Roy Moore's win in Alabama is embarrassing defeat for Trump, amazing chance for Democrats

The GOP runoff came down to Luther Strange, the incumbent appointed to the Senate by Alabama’s ex-governor under corrupt circumstances, and Roy Moore, a radical Dominionist judge who served as chief justice of the state Supreme Court. Moore was removed from that seat — twice.

Trump, as well as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, backed Strange. Indeed, Tuesday morning Trump tweeted this, though he deleted it after the race was called Tuesday night, perhaps in a failed attempt to spare himself the embarrassment of being so wrong:

By early afternoon Trump was already preparing himself to eat those words. Moore easily crushed Strange in the runoff, winning the GOP nomination for Senate.

If elected, Moore would be far and away one of the most extreme, reprehensible people ever to serve in the Senate.

Moore literally believes that God’s law trumps the Constitution. He was famously fired as chief justice for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments statue from the courthouse, then re-elected and fired again for rebelling against federal court orders to allow same-sex marriage licenses. Even after the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality, Moore continued to insist that he was the highest legal authority in the land.

One of his law school professors remarked of him, “If Moore’s analysis of a case was tantamount to thinking 1 + 1 = 3, and his classmates reasoned otherwise, there was no backing down by Moore. The class was willing to fight to the death against illogic that no legal mind but one in America would espouse.”

Moore is also incredibly racist. He once gave a speech to a white supremacist group, and at a recent rally featuring Sarah Palin and Sebastian Gorka, he lamented that America is in trouble because “reds and yellows” are always fighting.

He is also a subscriber to the deplorable birther conspiracy about President Barack Obama, made most famous by Trump.

Above all, Moore is ludicrously comfortable with his own extremism, practically to the point of prop comedy. He whipped out a handgun at a rally, and rode a horse to the polls.

At this point, the only person who can save Alabama from this nightmare is Democrat Doug Jones.

Jones is not a typical Alabama Senate candidate. A former federal prosecutor, Jones is perhaps best known for successfully prosecuting two Klan members in 2001 and 2002 for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, after the case had been buried and neglected for years.

He is a staunch advocate for criminal justice reform and civil rights. He has a progressive platform on health care as well, calling attempts to repeal Obamacare a “nonstarter” and vowing to protect rural hospitals and women’s health.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, issued the following statement:

Republicans now have their nominee for the special election and the choice facing Alabama this December could not be clearer. Voters can’t look past Roy Moore’s fringe beliefs, habit of putting himself first and his dishonesty. Even Republicans have said Moore is unfit to serve and spent millions to keep him out of office. Doug Jones is a man of character and integrity, who is unafraid to stand up for what’s right and has a proven record of independence that will serve Alabama families in the U.S. Senate.

It is not every day that a Republican Senate candidate makes a fool out of Trump by attacking him from the right, and it bodes ill for the direction of the GOP.

Trump, for his part, is already trying to save face after the humiliation of endorsing a candidate who lost so badly:

The special election is in December.