Welcome to the Caucus within the Iowa Caucuses, as presidential contenders compete to win over the political Army of the Lord
So you can add another car to the crazy train that is the 2012 Republican presidential nominating contest. No, I'm not talking about last week's sensation, Donald Trump. He's a pretty conventional figure compared to the latest would-be president, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who is currently barnstorming through Iowa after announcing an exploratory committee.
You may remember Judge Moore as the man who was forced from his judicial post after refusing to remove a gigantic monument to the Ten Commandments from his courthouse. He was also known for abrasive comments from the bench about homosexuality as contrary to God's will, which in Moore's opinion was dispositive. A martyr for theocrats everywhere, Moore spent some time hauling his monument around Alabama before launching two notably unsuccessful gubernatorial races -- coming in a bad second in 2006's Republican primary and a bad fourth in 2010 -- and becoming a minor fixture at tea party events.
Moore was undoubtedly drawn to Iowa by that state's furor over same-sex marriage, decreed legal by a 2009 state Supreme Court ruling. Iowa's powerful Christian Right movement has made overturning that decision Job One, beginning with a successful effort in 2010 to remove three of the seven jurists responsible for it. It's one of the few places left where Republicans don't try to ignore the whole issue of gay rights as a divisive loser of an issue (which is why presidential wannabees like Tim Pawlenty have anachronistically come out against the repeal of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell). For Moore, it must have felt more like "home" than home.
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Complete article at The Atlantic : http://bit.ly/gPndIP
