This is the guy whom Dems are hoping will pull an inside straight and bump off Mr. Social Conservative in … Alabama.

It was thoughtful of him to go all-in on late-term abortion this early in the campaign. Now the DSCC and other major left-wing groups can save their money instead of wasting it. Alas, the poor deluded grassroots progressive donors probably won’t be deterred.

“I am a firm believer that a woman should have the freedom to choose what happens to her own body, and I’m going to stand up for that and I’m going to make sure that that continues to happen,” Jones said… “You wouldn’t be in favor of legislation that said ban abortion after 20 weeks, or something like that?” Todd asked. “No, I’m not in favor of anything that is going to infringe on a woman’s right and her freedom to choose,” Jones said. “That’s just the position that I’ve had for many years, it’s the position I continue to have.”

He opposes the Hyde Amendment barring public funding of abortion too. This must be a matter of deep fanaticism, er, political conviction for him, as it’s bananas to take the most extreme possible pro-abortion line in Alabama. And it’s doubly bananas when Democrats are planning to portray Moore as extreme on social issues himself. The first time Doug Jones claims Moore is “out of the mainstream,” guess what Moore’s going to say back.

Here’s where I remind you that solid majorities support banning abortion after 20 weeks. Not in Alabama. Nationally. Earlier this year Marist found 59 percent support for the 20-week ban; late last year a Susan B. Anthony List election day poll found 64 percent support, including 78 percent among millennials(!). Americans dislike the idea of late-term abortions in general: When Gallup polled that in 2013, they found Americans backed keeping abortion legal during the first trimester, 61/31, but strongly opposed its legality during the second trimester, 27/64. By the third trimester, when Doug Jones would still be waving pregnant women through the doors of Planned Parenthood, support for legal abortion drops to 14/80. Again, this is across the entire United States, not one of the reddest states in the country.

The irony is that Democratic leaders are keenly aware they have a problem between the coasts with appearing too radical on social issues. None other than Nancy Pelosi pushed back at progressives a few months ago when they ditched a Dem mayoral candidate in Omaha for being pro-life, insisting that the Democratic tent is big enough to include people who oppose abortion. Now here’s a pick-up opportunity in Alabama, a longshot but not quite a no-shot given Moore’s failure in gubernatorial primaries in the past, and they’re running a guy who’s right in step with the most pro-abortion voices on the left. For the GOP, it’s better to be lucky than good.