It's high time for McConnell to go

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to force Luther Strange on Alabama voters, and he got Roy Moore. Now he's scheming to disrupt or overturn an election result he doesn't like. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(Erick Erickson Washington Post)

You own a big piece of this, Mitch McConnell.

And now, no scheme you cook up, no scenario you concoct can stop it. This is your monster you made. You are responsible for Roy Moore.

National establishment types can feign disgust and surprise all they want, but they were warned. And they took the wrong path, anyway.

I'm not here to retrace the GOP's Southern strategy, nor its embrace of extremists, nor its corruption of evangelical Christianity.

Instead, let's wind the clock back only as far as May. Mr. McConnell, you and your machine had a choice to make, and you threw everything you had behind Luther Strange.

It was obvious to everyone here that Strange had made a corrupt bargain. As Alabama's attorney general, Strange was supposed to be investigating whether Gov. Robert Bentley had used state resources to carry on and cover up an affair. But then this vacancy opened up in the United States Senate and Strange solicited the appointment from Bentley. It stunk, and every Alabamian smelled it.

But when other, more palatable Republicans, tried to mount campaigns to challenge him in the primary, you, Mr. McConnell, sent a message -- stay out of the race or be burned alive. Your super PACs openly threatened to blackball any political consultants who helped Strange's opponents. Even when Alabama Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh pleaded with you to stay neutral, you didn't listen.

You thought you knew better. You didn't.

Here's what I wrote back in May.

"All of this is to say, you folks in Washington D.C. better be careful with the game you're playing. Alabamians aren't going to take well to this, or to the candidate you're forcing on us.



"We'll pick another, just to show you, and consequences be damned. Maybe Roy Moore. Or God help us, maybe even a Democrat."

Other Republicans here told you that, too.

Yes, I'm gloating. And yes, I'm here to rub your face in it like a puppy that soiled the living room rug, because what I'm about to say next is even more important.

Stop.

Stop the scheming.

Stop trying to put your thumbs on our scales.

Stop, because anything you try can only make things worse.

Just stop.

But according to the latest from Politico and other sources, you can't help it. The prospect of an alleged child molester taking a seat in the United States Senate is too much for you, as it should be for everybody.

So again, you're setting about making plans and looking for loopholes in the law to subvert Alabama's ugly democracy.

One scenario suggested has been to run Jeff Sessions as a write-in candidate, but according to Politico, your own polling says that wouldn't work. You'd only split the vote and guarantee a Jones win.

Another possibility is to have Strange resign, opening up a vacancy in the Senate. Since Alabama lawmakers are notoriously sloppy when it comes to writing laws, it's arguable, if that happened, Gov. Kay Ivey could reset the special election later, and you would have a do-over. But in that case, Jones and Moore would probably both sue and your party here would be left in chaos.

Yet another possibility is to forge a document showing Alabama's readmittance to the Union was never ratified, and then you miniaturize Luther Strange until he's shrunk down to Jeff Sessions's size, and then ... and then ... and then ...

Stop.

You knew what the rules were when we started. This is not some playground game where the big kids get to change those rules when they start to lose. This is a democracy, and as ugly as the possibility might seem, if a majority of Alabama voters want to elect an alleged child molester to the the United States Senate, that's their right and they should have it.

I tried to warn you.

The Alabama GOP is not going to remove Moore from the ballot. Its steering committee met this week and took no action. It's worth understanding that county chairs and executive committee members, for the most part, are not like normal people. They're not even like elected officials. They're even harder hardliners. This is true for both parties, but for your party in Alabama, they are loyalists for Moore.

Even if they could, the ballots are already printed and can't be changed.

And no matter how many women come forward against Moore, there's nothing they could say to sway Moore's disciples. They are now living in an alternate reality, where your party has given people permission to ignore facts they don't want to believe.

Maybe Roy Moore. Or God help us, maybe even a Democrat.

That's the choice we're all left with.

It's time for Republicans who can't abide Moore to make their peace with a simple fact. There's only one man who can stop Roy Moore.

And his name is Doug Jones.

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