Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling Monday, June 29, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

(JULIE BENNETT)

Roy Moore is poison in the bloodstream of the Republican Party. If he isn't stopped, he will kill it.

And if you take any joy from that prospect, then understand, too, he will kill Alabama first.

It has been obvious for 20 years.

The man autographs Bibles. That should have been enough for anyone to accurately measure his character.

But it wasn't enough. Nothing it seems is enough for Alabama Republicans to say, "Enough!"

He was removed from the bench once for refusing to follow the law.

But voters put him right back so he could be removed a second time.

His rabid attacks against the LGBT community, going so far as to say in court decisions that homosexuality is a crime that could be punished by death -- those didn't faze folks, either.

Instead, it only endeared him to his base.

Then the tax records from his non-profit showed that he used it as an income stream for himself and multiple members of his family.

State and national Republicans opened their wallets to his campaign.

When he wrote that a duly elected congressman shouldn't be allowed to take office because he was a Muslim, nary an eyebrow raised.

And even after Donald Trump conceded that Barack Obama had been born in America, Moore refused to believe it. He has lent his office space out for Confederate apologists to use when celebrating "Secession Day." It didn't even matter that he successfully campaigned against an amendment to remove Jim Crow language from Alabama's state constitution.

To be fair, his racism has been obscured by ... well, just about everything else.

This has been the world's sickest game of Would-You-Could-You-Ever?

Could Alabama vote for a Democrat if Roy Moore were the nominee?

Nope.

But what if Moore were a pedophile?

Probably not.

What if he tried to rape somebody?

Uhm, well ...

It will be at least a month before we get an answer, but some things are clear.

No one in the Alabama Republican Party has a lick of courage, principle or conviction. The closest was Kay Ivey, who said she wouldn't endorse Moore and that she believed the accusers, and yet she said she intended to vote for him anyway.

To be fair, a precedent has been set. When Rep. Martha Roby came out against Donald Trump last year when the Access Hollywood tapes became public, it nearly cost her reelection, and she's on the ropes for her next one.

But some things are more important than reelection, and any elected official who demonstrates they can't tell the difference should be voted out.

Yes, Moore is poison in the bloodstream of the Republican Party, and if Alabama can't stop it from traveling toward the party's heart, the national GOP will have to amputate.

If Alabama elects Roy Moore, the Republican Senate majority will be forced to make a decision: Allow an alleged attempted rapist and accused child molester to take a seat among them, or invoke a rule to unseat him not used since the outset of the Civil War.

That would leave Alabama with only one Senator, and would probably begin a new Civil War within the GOP.

Either way, the GOP loses.

Worse than that is what's already happening to Alabama.

As it went down, I was on vacation when the news broke last week. Whatever restaurant I went for a meal, whatever bar I sat at simply to have a drink in peace and spend some quality time with my wife, it followed. The guy down the bar talking loudly of enough for me to pick out the names -- Moore, Sessions. The muted TV playing in every establishment, with that silly goon in his cowboy hat, waving his little gun in the air. Finally, the Saturday Night Live cold open.

It wasn't funny and I didn't laugh.

Instead, I was heartbroken for my state, a place I love that, like a drug-addict, can't help but destroy itself.

Alabama is killing itself, suicide by Roy Moore.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group. You can follow his work on Facebook through Reckon by AL.com.