Not true. This is a special election. The governor can move to postpone it, on the basis of there being no GOP nominee.
Actually, the Governor can't, because primary and runoff have already been held. The ballots are already printed and I suspect the absentee ballots have already been sent out. You can't change an election timetable in the middle of the election, and besides, Alabama law expressly states that there is no way for a candidate to be taken off the ballot, even if he or she is dead. If "Vacant Seat" wins, "Vacant Seat" takes the Senate, and we have to go through this process all over again.
There are only two potential ways to salvage this fiasco at this point. One is the unlikely scenario of a write-in nominee finishing in the top two and forcing a runoff. At this point, it'd be too late to build the kind of organization to realistically pull that off. The other would be the unprecedented move for Jeff Sessions to rescind his resignation and return to the Senate for the remainder of his term, thus negating the purpose for the election and forcing its cancellation. It's not even clear if he can do that.
Now I understand that Alabama's governor has said she will not act. That makes sense, and is to be expected, while Moore is still in the race. She can't fail to back the nominee. But if Moore steps down, the way will be clear to postpone a special election where the majority party has no nominee.
That's why so many are demanding that Moore step down now, while there's still time. The charges were meticulously researched and corroborated, and Moore himself has been dissembling in denying/not denying him. This isn't the crap they flung at Cruz in the National Enquirer. This is credible and creepy stuff.
Moore wants to play the martyr, and there are some who'll stick by him on the basis of he may be a perv, but he's our perv. But real social conservatives and men of Christ - like our own @driftdiver - know the man's a scumbag and needs to go. Real social conservatives and men of Christ won't defend the indefensible. Why? Because ultimately their own credibility and sincerity is at stake.
Me? Sure, I'm biased - everyone knows I'm no social conservative and can't stand the man. But this is one of those situations where rejecting this hypocrite is simply the right thing to do - for Republicans and Christians of ALL stripes.
I get it. In an ideal world, this wouldn't have happened—but for the time being, as I've stated, all other options are off the table.
We are stuck between two choices, Roy Moore and the Democrat.
The Democrat will take the seat for the next three years, pushing them one seat closer to a majority. Already, McCain, Collins and Murkowski have made it impossible to pass a conservative agenda, and that will give this rump caucus even further power to thwart any attempts to, for example, stop Obamacare. That's not even to say what might happen in 2018: Republicans SHOULD have a field advantage after getting their butts kicked in 2006 and 2012, but they should have had that advantage in 2012, too. Yet this crap happened then, too.
Roy Moore will at least keep the balance of power in the Senate as is, whether he is seated or not.
Sometimes, we have to accept the unpalatable to avoid the unacceptable. A Democrat majority is not acceptable. We saw what they did the last time: economic collapse and the rise of Obamaism.
