Hey Scott Beason, are you still the chair of the rules committee?

Let me see if I have this right (pun intended). Sue Bell Cobb, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court (and the only Democrat member of that Court) announced today that she is resigning, effective August of this year so she can dedicate the bulk of her life to being a better wife, mother, daughter, grandmother,sister, church member and friend. But, Alabama State Senator Scott Beason is hanging on to his position as chair of the rules committee so he can be a better bigot? What's wrong with this picture?

As my Daddy says there is something rotten in the cotton around here. Per The Locust Fork News Journal

The task will now fall to Alabama’s new Republican Governor, Robert Bentley, to name her replacement.

Sources say Mobile attorney Charles Graddick has been preparing to run against her for the chief justice slot, although there is no official indication that Bentley will appoint him to the post. His name may remind readers of another, divisive time in Alabama politics, when a Democratic Party primary fight for governor between Graddick and Bill Baxley resulted in voters electing the first Republican governor since Reconstruction, a Cullman Primitive Baptist preacher, chicken farmer and Amway salesman, Guy Hunt.

Hunt was convicted of illegally diverting inaugural money for his personal use and removed from office. He was later pardoned.

A blast from the past,

it is an odd move for someone who was widely considered a leading candidate for a run at Governor in 2014.

More on this later

and cynical speculation at Left in Alabama .

Cobb waged an enormously expensive campaign funded with lots of PAC money. McGregor knew he needed a voice on the court. McGregor dumped lots of money into PACs during Cobb's campaign. Much of McGregor's money went to, and much of Cobb's contributions came from, John Crawford PACs. McGregor personally contributed some money to Cobb, and quite a bit to the Children First Foundation when Cobb was a director. The FBI tapped McGregor's phone, leading to the ongoing bribery prosecution. I'll be pleasantly amazed if I'm wrong, but I'm afraid Cobb's resignation is somehow tied to the McGregor trial or the phone tap.

Another one bites the dust.

Sue Bell Cobb was , was one of three dissenting justices who voted against "sovereign immunity.

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb reminded us this month that "sovereign immunity" is a concept that trickled down from the ancient English notion that "the King could do no wrong."
In Alabama, the state is king. And the king can do all the wrong it wants. There's just nothing we can do about it.

Remember the Sue Bell Cobb for Governor buzz? Emphasis mine

There's been a lot of buzz this past week about the possible gubernatorial run of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice, Sue Bell Cobb. Rumor is that the "power brokers" in Montgomery, terrified of an Artur Davis candidacy, are casting about for an alternative.

Lt. Governor, Jim Folsom, threw them for a loop when he decided to run for re-election, and we've been treated to the sight of various potential candidates being wooed, then discarded. At least by the "conventional wisdom" whatever that's worth.

The lastest gossip pertains to Justice Cobb. Will she leave the court to run for governor? Even though she's not up for re-election in 2010, as a sitting justice, she can't run for another office without resigning.

Will we be treated to not one, not two, but three up-and-coming Alabama Democrats slugging it out for the nomination? A party insider I talked with this weekend hopes not, noting a Cobb candidacy would pit two rising stars in the party against each other and "would be like using two bullets for your game of Russian roulette." This source was speaking of Davis and Cobb, almost (but not quite) writing off even the possibility of a Ron Sparks victory.

Conventional voices wanted Sue Bell Cobb to stay put she was because she was too valuable and needed on the court. I submit party insiders were afraid she would beat Artur Davis like a drum and I dare say she would have beat Robert Bentley too.

Thanks a lot party insiders.

Snark