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Draft Moore: The Web SiteA Draft Moore movement emerges. But who's behind it?

By Timothy Noah
Posted Thursday, April 8, 2004, at 3:29 PM ET

Someone finally had the good sense to put up a Draft Moore Web site. For those coming late to this story, "Moore" is Roy Moore, the Alabama Chief Justice who got fired when he refused to remove a Ten Commandments sculpture from his courtroom. Speculation that Moore will run for president this year on the Constitution Party ticket is music to the ears of Democrats, because Moore has a large Christian Right following and would very possibly take enough votes away from President Bush to throw the election to John Kerry. Moore himself has been noncommittal. Hence this fledgling draft effort.

The Draft Moore site, which went up on March 30, links to an online "Roy Moore for President" petition, which, as of this writing, has only 27 "signatures." We can do better than that, can't we? An estimated 5,000 people turned out in Dallas on April 3 for a "Ten Commandments Texas Rally," where Moore was the star attraction. They just need to be asked. (Kindly ignore two other petitions the site links to, one to give Moore his old job back, and the other to appoint him to the U.S. Supreme Court. We love you, Roy, but judicial robes just aren't you.)

The Web site nicely outlines a list of reasons why fundamentalist Christians should be ticked off by President Bush, including Bush's "silly ecumenical project to try to pretend that all religions are really the same and equally valid." This veers so close to self-parody that Chatterbox wonders whether the site was put up by a partisan Democrat. Unlike most such Web sites, there's no "About Us" page telling you who's behind it. The domain owner of record is EHostPros.com, but that just means somebody runs the site through that particular Web hosting company. Come out, come out, whoever you are!

Meanwhile, don't miss the fabulous Draft Moore T-shirts and bumper stickers for sale.

[Update, April 9: Chatterbox still can't identify the person or persons behind the Draft Moore site. But the petition is the handiwork of one Matt Kurtz. In response to an e-mail query, Kurtz wrote:

I am just a 20 year old Christian who was deeply touched by Mr. Moore's stance. I believe he represents what a real Christian is, not George Bush. I believe Mr. Bush is not a good example of a Christian. I believe he merely panders to the Religious Right to get all the votes he can.

The unfavorable reference to the "Religious Right" prompted Chatterbox to ask Kurtz about his party affiliation. He answered:

I am a conservative Democrat who was very offended by my party's treatment of Roy Moore. If he runs, I will most definitely vote for him. When I wrote "godless liberals" on my petition, I was referring to the Democrats who push an extreme secular agenda. Separation of Church and State is a good thing, but I think it has gone way too far, especially for the Christians in this country.

So, yes, Kurtz is a Democrat, but he at least claims to be sincere about wanting to vote for Moore. And if he isn't sincere ... so what? That's still no reason for Moore's fans in Texas and elsewhere not to sign the petition. Incidentally, the number of signatures is now 483. Is this the start of a prairie fire?]

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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