Why the GOP is stuck with Roy Moore

You can't just change the results of elections — no matter how much you'd like to

U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Marvin Gentry)

How do you solve a problem like Roy Moore? That's the dilemma Republicans in Washington are tearing their hair out about right now, and they're willing to contemplate almost anything. Should we cancel the upcoming special election in Alabama? Should we engineer a second special election? Should we refuse to let him take his seat in the Senate? What if we walk him in, but when he goes in the door marked "Cloak Room" there's a trap door that plunges him down to the center of the Earth, where the pressure created by the miles of rock above him compresses him down to the size of a peanut? Would that work?

Unfortunately for them, none of that is going to work. Roy Moore is their problem, and they're just going to have to live with it.

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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.