So, after his term ends, a bitter Artur Davis will not return home; he will, instead, move out-of-state to Virginia and practice criminal law.

Good for Davis. Bad for Alabama.

Shame on you, Congressman.

In an interview with the Birmingham News, Davis talked about how during the summer’s campaign, he’d taken heat from the state’s elite African-American political wheeler-dealers and had lost. He had voted against the Obama health-care measure and had lost. He has warned Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ron Sparks he’ll lose the whole match. He has said the state Democratic party is growing obsolete.

He has lost a hard-fought race.

Sure, that’s what happened.

Leaders like Davis — knowledgeable, able to cut through the rhetoric and get to the point, willing to stand up to the power brokers like Alabama Democratic Conference Chairman Joe Reed and state Sen. Hank Sanders of the Southern Coalition — sometimes emerge from the fray battered and bruised.

Many times the good guys don’t win simply because their ideas are better and they have the gift of foresight.

There are opportunities here in the state for Davis to lead a revival of the Alabama Democratic party — for him to work very openly or behind the scenes for reform. Davis knows meaningful political reform is needed in this state. The state needs a new constitution. The state needs firm plans and people with energy to put those plans in place. He pointed to as much when he ran the race for governor.

Instead of shaking the dust of Alabama from his shoes and settling in Virginia Davis needs to remember he is a statesman. He needs to engage those who would be his enemy with that fine intellect and those rich oratorical skills for the future of Alabama as much as Thomas Jefferson took on Alexander Hamilton for the future of a young nation.

Maybe Davis is not the stuff of Jefferson. Maybe many of us have been blinded by his energy and his poise into a kind of “true-believerism.” Maybe Davis has fooled us. Maybe he has not been honest with himself.

And if that is the case, then perhaps the gentleman from the 7th Congressional District of Alabama is better off in Virginia.