Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has had trouble pulling his GOP ranks together for almost any issue lately.

True, the senators did approve Neil Gorsuch for the U.S. Supreme Court, but on Obamacare and a number of other issues they've had difficulty reaching unanimity.

It's partly because McConnell is working with moderates such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who last week torpedoed an effort to repeal Obamacare, and with conservatives such as Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who press for less government and lower taxes.

So imagine adding to that mix a senator who's been a state Supreme Court chief justice, who describes Islam as a "false religion," who insists marriage is the union of one man and one woman, and declares America is a nation that owes its founding and survival to Almighty God.

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That's a very real possibility because among the nine candidates for the GOP nomination to replace Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump's attorney general, is former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.

He's the judge who was pushed out of the state Supreme Court 15 years ago after he installed a monument to the Ten Commandments, the foundation of American law, at the state judicial building.

A decade later, voters put him back in the same job.

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Then, he was removed again for defending the state's law establishing traditional marriage, even though technically he likely didn't do anything wrong and was the victim of a campaign by his enemies, including the Southern Poverty Law Center.

And now, despite the millions of dollars being spent by Sen. Luther Strange, a former state official appointed to replace Sessions until the election, and his own spending of a mere $100,000, he's in a statistical dead heat.

Significantly, it's the Alabama voters who will decide, not the power brokers in Washington, who are supporting Strange. It is lesser-known, and much more conservative groups such as the Alabama Republican Assembly that have endorsed Moore.

That group's statement said Moore is "a proven fighter, personally and politically, and will stand strong for government that abides by the Constitution."

"I believe Judge Moore will stand like a stone wall against the tide of liberalism and immorality we see on display in the news each day," said ALRA President Jennifer Montrose.

There are nine candidates for the nomination, but Strange recently was polled at 35 percent, Moore at 33 percent and Rep. Mo Brooks at 16 percent by the Raycom News Network and Strategy Research. Others were far behind.

If no one gets more than 50 percent in the Aug. 15 election, there will be a runoff between the top two, something for which Moore already is planning.

The eventual outcome in the general election probably won't be a surprise, since some two-thirds of registered voters are Republicans.

Strange also is linked to former Gov. Robert Bentley, who appointed him to finish Sessions' term. Bentley, shortly later, resigned from office at the start of an impeachment hearing. When Bentley appointed Strange to the Senate, Bentley was under investigation by Strange's office as state attorney general.

A Politio report Monday said McConnell was "unleashing the full force of his political machine" against conservatives in Alabama.

"The Republican leader is aiming to thwart Rep. Mo Brooks and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in a special election in Alabama [Aug. 15]," the report said.

"His super PAC is set to spend as much as $8 million to boost his favored candidate," it continued.

His all-out effort "underscores his struggles managing his narrow Senate majority," the report said.

Moore has publicly acknowledged his differences with the Washington establishment.

"If Mitch McConnell is accusing me of being a 'conservative rebel' who won't march in lockstep behind his Big Government, big-spending agenda," Moore said, "then I plead guilty as charged!"

His website details his positions.

"Lower taxes, smaller government, and less spending"

On the Constitution, "All actions of state and federal officials must conform"

On immigration, "If a wall is our only option, then we should build it immediately."

On health care, "We do not need socialized medicine"

For the military, more funding and "homosexuality should be against military policy as was the law prior to Bill Clinton."

And, there is "no authority for federal involvement" in educational systems in states.

WND reported in May Republicans were lining up behind Strange.

At the time, Moore told WND: "I think I can take the values of this state and my particular qualifications to the Senate to help us get this country back to what it should be. I have had a lot of study in the Constitution of the United States. I understand its meaning, and I understand how far away we've drifted from that document. Underlying all of this is virtue and morality, which comes from God, and we're trying to deny that God upon which our morality is founded."

Listen to the interview:

He warned that Washington won't be able to control Alabama voters.

"Trying to control the people of Alabama just doesn't work, and it's futile to do so. They know better than to be controlled by people in Washington, D.C. They see me as an outsider. I recognize I'm not an insider to Washington, D.C."

Judge Roy Moore's moral strength and legal brilliance shine through as he tells the story of his Ten Commandments monument battle: "So Help Me God: The Ten Commandments, Judicial Tyranny, and the Battle for Religious Freedom"