What Does Roy Moore's Law School Professor have to Say?

Most here remember the beyond-the-grave condemnation of the current White House occupant by his now-departed teacher at Wharton: “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had!"

Wouldn’t it be interesting to get a former professor’s take on the Republican Senate candidate from Alabama?

Well, you’re in luck. Back in the mists of time (September), long before ShortEyeGate, before Alabaman Republicans went to the polls to choose between Luther Strange and Roy Moore, Mr. Moore’s former law professor penned an op-ed for Al.com urging his fellow Republicans to beware Mr. Moore and get behind Strange.

Remember, this is previous to "Moore" + “strange” gaining a very different connotation. Also note: Guy V. Martin, Jr., Moore’s former instructor, is very, very different from you and me. He is a deeply conservative Republican and devout Christian who, while arguing strenuously for separation of church and state, is okay with the thought of “converting every American to Christianity.” Not a Maddow fan, you might surmise.

Martin offered three arguments to his fellow conservatives against the election of Moore. The first is that Mr. Moore habitually falls into illogic and refuses to back down from his obviously incorrect views (sound familiar?).

In law school, the arguments arose from what Disraeli called "falling into a deep groove of illogic and being helpless to allow reason to pull you out." If Moore's analysis of a case was tantamount to thinking 1 + 1 = 3, and his classmates reasoned otherwise, there was no backing down by Moore. The class was willing to fight to the death against illogic that no legal mind but one in America would espouse.

Moore never won one argument, and the debates got ugly and personal. The result: gone was the fulfillment a teacher hopes for in the still peace of logic and learning. I had no choice but to abandon the Socratic method of class participation in favor of the lecture mode because of one student: Roy Moore.