The Boston Globe suggests an interesting future scenario.

Roy Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who refused to follow a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state’s judicial building, is pretty popular in Alabama.  And he’s set to run for Governor in 2006 against a rather lackluster tax-raising incumbant governor.

If Moore wins, it is conceivable that he will order that the Ten Commandments (or some other religious monument) be placed in front of the Alabama State House, in open defiance of federal law.

With the 2008 presidential race looming, President Bush would then face a no-win decision: either call out the National Guard to enforce a court order against a religious display on state grounds or allow a fellow born-again Christian to defy the courts.

This is all highly speculative of course, but it has the potential to be another George-Wallace-in-the-door historical confrontation, pitting the law-and-order right against the Christian right.  And all during a presidential election year.  For that reason, I suspect many Republicans would prefer that Roy Moore go away for a while.  And I suspect Roy Moore and his followers have other plans.