Tag Archives: Alabama GOP

national news

Here comes the judge one more time … ugh!

Roy Moore isn’t your run-of-the-mill goofy politician.

He once served on the Alabama Supreme Court. The state judicial ethics commission removed from his chief justice chair because he violated the constitutional prohibition against promoting religion.

Then he got caught up in a series of accusations by women who alleged that he had sex with them when they were, um, underage girls. 

After being kicked off the bench, Moore sought a seat in the U.S. Senate. Donald Trump endorsed Moore’s GOP primary foe, the incumbent senator who had been appointed to the seat vacated when Jeff Sessions was named attorney general, but Moore won anyway. Trump then decided to back Moore, who then lost to Democratic U.S. Sen. Doug Jones.

Now the former judge is back in the hunt for the seat he lost. Here’s the rub: National Republicans want no part of Roy Moore. They are going to work overtime to defeat him in next year’s Alabama Republican primary.

My favorite comment on Moore’s candidacy, which he announced today, comes from GOP Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona, who said: “Give me a break. This place has enough creepy old men.”

Bingo, Sen. McSally.

Republicans reportedly after actively lobbying Sessions — whose seat Moore sought and then lost to Sen. Jones — to run again.

And that brings up a whole other bit of political comic relief. Donald Trump hired Sessions to be attorney general, then became enraged at the AG when he recused himself from investigating the “Russia thing” because of Sessions’ role in the 2016 presidential campaign and the transition after Trump got elected.

Who, then, does the president endorse if the GOP primary becomes a contest between a disgraced former judge and an accused sexual predator and the former senator who then got fired as AG by the very same president of the United States?

This ought to be fun to watch.

national news

What might happen if Roy Moore actually wins?

It’s quite possible — if not probable — that Alabama voters next month are going to send an accused pedophile to the U.S. Senate.

Democrats are all a-flutter because their candidate, state Attorney General Doug Jones, has pulled even — and actually leads in some polls — in his race against Roy Moore, the guy who’s been accused of making sexual advances on underage girls back in the late 1970s.

But we’re talking about blood-red Alabama, where Republicans seemingly have to drool on themselves in public to get rejected by that state’s voters.

The question: What kind of reception would a Sen.-elect Moore get on Capitol Hill?

Many of his fellow Republicans are pulling their endorsement of him. Others have said that “if the allegations are true” he should pull out of the race. Even other GOP senators, such as Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, say Moore should quit the race now.

The Republican Party doesn’t want to be associated with someone operating under such a sinister, seedy and sordid cloud. Believe me when I say that. It’s a given as well that Democrats detest this guy.

Moreover, I am not sure how Moore plans to stay in this race for the duration if more of his possible GOP colleagues keep bailing on him.

So, what if he wins on Dec. 12? My sense is that he’ll be the loneliest Senate freshman perhaps in the history of the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body.” He’ll get crappy committee assignments. He won’t be invited to cloak room get-togethers. Senators won’t want to be seen in public with one of their own who has stands accused of some pretty vile behavior.

There’s also the possibility that he won’t be allowed to take the oath of office. The Senate has a provision that could call for his removal before he even takes the oath. That, of course, requires maximum courage by the Senate leadership. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called the allegations deeply disturbing. He is one of those who said Moore should quit the race if the allegations are true.

I don’t get a vote in this race, of course. I’m only allowed to spout off from my perch out here in Texas, several hundred miles away from Alabama. You know my thoughts already on Roy Moore.

I’m just saying that if Alabama voters are foolish enough to elect this clown, they’re going to send someone to Washington who very likely won’t be able to do a single thing on their behalf.

national news, political news

Donald Trump = Loser

Donald J. Trump is such a “loser.”

He backs losers. He listens to the advice of loser advisers. The president who promised to make America a “winner” again is, um, just another loser.

There, Mr. President. How does that feel?

You see, “loser” is a favorite epithet of Trump’s. He hurls it at political foes. He even calls international terrorists “losers,” which if you think about it is a fairly mild form of insult one might toss at mass murderers and genocidal maniacs. 

CNN reports that Trump is furious at his political team for talking him into backing U.S. Sen. Luther Strange in Alabama’s Republican Party primary election, which Tuesday night nominated former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. GOP voters spurned Trump’s guy and went with Moore, the man known for his rocky tenure as head of the ‘Bama high court. He got tossed from his judicial perch for violating the constitutional prohibition on promoting an official religion and for refusing to back a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirmed gay marriage.

Trump is steamed at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who persuaded Trump to back Strange. He’s mad at Vice President Pence’s chief of staff, who urged the same thing. The president just hates being associated with losing, according to CNN, which reported: “Losing is bad for his brand,” another GOP adviser to the White House said of Trump.

The president is on a bit of a losing streak. Not only did he back the wrong pony in the Alabama U.S. Senate race, his attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act have face-planted for the umpteenth time. Oh, and special counsel Robert Mueller has kicked in his legal after burners in his efforts to get to the bottom of “the Russia thing” that Trump has acknowledged caused him to fire former FBI Director James Comey.

This is the gospel truth, but I take no real pleasure in calling the president a “loser.” He’s beginning to exhibit the first glimmers of getting it by reaching out to congressional Democrats on this immigration matter involving those who were brought here illegally as children. They want to stay here and want to achieve citizenship or permanent legal immigrant status.

But … that’s about it.

national news

Trump employs an endless array of weird political tactics

How many ways can Donald John Trump Sr. defy political convention? They seem to come from an endless array of opportunities.

The president ventured to Alabama today. He did something highly unusual. He has endorsed a Republican Party primary candidate who’s running against another Republican. Oh, let me mention that Trump, too, is a Republican. He’s taking sides in an intraparty primary fight for the U.S. Senate.

Right there is a weird example.

U.S. Sen. Luther Strange was appointed to the Senate seat when Jeff Sessions became attorney general. He’s running for election in a GOP runoff against Roy Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who was removed twice from the bench because of misconduct.

But guess what: Moore is favored to win over Strange, who won the endorsement of the president of the United States. The runoff is set for next Tuesday.

Moore favored to win.

Moore is a seriously strange piece of … um, work. He was scolded by Alabama judicial conduct officials for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from public property. Then he told county clerks it was all right to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that legalized gay marriage in all 50 states.

Moore also is a “birther,” who continues to promote the defamatory allegation that Barack Obama was born abroad and was not constitutionally qualified to serve as president.

But … this guy is likely to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama!

Will it hurt Trump? Will the president suffer serious political wounds? Oh … probably not. You see, the guy is bullet-proof in the eyes of his political base. He says things that infuriate many others. Not the base! They continue to admire the guy. Trump, um, tells it like it is.

I am shaking my head. Not so much these days in disgust. Instead, it is in utter amazement.

national news, political news

‘Bama pol seeks governor’s impeachment

bentleyrobert_042811getty

You’ve got to hand it to at least one Alabama Republican politician.

He wants to impeach the state’s governor, who’s also a Republican. He wants to invoke the state’s loosey-goosey impeachment criteria to remove Gov. Robert Bentley from office.

Bentley is accused of making “inappropriate remarks” to an aide. He’s been accused also of having an affair with her.

Bentley has denied the affair and acknowledged saying something untoward to the staffer.

The state’s impeachment criteria involve moral turpitude in addition to the usual things, such as malfeasance or outright corruption.

The lawmaker is on shaky ground, or so it might appear.

Republican state Rep. Ed Henry is going to present evidence to the House Rules Committee to see if he has grounds to impeach Gov. Bentley, who he has accused of betraying the trust of the people.

To be honest, this kind of conduct doesn’t strike me as an impeachable offense, no matter what the state’s rules allow.

Has the governor cost the state money? Has he done a poor job in running Alabama’s executive branch of government? Can anyone prove actual corruption?

The rest of the state’s legislature needs to take a sober look at what Rep. Henry is proposing and the grounds on which he is proposing to remove a statewide elected official.

Perhaps the state also ought to rethink the rules that “justify” an impeachment in the first place.