Officials with the Alabama Democratic Party are trying to figure out what to do today about Larry Darby, a candidate for the party's nomination for attorney general.

Darby is the founder of the Atheist Law Center in Montgomery and a longtime advocate for the separation of church and state. He made something of a name for himself a couple of years ago by getting quoted in the news for his opposition to judge Roy Moore's idea of sneaking a granite monument of the Ten Commandments into the state Supreme Court building.

Recently, however, Darby has come out of the closet so to speak as a Holocaust denier, an anti-Semite and a white supremacist.

Party officials say they were not aware of Darby's extremist views until the Associated Press ran a story about it last week and we posted this story. But the Southern Poverty Law Center's magazine, the Intelligence Report, had published something of an expose on Darby back in the fall of 2005.

Strange Bedfellows: Disgraced Holocaust denier hosted by Alabama atheist

Joe Turnham, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Alabama, said Monday morning he is trying to figure out how to de-certify Darby.

"But this is a sensitive issue," he said. "Darby is a lawyer."

Turnham said he just thought Darby was an atheist and an activist for the separation of church and state.

"I had no idea he was a holocaust denier and a racist," he said.

Turnham says he doubts Darby could win the race in any event, although the Democratic Party only has two candidates running in the June 6 primary. The winner between Darby and Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson will face the winner of the Republican Primary, most likely the incumbent Troy King, who is running against Mark Montiel.

But to have a George Wallace-style racist in the party in the year 2006 could damage the party's image and give political ammunition to Republican candidates all over the state, Turnham acknowledged.

"We are trying to figure out what to do about it now," he said. "I doubt if I would certify him in any event."

For more information on this issue, check with the blogger Hammer of Truth.