely identified with Roy Moore. Campaign signs and ads encourage voters to vote for all four together: Parker, Ben Hand, Hank Fowler, and Alan Zeigler.

Parker drew the ire of his fellow justices when he complained publicly that his fellow Alabama justices should rule in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Now joined by his slate of three other candidates, AP reports: “Four Republicans running for Alabama’s Supreme Court are making an argument legal scholars thought was settled in the 1800s: that state courts are not bound by U.S. Supreme Court precedents.”

However, incumbent Governor Bob Riley doesn’t poll 10 points behind Moore anymore; he polls at a more than 3 to 1 advantage over Moore. The judicial slate is having trouble raising money, and sitting Supreme Court Justices Tom Woodall and Mike Bolin have taken the unusual step of publicly criticizing candidate and fellow justice Tom Parker.

The unusual criticism by their peers, the current polls, the deficit in fundraising compared to their opponents, the dearth of endorsements – all suggest that the rock star status that Moore enjoyed has slipped away. Neither he nor the slate of four judicial nominees appear to be capable of drawing crowds of thousands, though a couple of teenagers from Oregon are interested.

If Tuesday’s election bears this out, then we will have witnessed an astonishing fall. From State Supreme Court Chief Justice, to a gubernatorial “shoo-in” who draws standing ovations and is mentioned as a candidate for President or U.S. Supreme Court Justice, to a man with no political coattails who cannot win a primary race, all in the span of about two and a half years.

On the other hand, Tuesday gives him the opportunity to demonstrate that he is still a powerful player on the Alabama political scene – at least on the political right.

If Moore and the slate of four win all five races, they clearly represent a force with political strength. If they are shut out, then we have witnessed the remarkable story of Alabama’s Humpty Dumpty.