The showdown in Alabama over the Ten Commandments monument is about one man's calculating politics

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

MOBILE, Ala. - Joseph de Maistre said, "Every nation gets the government it deserves." God help us down in Alabama if the same applies to every state. It could mean that we deserve Roy Moore.

	Frances Coleman is editorial page editor of the Mobile (Ala.) Register (fcoleman@mobileregister.com).

I prefer to think that his election in November 2000 was a fluke. Surely, if we had known the depth and breadth of his arrogance and cynicism, we would not have elected him chief justice of Alabama's highest court.

And Roy Moore is supremely arrogant. How else could you characterize his hauling a 2.5-ton monument of the Ten Commandments into the State Judicial Building late one night in July 2001, without notifying his constituents or even his fellow justices? (He did, however, take time to notify a Christian television network so it could film the monument's clandestine installation).

How else could you describe his thumbing his nose at the federal judiciary, insisting -- as in the days of yore in Alabama -- that federal judges don't have jurisdiction?

As for cynical: When an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge wrote that Moore's stance reminded him of the posturing of the late Alabama Gov. George Wallace and Mississippi's Gov. Ross Barnett, the chief justice practically had the vapors.

That was "a direct attack on my character and integrity and an attempt to distort the true issue in this case -- the acknowledgment of God," Moore huffed on camera and in print.

Now, there is no way to say this diplomatically, so I'm just going to say it plainly: What a bunch of hogwash. The chief justice's legal battle to keep the Ten Commandments in the State Judicial Building in Montgomery is not about the acknowledgment of God. It is about Roy Moore and his political career.

Call me cynical, but Moore and I understand one thing about Alabama: It is a state where religion sells. Unfortunately, it is also a state where many sincere but gullible Christians will fall for a politician who distorts and milks an issue for all it's worth at the ballot box.

Note that I said "many," not "all." There are plenty of Alabamians who have a deep and abiding faith in God and in Jesus Christ, yet who see Moore for what he is. We know the monument in the Judicial Building isn't intended to be a mere part of a historical presentation. We see that it is a declaration on Roy Moore's part that in Alabama, the judiciary is Judeo-Christian.

In a country whose founders were careful to keep the government out of religion, we know that's not appropriate.

Which is why the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals told Moore on July 1 to remove the monument. In stereotypically Alabama style, Moore has adopted a "hell, no, it won't go" stance and is appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

He might be acting as a private citizen, though: On Friday, he was suspended from the bench, pending a trial by the Court of the Judiciary. The action came one day after the eight other justices of the Alabama Supreme Court voted to overrule Moore.

If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't agree with him or even consent to hear the case, well, so what? He knows his political career is secure.

God only knows how the standoff will end, and the Lord isn't saying. As for me, I figure things eventually will go one of two ways.

In scenario No. 1, Moore will continue to convince Alabamians that he's fighting on behalf of God and them. In response, they will elect him chief justice again and, later, governor. In scenario No. 2, Alabamians will come to realize that Moore is playing them for fools. In response, they will vote him out of office.

I know which outcome I prefer, and which one I believe Alabamians will choose. Sad to say, they're not one and the same.

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