Who wants to stand with this particular predator?
Texas’ two U.S. senators found themselves under intense pressure Thursday after explosive allegations surfaced that a candidate both men have endorsed pursued underage teenage girls decades ago.
The Washington Post is reporting that Roy Moore, the Alabama Republican nominee in an upcoming Senate special election to succeed U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, tried to become romantically involved with four girls between the ages of 14 and 18 while he was in his 30s.
U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz have both endorsed Moore in his bid.
[…]
Cornyn, the second-ranking GOP senator, called the allegations “deeply disturbing and troubling.”
“I think it’s up to the governor and the folks in Alabama to make that decision as far as what the next step is,” he said.
Cruz declined to answer questions as he passed reporters but said in a later statement, “These are serious and troubling allegations. If they are true, Judge Moore should immediately withdraw. However, we need to know the truth, and Judge Moore has the right to respond to these accusations.”
You should also read this. The way some of Cornyn and Cruz’s fellow Republicans have responded to this is quite astonishing, even in this day and age. Remember when the GOP branded itself as the party of virtue and values? Boy, those were the days.
It should be noted that the “if true” formulation here is basically meaningless. There’s not going to be any trial, so there won’t be a formal verdict to hold out for. Unless more women turn up with the same story – always a possibility, to be sure – this is all the evidence you’re going to get. Is that enough evidence? Only you and your conscience and your God can decide. Slate, which reminds us of Moore’s long record of gay bashing as a means of “protecting” children from predators much like himself, has more.
Yawn. I’ve seen this movie before. Clarence Thomas? Herman Cain? Heck, even Trump. At the 9th hour, “victims” are trotted out of the woodwork in a last ditch hail Mary attempt to destroy a candidate. I doubt the veracity of the claims, based on the timing, most of all, but also on the social media postings of the accusing women themselves. One of them had vicious anti-Trump postings and was affiliated with the DNC, doing sign language translation for Biden and other Dems.
Moore has been a judge and in politics a long time, yet the allegations come out only now, when he’s about to participate in making America great again? If I was an Alabama voter, even if I thought these allegations were true, I’d still vote for Moore, just to spite the Pub and Dem establishment, who seemed to have their pearl clutching calls to step aside pre-written, especially from Flake and McCain.
Michael Moore was exactly right about Trump’s election, and the thing I think people fail to recognize is, all those people are still livid, still mad as Hell, and aren’t through with their desire to tear down the old political order. Trump supporters aren’t wavering and the Bernie Bro’s anger has been reignited.
That some people would makes excuses for Moore in no way shocks me, not after Trump’s Access Hollywood tape. The diehard cultists are STILL rationalizing that- see the recent article in Politico about Trump voters in Youngstown PA- ‘he’s just a red-blooded male”, “at least it wasn’t young boys”.
The only thing that surprises me a bit is the brazenness of these new excuses for Moore. Barring any new evidence, it is “he said, she said”. Moore’s supporters just could have said “I believe Roy’s side of the story” and left it at that. What I find shocking and damning is how they are trying to normalize a man in his 30s fondling a 14 year old girl. They have flat out admitted that if they must choose between an R child molester and a D who busted murdering KKK scum, they will vote for the perv, because IOKIYAR. I would love for Alabama to make me have to rethink my very low opinion of religious conservatives in general, but selling your soul is a very steep, very slippery slope.
Long ago I came to the conclusion that the bigger a public scene a person made over just how religious they were, the more I should be suspicious of them. Moore and his ilk are “Christianists”. They are about power and control rather than love your neighbor and do unto others. Real Christians are people like Jimmy Carter.
The woman who claimed that she was molested at 14 said she voted for Trump. How convenient that you left that little fact put.
Moore brings to mind the venerated Edwin Edwards dictum about what it would take to detail his election prospects.
*derail*
“Long ago I came to the conclusion that the bigger a public scene a person made over just how religious they were, the more I should be suspicious of them.”
Unfortunately, I agree with you. People who do that make the rest of us look bad. Yes, I do think Jimmy Carter is a fine example of a Christian Man. No matter what I think of his presidency.
Republican voters don’t believe these stories about Republicans. Only about Democrats.
Some of the same people who eagerly started and spread stories about Pizzagate are saying that there’s nothing wrong with a dude in his mid-thirties putting the moves on a 14-year-old.
Anyway, Moore’s predilections were well known to his co-workers.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/teresa-jones-says-roy-moore-common-knowledge-dated-teens/
And, naturally, the chorus of “why didn’t they come forward earlier” stuff provides its own answers when Moore’s allies suggest things like that the victims should be prosecuted.
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/359792-alabama-state-rep-roy-moores-accusers-should-be-prosecuted
Anyway, I’m sure Judge Roy’s looking forward to working with Senate interns. I wonder if Roy goes into women’s restrooms in search of prey.
“Moore has been a judge and in politics a long time, yet the allegations come out only now, when he’s about to participate in making America great again? If I was an Alabama voter, even if I thought these allegations were true, I’d still vote for Moore, just to spite the Pub and Dem establishment, who seemed to have their pearl clutching calls to step aside pre-written, especially from Flake and McCain.”
Did you also ask the same about Weinstein? He was in his business a long time too, so why did all those allegations come out just now? Because perhaps finally, finally, all these millions of dirty little secrets that have been swept until the rug for so long have piled so high that the rug can’t cover them any more. There’s no partisan bias in this trend- it’s zapping Hollywood liberals as well as Bible thumping righties. A pity that the pussy-grabber in chief didn’t get derailed by it, but karma is coming for him eventually.
So you would vote for an actual child molester for the sake of stigginit to people you don’t like. That speaks volumes about your character, and none of it is good. That is an incredibly stupid and morally reprehensible foundation for a system of government.
Fly,
First, I don’t think he’s guilty, so there’s that. Weinstein admitted he did what he was accused of. Moore denies it. Apples and oranges. Second, I don’t want a theocracy, and third, if I wanted morality in government, I would have voted for Mike Huckabee, not Trump. We’ve had rapists as successful presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Bill Clinton come to mind, and that seemed to work out OK. Wanna talk about my character? Fine. It’s no worse than yours, and even if it IS worse than yours, I could not care less, I sleep fine. Shaming as an attack tactic doesn’t work anymore, and we can thank Trump for that.
Finally, yes, even if I thought these allegations were true and I was able, I’d STILL vote for Moore if I could, to MAGA, and also to stick it to people who love “gotcha” politics. If you don’t think this was a calculated, put up, hit job, I’ve got some land in the Addicks Reservoir to sell you. That behavior shouldn’t be rewarded any more. I’ve been reading that there are tapes of the WaPo writer offering $ 1,000 bounties to Alabama women to create stories about Moore. I won’t believe that until I actually hear it, but if that does turn out to be true, I won’t be surprised. I just find it miraculous that a NY reporter goes down to AL and finds 4 women who have no connection to one another, who have never made this claim before, and just puts this all together with a neat little bow. How did she do that? Put ads in the papers, “Hey, if Roy touched you, give me a call and let’s talk about it?”
I’ve lived my whole voting life under presidents that I did not vote for, the last two being the absolute worst. Not one, that is, until Trump. and let me tell you, Michael Moore was right, and it feels good. Beyond that, all the doom and gloom predicted has not come true. The economy has not collapsed. We have not started new wars.
All that doom and gloom depends on who you are in America, Bill. You may have not felt anything but good about Trump that is your perspective and if you think he is a good president or a good guy, then you and him may spend eternity together never needing to light a fire. My two cents on Trump and those that support what he does and has done.
Who did Clinton rape, Bill, tell me something that no one else knows as a fact. I take it by Thomas Jefferson you are claiming that he raped his property, they were property at that time. There is an assumption, by some, that it was forced intercourse, but that is an assumption. By that token there are a lot of white men that were rapists it must run in the gene, like mass murder and serial killing?
Just when I think Bill Daniels couldn’t sink any lower, he proves me wrong. Well played, Bill, well played.
>>First, I don’t think he’s guilty, so there’s that. Weinstein admitted he did what he was accused of. Moore denies it. Apples and oranges.
Weinstein’s been denying quite a bit of it. But don’t think I didn’t see you try to move the goalposts there. The comparison was made in the context of powerful men with rumors of abuse going back decades, and now the dirty little secrets are spilling out. Apples to apples.
>>Second, I don’t want a theocracy,
Yet you just stated that you would vote for Moore if you could. Have you not looked at the man’s track record? Of course not. Knee-jerk tribalism is easy, reading and evaluating takes some effort.
>>and third, if I wanted morality in government, I would have voted for Mike Huckabee, not Trump.
And you think Huckabee is moral? Dude is all talk.
>>We’ve had rapists as successful presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Bill Clinton come to mind, and that seemed to work out OK. Wanna talk about my character? Fine. It’s no worse than yours, and even if it IS worse than yours, I could not care less, I sleep fine. Shaming as an attack tactic doesn’t work anymore, and we can thank Trump for that.
Embracing shamelessness and being an open hypocrite does indeed give you immunity to shaming attacks. But it also has a big disadvantage. I’ll leave you to learn that for yourself, most likely the hard way.
>>Finally, yes, even if I thought these allegations were true and I was able, I’d STILL vote for Moore if I could, to MAGA,
Make Adolescent Groping Acceptable?
>>and also to stick it to people who love “gotcha” politics. If you don’t think this was a calculated, put up, hit job, I’ve got some land in the Addicks Reservoir to sell you. That behavior shouldn’t be rewarded any more. I’ve been reading that there are tapes of the WaPo writer offering $ 1,000 bounties to Alabama women to create stories about Moore. I won’t believe that until I actually hear it, but if that does turn out to be true, I won’t be surprised.
Read it where? Breitbart? InfoWars? Don’t you think $1000 is rather poor compensation, considering the blowback these women will get from all the MAGA-cultists? There’s an Alabama state legislator, Ed Henry, saying that they should be prosecuted for telling their stories, because all that happened 40 years ago. That’s probably just the tip of the abuse iceberg. I doubt $1000, or even $10,000 would be worth it if the accusations were false.
It would be some poetic justice if some angry woman takes Henry’s seat next year, the way it happened to a few jerks last week.
It’s glaringly obvious that you are upset over TIMING, rather than VERACITY. So when are reporters supposed to stop pursuing leads on a political candidate? A week before the election? A month? When they are nominated? Give us a ball park figure here.
Unlike you, I want any skeletons in a politician’s closet to be uncovered before the election. I especially want that to happen if it’s someone I am considering voting for, because I never want to unknowingly vote in someone who has crossed an ethical line with me. Sooner is always better than later, but then late is always better than after the election too.
>>I just find it miraculous that a NY reporter goes down to AL and finds 4 women who have no connection to one another, who have never made this claim before, and just puts this all together with a neat little bow. How did she do that? Put ads in the papers, “Hey, if Roy touched you, give me a call and let’s talk about it?”
Miraculous? It’s called investigative reporting. Happens all the time, but you only find it “miraculous” when it affects a member of your tribe. WaPo was also one of the first news outlets to report on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Did you find that miraculous too? As for how the reporter chased down her leads, that is well documented. She in Alabama was covering the election, heard the rumors, and tracked the ladies down. A little trip to Google will give you plenty of references.
>>I’ve lived my whole voting life under presidents that I did not vote for, the last two being the absolute worst. Not one, that is, until Trump. and let me tell you, Michael Moore was right, and it feels good. Beyond that, all the doom and gloom predicted has not come true. The economy has not collapsed. We have not started new wars.
Anyone who lives long enough will find themselves with a President that they didn’t vote for/ don’t agree with/ don’t like. You are nothing special in that regard. But in the past, even when I disagreed with a President, I didn’t think that they were fundamentally rotten human beings. Not so with this current jerk. And as for no wars yet, if you have any sense, you would be concerned about the current disarray in the State Dept. Even SecDef Mattis is on record as saying that if you neglect that State Dept., you have better give him more $ to buy bullets. This is not good.
Update: Moore is suing AL.com over the “yearbook inscription” reporting. Says it’s not his writing and has experts to prove it. Moore fighting back!
Update II:
The 5th “victim,” the one with the yearbook inscription? Yeah, turns out Roy Moore was the judge in her divorce case, and the signature, with “DA” after it? Turns out it’s the exact same robo signature the clerk used to stamp Roy’s name on things like divorce decrees.
The initials DA just happen to be the initials of Roy’s clerk at the time, and those letters DA in the yearbook just happen to be written exactly like Roy’s clerk wrote his own initials. What are the odds?