Monday was a bad day for Roy Moore, Alabama's embattled Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. He lost Roy Blunt. Sort of. Missouri's GOP senator, a reliable barometer of Republican establishment sentiment, had his office issue a statement saying of Moore's accusers, "The women have a more credible story than Judge Moore. Alabama voters should have a better choice, and Judge Moore should have better answers to these charges."

Blunt, as usual, left himself some wiggle room, as he did in 2012 after U.S. Rep. Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comment. Blunt said Akin's comment was "totally unacceptable" and urged Akin to drop out of the Senate race against Democrat Claire McCaskill. A month later, the "totally unacceptable" became acceptable and Blunt fell in line.

Blunt's current dilemma is a microcosm of what faces the entire Republican establishment, including President Donald Trump. Even before Thursday, when The Washington Post reported the sexual-abuse allegations against Moore, party leaders knew Moore's erratic history was going to pose a problem. Most of them, including Trump, had supported interim Sen. Luther Strange in the Sept. 26 GOP primary runoff.

Steve Bannon, Trump's former senior adviser who is leading a revolt against the GOP establishment from the extreme right, had sided with Moore. The GOP is in all-out civil war and now finds that its standard-bearer in Alabama — the "Ten Commandments Judge" - used to troll for teenage girls.

Five women have accused Moore, 70, of sexual misconduct decades ago when they were 14 to 18 years old and he was in his 30s. Three of them allege nothing more than kissing and unwanted attention. Two of them described forceful physical struggles and groping. Acquaintances of Moore said his attraction to teenagers was an open secret and that he'd been banned from a mall in Gadsden, Ala., because he made young girls uncomfortable.

Establishment Republicans like Blunt can't be seen as defending such behavior, but they don't want to antagonize Bannon or evangelical voters who make up a huge part of the GOP base. Not all of Alabama's evangelicals are sticking with Moore, but a lot of them are. Alabama state Auditor Jim Ziegler rationalized it thusly: "Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus."

Mainline GOP leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are desperately seeking a way out. A write-in — Strange perhaps — splits the vote and elects Democrat Doug Jones. Kicking Moore out of the Senate if he's elected is not a sure thing and keeps the issue alive deep into an election year.

All of this is the logical extension of the blind partisanship that Republicans have thrived on. If Moore survives, we will hear no more about "values voters."

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH