I’ve never been closer to voting for a Libertarian than I am the closer we get to this November election.

I knew Siegelman was a definite NO.

I thought I would find myself proud to vote for Bob Riley, after I had forgiven him for abandoning the United States during a time of crisis.

That was how I felt originally when he decided to forgo another run for Congress and seek the nomination as Alabama governor.

Frankly, he had terrible timing with the United States facing the worst crisis since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, and it’s taken me no little time to get over that.

But I had tried to move on.

That was until just recently.

I thought the ugliness between Siegelman and Lt. Gov. Steve Windom was as bad as it could get.

I know &045; sometimes I can be awfully naive.

It seems you can’t turn on your television or the radio station in your car that you don’t hear one or the other of them making accusations or sarcastic censures about a variety of topics.

We’ve gotten so far from the issues about which they should be focused that most of us are not even sure what those issues are anymore.

Don Siegelman lies and misuses taxpayer money, one ad says.

Another: Bob Riley never goes to work and doesn’t pay his taxes.

Now, I grant you &045; it would be nice to know the FACTS about the candidates prior to the election in November.

But with the back-and-forth &uot;No, I didn’t&uot;, &uot;Yes, you did&uot;, &uot;No, I didn’t&uot;, &uot;Yes, you did&uot;, &uot;No, I didn’t&uot;, &uot;Yes, you did&uot;, advertisements we’re getting from both sides, who knows what the real truth is?

It’s that attitude of win at all costs no matter who is hurt, no matter what lies have to be told, no matter anything that makes voters such as myself very disillusioned with our democratic system.

The Presidential election between President Bush and Al Gore was not even this bad, for goodness’ sake.

So, here I am, back to who will I choose?

And Sophocleus, the Libertarian, with little or no campaign funds has been unable to step into the fray.

So there have been no disappointing advertisements from him.

My problem with a Libertarian vote, other than I believe the Libertarians live somewhere off in La-La Land, is that a vote here would simply be a wasted trip to the polls.

Not only are the Libertarians not a dominant party in Alabama, they’re hardly even a recognized party.

In this state, the Libertarians are playing softball on a hardball field.

Alabama has just begun to recognize the Republican party as a viable alternative to the Democrats.

It will be many years, if ever, before the Libertarians reach that status.

So, what will I do? I have no idea.

At this point, I guess I’m leaning more and more toward a write-in vote for my 12th grade civics teacher. Now, there was a man who could communicate what an HONOR it was to be elected as the leader of this state, something that is definitely missing from our candidates during this campaign year