Joseph O. Patton: Please, God... no Moore!

  Let's roleplay, kids! Say you're an employer and you have to fire someone the first week that guy is on the job. Would you hire him back?

  And yet, many Alabamians appear ready to do so, giving ousted Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore enough votes to bypass a runoff with Charlie Graddick and Chuck Malone in the Republican primary. Moore has effectively become our new chief justice since he'll only face token opposition from "Democrat" Harry Lyon in November.

  Surely you haven't forgotten good ole Roy! He made a name for himself by caring less about Alabama's courts and instead championing a near-fascist obsession with forcing the Ten Commandments onto courtroom walls... and pretty much anywhere else he could stick them. He was so obsessed that like a cat burglar lurking in the shadows, he hauled a 5,000 lb.+ monument into the state's judicial building under cover of darkness... without permission. Then when ordered to move it in a legally-binding demand from a U.S. District Court judge, he refused, in the process breaking the law. He was unceremoniously thrown out of office for violating the court order to remove the monument, making him an official law-breaker.

  In the process, he wasted taxpayer dollars bottling up the court - all for his own selfish, attention-seeking desires and to whore out our state's top judicial post for the purpose of scoring political points.

  As if Moore's contempt for our court system and the rule of law wasn't enough, he embarked on a journey of personal enrichment after being exiled. Specifically, he worked the speakers' circuit, commanding large sums of cash to gloat about... well, breaking the law! Classy... classy in a self-righteous, arrogant, despicable kind of way.

  But after two failed stabs at the governorship of Alabama, Moore has returned - still bragging about breaking the law and being tossed out of office - and has clinched the Republican nomination for Supreme Court Chief Justice and will roll over his Democratic opponent in November like a dog in heat.

  Moore has shamelessly pandered to the Sharia wing of so-called Christians in our state - those who consider "religious freedom" in Alabama to be the "freedom" to enforce their special brand of morality down the state's collective throat. These are the individuals who fail, or simply refuse, to grasp the teachings in the Bible altgoether and instead distort it and use it as a license to be insufferable, insecure, bullying assholes to anyone who doesn't vote, dress or pray the way they do. But the destructive nightmare of Moore holding the position... again - because apparently we cannot learn from our mistakes - has nothing to do with party affiliation or professed faith.

1) How wise is to elect someone as the primary "expert" on our laws when he has not only shown defiant contempt for those laws, but has openly violated the law?

2) Is it in our best interests to elect a chief justice solely based on his professed obsession with the Ten Commandments? In doing so, Moore is admitting he cares little about our laws and instead wants to hijack this office to push his own personal religious agenda. We're not electing a church deacon or a six-year Pope, are we?

3) How can we trust Moore to fairly, equitably and without bias apply our laws when he considers himself to be above those very laws? Or the fact that he has openly expressed contempt for anyone who doesn't adhere to his rigid, narrow-minded and bigoted views on sexuality, religion, race and cultural differences among Alabamians? 

  Electing Moore as Alabama's Supreme Court Chief Justice is like hiring a child molester to run a daycare center. And there's no way to simply pray that away....

  About the author: Joseph O. Patton is the editor-in-chief and founder of the Capital City Free Press. He is a former news editor for the Coosa County News, lead reporter for the Montgomery Independent and editor-in-chief of the AUMnibus, the student newspaper of Auburn-Montgomery. Patton is also the creator of and writer for the satirical news radio segment "Goat Hill Gossip," which previously aired on WAUD in Auburn, Alabama and has appeared on several Central Alabama radio programs as a political analyst.

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