MOBILE, AL — A twice-evicted state Supreme Court Justice, an incumbent U.S. Senator appointed in a decidedly Strange fashion, and perhaps a famously wealthy Yella Fella: This is just a partial cast of characters who will play roles in Alabama’s special election this year to fill the remainder of a U.S. Senate term.
With next week’s expected entry into the Senate race of the controversial “Ten Commandments Judge,” Roy Moore, Alabama will be assured of a campaign the national media will cover by dusting off every anti-Southern shibboleth at its disposal. But this race will have more in common with my native Louisiana’s scandalously entertaining 20th Century races (see: Huey and Earl Long and Edwin Edwards) than with Alabama’s tradition of predictable, old-style, Deep South demagoguery fests.
