So there's one vote Bob won't get

Ah, straw polls -- my favorite unscientific political formality of all. It was time for another one Saturday, as a bunch of Alabama's Republican candidates for statewide office put in an appearance in a Shelby County pasture to talk to a bunch of people who already had made up their minds about who will get their votes on June 6.

In the most unexpected occurrence since those dadgum trees up and lost their leaves again last fall, the challengers launched verbal attacks on the incumbents, most of whom -- with the exceptions of Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, who didn't attend, and Gov. Bob Riley -- responded in kind. Several rabid followers of Riley's opponent, Roy Moore, got in on the action, too, with one particularly vehement supporter shoving a Moore bumper sticker into Riley's hands and another trailing the governor and griping repeatedly that he didn't stand up for Roy's rock.

So who was the avid Moore backer who insisted on giving Riley what for? A teenager from Texas, of course.