This isn't politics. Not anymore. It's some kind of war.

Thermonuclear, scorched earth, mutually assured destruction at the highest levels of Alabama government.

There's gonna be nothing left. And we all lose.

Look. Gov. Robert Bentley is desperately trying to save his job and his name and his dignity - and he is failing. He tries to hold on, refusing to see that he has no chance to stay governor as long as the object of his misguided affection, political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason, keeps her job.

He's worried about whether he can stay as his administration has already fallen apart. He is being pounded on social media, hounded at every public appearance. Industrial recruiters are scrambling to hold potential deals together, to gloss over the fact that Gov. Doctor Dr. Robert Bentley (he had his name legally changed to Doctor so it would appear on the ballot) has become nothing but a punch line.

And Alabama is the joke.

He has to go.

That Mason stays in her job is stunning. Questions continue to arise about the money she and her husband were paid, why he received raises in 2014 when no one else did. There are questions of how Bentley and Mason used state aircraft as their own personal Uber-Air, and whether state and federal agencies are looking to see if the governor used state money to carry out an improper relationship.

State Auditor Jim Zeigler filed an ethics complaint, ostensibly paving the way for a state investigation. But while some Legislators have called for him to step down, there has been no great wave to push him out.

Because, frankly, many lawmakers fear what would happen if Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey were to take over as governor. It doesn't matter to them that she - just like the rest of them -- was duly elected by the people of Alabama, or that one of her most important reasons for being is to take over if the governor cannot fulfill his duties.

Lawmakers whisper she's unfit to serve as governor, though nobody wants to talk about anything but the failure of the Prepaid Affordable College Tuition (PACT) Program on her watch.

It's just destruction all around.

The State's top law enforcement officer, Spencer Collier, spilled the beans on Bentley's indiscretions last week, and was fired the same day in the crossfire of accusations. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency has said it forwarded information on alleged financial improprieties on Collier's watch to the Alabama Attorney General's office for potential investigation.

Attorney General Luther Strange, by the way, is the guy who recused himself from two of the biggest cases in Alabama right now, including the investigation of Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard.

Hubbard, of course, is awaiting trial on 23 felony ethics violations. And the Legislature has been as gutless in dealing with him as it has been with Bentley.

So to recap:

The governor is an embarrassment.

The lieutenant governor is distrusted.

The state's top cop is fired under a cloud.

The House Speaker is indicted.

The Legislature looks away.

The attorney general, who is supposed to clean it all up, has a habit of stepping aside.

And if any of this comes before the courts Roy Moore is there to decide right and wrong.

This is not a war. It's a massacre, and annihilation. The very people Alabama elected to manage the state and help it to prosper are the ones who burned our village to the ground and salted the fields.

And the only one - the only one - to make sense these days is Zeigler, who was the guy in this inaugural class voted least likely to make sense. Now he looks like the best Alabama has to offer.

It is time we demanded better. Not just from them, but from ourselves.