Mitch McConnell bails on Roy Moore:
Here is the video of @SenateMajLdr saying he believes the women accusing Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexually assaulting a 14-year old and pursuing other teens. pic.twitter.com/169YSHlXym
— Nick Storm (@NStorm_Politics) November 13, 2017
Expect a stampede of denunciations and a wholesale jettisoning of the “if true” construction from what passes for “mainstream” elected Republicans these days.
Will Moore bow out of the race? He sure doesn’t seem like the type. The people who are calling Moore’s accusers liars don’t care what Mitch McConnell says.
I’m curious about McConnell’s turnabout only in the academic sense. Is this a last-ditch effort to force Moore from the race because McConnell has seen data / knows about bombshells that suggest Moore will lose? That would be my guess.
Anyhoo, we’re closing in on $15K raised for Moore’s opponent, Doug Jones, who is like Atticus Finch from the FIRST Harper Lee novel, only with a better jury pool. Help him whip the pedophile’s ass in the upcoming election if you can!
bystander
Just heard that Gloria Allred has a new client who plans on singing about Moore this afternoon. The best part is Moore’s shocking lack of knowledge about defamation of a public figure.
Fair Economist
To be fair, even very credible allegations really should be given a couple days to be checked out. Sometime they don’t. These have been and have done so, and it’s time to drop the “if true” apart from formal legal processes.
Fair Economist
@bystander: Moore knows and he lies about it. He is a Republican, after all.
MomSense
It’s so infuriating that Moore’s colleagues seem to have known he dated young people and that he went to high school football games and malls.
Shouldn’t they have said something? Done something?
SatanicPanic
“We don’t like what we’re hearing about this guy, but will do nothing about it until we become convinced he’ll lose”
dmsilev
@bystander: Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. It was pretty clear from the get-go that there were very likely more Moore victims out there, and some of them may make the (very difficult) decision to come forward.
Major Major Major Major
@MomSense:
A question we’re asking about the colleagues of many a man these days.
Mike J
Last week on Hannity, Moore hinted that more women were out there.
bystander
@dmsilev:
Almost as tragically predictable as my efforts at cake baking.
Can’t wait to hear this press conference Velshi and Ruhle say is happening this afternoon.
randy khan
Well, that’s brutal.
As an aside, I bet this decision was made much easier because Moore has as much as said he hates McConnell and will do everything possible to undermine him.
hellslittlestangel
Yertle’s remarks won’t make Moore quit — hell, he’ll fund-raise off of them.
Sister Golden Bear
@Major Major Major Major:
Yes indeed.
In this case, he had a reputation for hanging out at high school football games and malls to pick up teenage girls. So like in so, so many cases, it wasn’t exactly a secret.
Elizabelle
I just want the Alabama GOP stuck with their hero on the ballot. It’s too late to remove him; maybe they can try a write-in (Luther Strange is not that hard a name to spell). I don’t want the governor moving the date of the election to allow the GOP to come up with a more palatable nominee. They had their chance. They made their choice.
Had originally thought it was too bad Alabama didn’t hold its Senate election on Election Day for the rest of us, (and why not? but maybe no Alabama races that day?), but wow, did the December date work out for the non-insane. Moore might have beat the allegations and already be Senator-elect if election held last Tuesday.
Alabama GOP made this bed. They need to lie in it. Without an underage girl at their side.
sharl
The following exchange led to a LOT of replies from Alabama folks in Howard Dean’s tweeted response, all pretty much agreeing with Dean vigorously, lol.
Geoduck
With the GOPers reaction to this, skipping straight past denial and victim-blaming to pedophilia-endorsement, you just know there is more and worse stuff floating around out there.
TenguPhule
@SatanicPanic: Thread won.
oatler.
It’s like a rat deserting a ship that’s made entirely of rats. Actually I wish McConnell would stand by Moore and sink with him because Mitch’s voice is Hell’s Dishwater.
Elizabelle
@Sister Golden Bear: I was amazed this story did not come up before. It’s astounding that Moore had a long political and judicial career, with so many knowing about his proclivities.
I guess the safety in numbers in the flood that followed Harvey Weinstein accusations.
cokane
i think we may have found a bar so low that even some republicans wont go under it. though obviously trumpists will.
LAO
Possibly my favorite line ever. Thanks Betty!
dmsilev
@Mike J: He said he “generally” didn’t date teenagers. Yeah, there are more victims out there.
bystander
Just saw Kayla Moore, his wife. She looks as if she’s been hanging out with Sarah Huckster Handjob’s makeup artist.
eric
I would give my salary for life if NBC sent the Catch a Predator guy to interview Roy Moore.
feebog
@bystander:
As much as I detest Gloria Allred, it was inevitable that more women would speak out. To me, the most damning statement so far came from a former female colleague who worked with Moore and said it was common knowledge he sought out teenage girls to “date”.
MCA1
McConnell’s protecting himself and the GOP on multiple fronts. Can’t be seen as backing this kind of skeev in the moment. A month from now, if Moore were still to win, Mitch has put out the line of “We didn’t want this guy. We’ll take his vote on every issue ever, but we’re not going to be seen as his moral compatriots.” And if he loses, then the party’s pre-washed its hands of him. It’s a no-lose disavowal.
I just want to see one, ONE Republican who’s not in the midst of retiring his/her seat in Congress step forward and say “You know, maybe if the Republican Party’s so tribal and partisan as to support a guy who everyone knew was a perv, and who had a criminal past as a lawless jackass, we should just suck it up and say ‘put the Democrat with the impeccable personal narrative in office.’ I mean, how bad could it be?”
Just one. STATE THE OBVIOUS, Republicans. Doug Jones is a good man who would be an honorable representative for the people of Alabama, whatever his policy positions might be. Someone step up to the fucking plate and admit it. You could actually do the country some good.
Fester Addams
I’d take even odds on someone revealing that he paid for a teenage girl’s abortion.
cmorenc
I waver on a knife’s edge between delight and horror that the GOP is stuck with a Senate nominee like Ray Moore. Delight if Ray Moore’s nomination helps toward deserved electoral annihilation of the GOP in 2018 and 2020 and horror at the possibility it portends continued GOP control with a coalition of ever-more repulsive and extreme right-wing hypocritical talibangelicals and Randian greedhead sociopaths even more deeply entrenched in power, even more strongly entrenched by an even firmer far-right majority on SCOTUS ratifying the necessary degree of voter suppression to keep it that way indefinitely.
dmsilev
Worth reading: “Roy Moore’s alleged pursuit of a young girl is the symptom of a larger problem in evangelical circles”:
eric
@Fester Addams: “Alabama law requires that a minor obtain parental consent before an abortion. Since 1987, the state has allowed for minors to obtain a court order to bypass that requirement. According to court documents, typically those hearings would involve only the judge, the minor and her lawyer.”
I will see your bet, and raise a Court Order signed “Roy Moore.”
Elizabelle
Technically, Moore is a hebephile.
Sounds vaguely Jewish. Take that!
I’d think preying on a 15 or 16 year old could still meet this criteria. Girls mature at different rates, and he was selecting the vulnerable among them.
SatanicPanic
@cmorenc: This. I’ll celebrate if he loses. Until then it’s just horrible.
eric
@Elizabelle: It sounds like he sought out the ones that did not have a present Father figure. Going after the single moms that were themselves desperate.
Elizabelle
@dmsilev: Yeah, right, it’s the young women/girls who court the men. Eve, the corrupt temptress, after all.
I wish we could break the grip of toxic evangelism. It endangers us all, and perverts our communities, with greed, ugliness, insularity, incuriosity, and now, predation on minors. Those pastors have no business intervening in politics (and tax exempt, too).
cthulhu
@Elizabelle:
They have been making noises about this but short of replacing Moore within someone else palatable to the Trump wing of the party (not Strange for sure), I think this move would just piss them off and Jones may still squeak by. This race seems winnable no matter what happens now though it will still be difficult.
MattF
I doubt very much that Moore will leave the race voluntarily. He’s stopped trying to parse his responses so they could be interpreted ‘correctly’ and now is just shamelessly lying. It’s more Trumpian that way.
ETA: But the Trumpian way is hard– it works for Trump, but not really for anyone else.
Betty Cracker
@oatler.: Hell’s Dishwasher — lmao! That’s so perfect! It’s got that mumbly, gargly, swishing quality, just like the devil’s own appliance surely would! ETA: I misread your comment, but I’m still laughing!
debit
@Elizabelle: Yep, but everyone knows what pedophile means. Close enough in my book.
Elizabelle
@eric: Yes. And it’s possible a lot of women in Alabama recognize that and will recoil, maybe enough to stay home or cast a protest vote. Some of these teenagers’ mothers were fine with Moore as dating material, but that was decades ago and times have changed.
Balconesfault
@Elizabelle: Took a candidacy for a Federal elected position to get the National Media to shine a spotlight. Shame on journalists in Mobile and Birmingham, who must have known things but never went digging to build a story.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: I probably should have quoted a bit more of the piece to make it absolutely clear what the author’s perspective was:
CaseyL
McConnell must have seen polls giving Jones a lead larger than the margin of error, and panicked.
Hey! Remember, way back when McConnell said the GOP’s biggest priority was making sure Obama would be a one-term President? How he said he was protecting the “Republican brand”?
Not sure what he thought the Republican brand stood for then. I wonder if he anticipated seeing what it stands for now.
MattF
@CaseyL: We know now what an unhappy turtle looks like.
Balconesfault
@eric: likely suggesting to the young girls that he could do things to help their mothers if they played along…
LAO
Noted, without comment:
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Balconesfault: I’ve seen tweets suggesting that local media knew about this.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: “Toxic evangelicalism” is a good name for it. I read a thread on Twitter this weekend that really captured what a sham it is. Will share if I can find it, but the upshot was, conservative evangelicalism (probably should also be qualified with “white”) has come completely unmoored from the teachings of Jesus. They rarely bother to try to justify their actions with scripture anymore. They’ve reduced Jesus to a mascot for their tribe, which has values about as far removed from those of Jesus as possible.
TenguPhule
@MCA1:
If you’re looking for just one good man in the Republican camp….I have some bad news for you.
MattF
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: I think Kay noted in an earlier thread that lawyers and judges and journalists in small towns all know one another very well– it’s their livelihood.
TenguPhule
@Fester Addams: What makes you think he stopped at one?
debit
@CaseyL: The weird thing is, Obama warned them this would happen. If you demonize your opponent and everyone who doesn’t agree with you, pretty soon everyone is the devil and your base contracts to only the kooks and the creeps. That’s what they’ve got in Moore: kooky and creepy. Maybe he and that chemtrail chick can hook up for the presidential ticket in a couple of years.
Boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: It’s the South, and it’s FundiEvangelicalism. The presumption is that everyone has some dirty little secret, and if you find out somebody’s DLS you can use it to your benefit so long as you agree to keep it quiet. But nobody talks about any of it OUT LOUD: that would be, you know, rude.
Moore reminds me of preachers and faculty I knew as an undergrad: ugly under the preaumption of virtue and authority.
People today don’t read enough Forster or Williams: Moore is the sort of character who inspired both those writers.
Fair Economist
@Balconesfault:
Elected Chief Justice of Alabama and stuff like this, which was apparently common knowledge among his co-workers, didn’t come out? That’s really wrong.
Adam L Silverman
The only questions for Senator McConnell are whether he will line up the votes to expel Moore from the Senate should he be elected and if he will commit to scheduling that vote within ten days of Moore’s arrival as a senator. Those are the only two questions for McConnell on this issue now. And the only other question for all other GOP senators now is will you vote to expel Moore from the Senate if he wins. These are the only things that should be asked on this topic of Republican senators until either Moore drops out or the election is over.
eric
@Elizabelle: He had money and could take a HUGE expense off of their hands. I see that as self-preservation, because I would bet there was more than one child. Moore was a very calculating %^&*%*&%^
TenguPhule
@cmorenc:
Or as I call it, the second Civil War.
Elizabelle
@dmsilev: Oh no, you were very clear. And I’ve read the essay.
Was riffing off what the local yokel evangelicals might be saying. I am glad if pedo-fundamentalist evangelicals end up with the same reputation as the “travelers” (those gypsy clans that were all over Dateline a few years ago — young women dressed up and married to older men within the clan).
JMG
A single Senator can gum up the works of the Senate in hundreds of different ways if he or she is willing to be a rogue pariah. Moore is more than willing. It’s in Mitch’s interest, and the interest of 98 other Senators, to see Moore go down. PS: Richard Shelby, Alabama’s other Senator, nowhere to be seen or heard. But I’ll he’s told Mitch some stories.
Bobby Thomson
Keurig has not only retracted its controversial stance against pedophilia, but apologized for it.
Haven’t seen that kind of pathetic cowardice since American Girl dumped the Girls Clubs.
Boatboy_srq
@dmsilev: Mumble-mumble years ago when I was undergrad at a SBC-sponsored school, students were prohibited from living off-campus unless they were 20+, in a fraternity/sorority and could move to the house, or were married. Hmmmm.
MCA1
@TenguPhule: Oh, don’t worry. I wouldn’t waste my time actually looking for one. Just wishing we lived in a world where that person existed.
eric
@Balconesfault: that is possible, but I bet he got mom to play along with promises of saving money or helping her in the judicial process of getting money from the “deadbeat’ dad.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Sorry, its Alabama.
Better then even chance most of the white women their blame the victims for speaking up.
Fair Economist
@eric:
Underage targets.
No consent.
Targets in vulnerable life circumstances.
Targets in inferior power relationships with the perp.
Use of intoxicants.
It’s the Quintifecta of molestation!
Betty Cracker
@Adam L Silverman: That’s an excellent point. McConnell is now on record stating that he believes Moore is guilty of molesting a child. How can he possibly seat a child molester in the US Senate? That’s the question for him and every other Republican.
Immanentize
@JMG:
As I previously bet Sessions did as well.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
I never pegged you for a starry eyed optimist, Adam.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: I loved your quip about Atticus Finch with a better jury. I would love to see Doug Jones elected.
And Peak wingnut may be upon us. People who are not political junkies like us are getting a good hard look at what’s been under that rock.
hellslittlestangel
@dmsilev: Horrible but unsurprising revelations. The old testament is the Mein Kampf of religion.
catclub
@cokane:
I suspect the Trump low bar of 45% is much more likely for Moore when the election comes, than the insane 27%.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Oh you kidder, you.
We have all committed the cardinal mistake of declaring peak wingnut in our time here on BJ.
Congratulations, you have now joined our teeming ranks.
eric
@Fair Economist: and…wait for it….a holier than god prick who shames all people that dont live up to his fetishized biblical ideals. Stoning him is the only right (read: biblical) answer to this dilemma.
T S
@MomSense: well, maybe they preferred to think they were all over the age of consent, albeit barely and it would still be weird. Also, we should just admit a reality about culture of the time period…dating a 17 yr old wasnt considered so monstrous that people wouldnt look the other way. Society does regard it more creepily now, but think about movies like Manhattan…super creepy, but definitely more creepy by todays standards than when it was made, and such a relationship just wouldnt be depicted in that tone today. And for the record, yes, the modern view is better.It is creepy.
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: I’m sure everyone is just absolutely thrilled with how the planning is going for the 2018 US Senate take your daughter to work day events.
MattF
Just for the record– from Article 1, Section 5:
Elizabelle
@Bobby Thomson: Put up a link, please, re Keurig’s response.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I didn’t write “these are the only questions that will be asked”. If I had, then I’d be an optimist.
Boatboy_srq
@Adam L Silverman: Won’t happen, because of two words: Dennis Hastert.
Jeffro
@LAO:
Let the long-overdue GOP civil war…COMMENCE!
It’ll be great seeing the Bannonites go down in flames while defending a Constitution-ignoring, redneck, evangelist pedophile. There are so many different angles that should help keep the infighting intense for years!
Yutsano
@Elizabelle: Peak wingnut is a lie.
MCA1
@sharl: Dean’s right, electorally speaking. But one other silver lining in the cloud of Moore would be watching Southerners get all het up about them damn Yankees telling them how immoral it is to be supporting a child molester for U.S. Senate, and trying to explain away this bizarre evangelical toxicity as regional culture that the rest of us should be more understanding of. Like when they got all up in arms about Northerners who reacted in horror to Adrian Peterson using a switch to punish his children.
Not a good look, defending Roy Moore and his ilk out of rebel yell spite. But it lays bare for all to see how off the deep end most of the white Southeast is.
catclub
@JMG:
actually, no. Only if the senator’s party supports his attempts to slow down the Senate. The Senate majority leader could ignore those secret holds, but only does not ignore them when the party is making the person making the holds.
LAO
@Jeffro:
Jeffro
@MCA1:
McCain, Corker, and Flake will do it (for all the good it’ll do).
Ironic that this is the exact same ‘dilemma’ the GOP found itself in when the Access Hollywood tape dropped (and/or when Trumpov admitted to ogling naked teens backstage at his pageants, and/or…): just drop the pervert, remind oneself and one’s party that there are worse things than losing an election (like, oh, losing your principles, losing your soul), and move on.
But then again, that was the demonic she-beast Hillary we’re talking about…to agree that they could ‘live with’ her serving a term as president would have been to drop the only energy holding the GOP together (i.e., Hillz-hate)
Adam L Silverman
@Boatboy_srq: Correct.
Jeffro
Btw the Senate Majority leader has just called on the GOP candidate in a tight Senate race to step down over allegations of child molesting, and the candidate is refusing.
Guess what’s up on Fox News dot com? A North Korean soldier defecting, GOP lawmakers demanding that Jeff Sessions name a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton over ‘uranium one’, and…Juanita Broadderick. I shit you not.
Felonius Monk
Perhaps someone should investigate Roy Moore’s behavior in Vietnam in the earlly 70’s as a young MP officer where he was so reviled by his own troops that he slept on sandbags out of fear of being fragged. Wonder how many little Vietnamese girls were subjected to the Roy Moore treatment.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@eric:
“Hi, Roy. I’m Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC. Would you please take a seat?”
MattF
@Jeffro: You keep wondering– ‘Is this the point where the bubble bursts?’ But the answer is always ‘No’.
Fair Economist
Moore’s interests at this point are actually to tough it out. Even if he loses, he can play an aggrieved candidate taken down by Washington swamp dirty tricks to those nutty or evil enough to believe it, which sadly turns out to be quite a few. If he resigns he’s a pariah – to decent people for what he did to those girls, and to the pedophiles for not fighting for them.
MCA1
@Jeffro: And ironically, so did having her lose and disappear from the stage altogether. They just can’t focus all their attention on her the way they used to, even when her book dropped. Obama Haterade and Hillary Haterade sustained them all for a decade, and now they’re thirsty.
Which is why I like that the Democrats haven’t had Schumer or Pelosi come too far forward over the last year. Don’t give them a lightning rod to rally around, and make them scratch and claw each other’s faces out, instead. I know this will all change the moment Kamala starts running for Pres or whatever else happens to push a specific Democrat to the fore of the public’s attention, but I’m OK with national Dems sitting back and letting the GOP tear itself apart right now (while also building from the Resistance in a grassroots way and starting local).
Adam L Silverman
@MCA1: This won’t be defended as regional culture. This will be defended, if it isn’t just stiff armed and ignored, as a religious freedom issue. As Kathryn Brightbill tweeted over the weekend, which I posted in comments in a couple of posts, and then expanded on in her LA Times’ Op-Ed, this is a toxic male predatory set of behaviors that has now been laundered through and normalized by evangelical Protestantism. While the predation ultimately has nothing to do with the religion, it has, however, become completely entwined with the most publicly devout form of Protestantism in the US. And Protestantism is the default religion in the US. Which is why the Roman Catholic Church equivalent of this scandal still gets coverage and the majority of Americans have no idea this is going on. And those that do don’t have a problem because it is about their religious communities freedom to organize their lives as they see fit.
Princess
@Fair Economist: I agree. Moore has nothing to lose by staying in the race at this point. Dropping out will be seen as an admission of guilt.
Mike J
@dmsilev: He also said:
You can ignore the bit about “they’ve got an agenda.” He knows there will be another article because he knows more women are going to come forward.
mai naem mobile
@MomSense: that s whst I don’t get. His colleagues were lawyers. They didn’t know amy body anf the way who could have stopped this guy years ago. I don’t understand conservatives . Forget comparing the girl to Monica and Bill. Imagine somebody in your world who is in his 30s having a HS age girlfriend. I would fund it creepy if my mid 30s cousins showed up with a HS age girlfirend. Just ewww and not right.
Chris
@Fair Economist:
Heck, once he’s not around and there’s nothing but a Democratic governor to bash… give it a few months and he can start putting out “miss me yet?” signs.
MattF
@Adam L Silverman: Also, predation is SOP for many millennial sects.
Jeffro
@MattF: The bubble isn’t even aware that mortar rounds are landing just outside of it…hell, they’re actually landing ON TOP OF IT and nothing is happening. Maybe we need to switch metaphors and start calling it the deflector shield or something?? It’s crazy.
El Caganer
Turtles don’t play that shit, yo.
catclub
@Elizabelle:
which GOP bill also throws in dropping the Johnson amendment? I think it is the GOP tax bill. It might have been one of the healthcare bills.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Moore was so impatient that he wanted his 72 virgins in this life.
TenguPhule
@catclub: If it passes, I will incorporate as the Church of Baud the Smiting Smiter.
Chris
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh yes – this has been a recurring source of irritation that I’ve been hearing about in the Catholic Church for years, ever since the (modern iteration of the) child abuse scandal broke. I tend to ignore it because it basically amounts to whataboutism from people who are angry about having their clergy held accountable by any perceived outsiders at all, but as you say, it’s not entirely wrong.
Hungry Joe
I should know this, but I don’t: The winner of this election will serve how long?
ET
@MomSense: Sort of depends on what the age of consent was back then (seems to be 16 now don’t know when that was established). If the girls were “legal” then it wasn’t illegal but just disgusting. That doesn’t count for those that may have been under the age of consent of course.
I am curious as to why this didn’t get out earlier – particularly when his profile got bigger. Of course that may very well be the reason it didn’t come out.
I want more of those people who worked with him and “knew” to speak up. “People” in Alabama can ignore the accusers/victims but it is harder (though not impossible) to ignore accusers/coworkers.
TriassicSands
@MomSense:
It’s Alabama. And that’s worse than Chinatown.
Let’s see, Southern Culture.
Racist monuments to traitors.
Electoral support for a child molester.
Support for a president who is a serial sex abuser and compulsive liar. (The list of Trump’s transgressions is far too long to record here.)
This is the much ballyhooed “Southern Culture” that needs to be respected and protected.
What’s next?
Immanentize
@Hungry Joe: Until 2020 I believe. Then, the winner will have to run for re-election.
rikyrah
@JMG:
Hey….Where’s Shelby, the other Alabama Senator?
He’s been quiet as a church mouse pissing on cotton. :(
MattF
@rikyrah: In an undisclosed location, trying to remain invisible.
mai naem mobile
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Roy Moore: Well, aaah just showed up to make sure Kaley wasn’t going to meet a man and get defiled.
Chris:Hansen: So why did you just tell Kaley you brought a condom?
Roy Moore: uhhh..humm..ummm….
Another Scott
In other news: Women will save the world, if we let them. GovExec:
It’s a good read.
We have to fight for what’s right every single day.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: IIRC, Jowls Sheilds on Snooze Hour said that Shelby condemned Moore. I haven’t checked if that is true.
Amaranthine RBG
I want to second (actually 4th or 5th) the appreciation for the line about Atticus Finch.
Nice.
Adam L Silverman
@MattF: Another reason the millennial generation is problematic.//
More seriously, yep.
TenguPhule
@TriassicSands:
The Reintroduction of Slavery Act of 2018.
/I’m half kidding. Probably.
Elie
@sharl:
THIS exactly. Lie low and avoid bringing a bunch of Yankees down to make these folks even more defensive. I’m sending money and crossing my fingers….
sharl
Maybe Keurig has gone public in the two hours or so since I saw the following tweet.
Part of the memo sent only to Keurig employees is attached to Erik Wemple’s tweet:
Immanentize
@rikyrah: And Jefferson White Council Sessions — what does he have to say about his fellow-Alabaman?
Lee
I’m going to do something unheard of here at Balloon-Juice, admit that I might be wrong.
I didn’t think that this would make a bit of sense difference to the voters of Alabama.
Now that I posted admitting I might be wrong , I’m sure I’ll get banned ;)
mai naem mobile
@rikyrah: I saw him on some teevee news a few days ago saying if the charges were true Moore needed to step down as candidate.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@mai naem mobile:
Roy Moore: “This is all fake news and besides Jeebus has forgiven me. Better watch out, Chris, you fucking Yankee. My supporters might just decide to lynch your Northern ass. And they’d get away with it.“
rikyrah
@Another Scott:
450,000 people?
EVIL AZZ MUTHAPHUCKAS!!!
rikyrah
Now that Roy Moore has been credibly accused of child molestation, the vast majority of Alabama evangelists say they are MORE likely to vote for him or don’t care. The right wing evangelical movement is dead. It has NO place discussing morality. One step from Satan worshippers.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 12, 2017
patrick II
Tim Tebow is a fellow evangelical and a 30 year old virgin. A few months ago a remarkably lovely Ms. Universe broke off their engagement because he would not have sex with her until marriage. It may sound strange, but I think that Roy Moore, whose personality is strangled by his evangelical beliefs, was not having sexual relations or even particularly good social relations with women of his age. Sex before marriage would be “wrong” for him and certainly for the non-virgin women. Instead he was looking for someone to marry whom he could be assured was “pure” and also a virgin, and live happily ever after in earthly evangelical heaven.
I may be over imagining, but I think that is possible.
rikyrah
Provisional ballots to be counted today in close Virginia House of Delegates races https://t.co/9T78LM4viR
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) November 13, 2017
Reminder: just 215 individual votes spread over 3 districts are what separates VA Dems from the current 2-seat deficit to a 4-seat majority. https://t.co/TobgR2PnmN
— Taniel (@Taniel) November 13, 2017
Adam L Silverman
@Chris: At one level, what we know from documentation, is that every religion in the US has roughly the same amount of sexual impropriety to sexual crime issues among clergy as all the others. It averages between 10 to 15% last time I had a reason to look at the data. The difference or variance in the type of activity. So, for instance, mainline Protestant churches and most Conservative and Reform Jewish congregations see the bulk of their issues with affairs between the priest or minister or rabbi or cantor with a congregant. Where one or both parties are married and therefore cheating on their spouse/spouses. The Catholic Church issue was the scandalous nature of the impropriety and crime: predation on children and teens, usually involving closeted homosexual priests. The nature of the crimes were bad enough, but they also played into a centuries old Protestant attack on the Church about the sexual deviance of priests and nuns.
In the case of the evangelical and fundamentalist denominations within American protestantism it is very hard to get into what is actually going on from the outside. These communities were created as reactions to existing Protestant churches, many are wholly made in America denominations, and they commingle distrust of authority, distrust of more mainstream Protestantism and of other denominations and sects with a dogmatic belief that they are the sole path to salvation. The result is the development of an entire alternative set of institutions and structures to other Protestant denominations, as well as the rest of secular US society, politics, economics, and culture. And they’ve been very good at handwaving things away while at the same time playing both the victim and religious freedom angles. For instance, the Duggars.
Elie
@Fair Economist:
No doubt you are right… but there is another facet the longer this issue and the story of “Southern culture” is told. It is very shameful to have that light shone on their consent to support pedopheliia. Yes, the shame results in a reactionary overreaction to support Moore — at least at first. But underneath, I wouldn’t be so sure he can ride this past this election. In the quiet of the aftermath, there may be another “settling of scores” about the shame of it. We’ll see. Can you imagine being the unapologetic parent of one of these girls? Think of how they feel and the secondary low grade awareness that they are spreading. It is very hard to unsee once you have seen. Oh, you can deny for a while, but some things are just too close to the bone — like the Catholic priests molesting youth. They kept it up for a while with the tacit approval of all parts of the system… but then it broke down. This will too but the time frame may not be cleanly in this election cycle. We will see.
Jeffro
My bad: Fox News dot com has now been updated…not with the McConnell-Moore feud, but with a story about Clapper and Brennan: BIAS ALERT: Ex-intel bosses find fame, face time bashing Trump on CNN
Am I high? It seems a little early in the day for me to be high. And yet…up is certainly down, down is up, and our former intelligence chiefs are striving for ‘fame and face time’. Yeah, sure, absolutely Fox News – you’re so on point! I think I should probably make that my last trip inside the Deflector Shield for today…
Elizabelle
@Lee: Courageous, Lee.
I’m bored with the constant cynics and defeatists here. Examples abound, above. They might be correct, but they might also be slow on the uptake.
Adam L Silverman
@Hungry Joe: Two years until the seat would normally come up for reelection. The winner, however, has the advantage of incumbency. It is very, very hard to remove a sitting US senator from office. Senator Strange was sort of a fluke as he was appointed and only in his seat for six months before the special election primary was held. So incumbency’s advantage hadn’t really taken hold.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: @schrodingers_cat: He did. He was interviewed on Thursday or Friday by NBC’s/MSNBC’s congressional correspondent about this. He made the correct noises.
Chip Daniels
@MomSense:
This is the biggest part;
That there was an entire community willing to turn a blind eye to a predator in their midst. A 16 year old girl tells her mother a 32 year old man is pursuing her, and the mom tells her she is lucky.
Fair Economist
@patrick II: Evangelicals can come up with some remarkable justifications to claim certain sex acts don’t count as “sex”, as in this serious NSFW video from Garfunkel and Oates. So NSFW I don’t even want to post an expurgated title. And yes, that’s a real thing, not just a joke.
Elizabelle
@Hungry Joe: It’s to fill Sessions’ elected term. Winner would get 3 years plus.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
We’re you in about 8 years. There’s a reason why so many of us are so damn cynical.
We were optimists thinking that Bush was fucked after 9/11, Iraq, Abu Gahraib, Enron, Valerie Plame, North Korea and Afghanistan (in the later parts of the whole thing going to shit).
Guess what, the bad guys got away with it.
We had to “look forward, not back” because the stupid fuckers had fucked up the whole financial system.
We had to watch the fucking Republicans come back into power on the back of the Teabaggers.
We had to watch those GOP fuckers grind government to a near halt for EIGHT FUCKING YEARS without paying any price for it.
So yeah, there are those of us who are bitter and cynical. We’ve seen this movie before and this sequel looks even worse.
Barbara
@Adam L Silverman: They won’t expel him if he is elected. That would be a direct slap in the face of too many conservative voters in too many states. Every Republican senator would be associated with it. And how could they use it to refuse to seat him? He was never charged much less convicted. I know they have the authority but this is the problem when you cultivate politicians like Roy Moore — You have to hope they bring along more people than they repel.
catclub
@rikyrah:
out of how many to be counted? if it is 216 the odds are against. if it is 2016 the chances are better.
Lee
@Elizabelle:
Well at least I haven’t called peak wingnut yet ;)
Actually on second thought you might have a point. With this we might see the peak of this particular kind of wingnut (religious) while the other kinds would keep going (Tea Party & whatever Bannon represents-Nazi(?))
Fair Economist
@Elie: If there is widespread expose of this kind of pedophilia in the Evangelical community or some subset thereof it might break things down. One event, even high-profile, won’t, although perhaps you are right that most of the fundies will conveniently “forget” about Moore in a year or two. He’s still personally better off not resigning, though.
Gerald Parks
@MomSense:
Of course they should have!
Think about it …Moore was a powerful up and coming assistant DA who in fact was elected to TWO judgeships. He wasn’t someone to fuck with in the small pond he inhabited!
Their thinking was why bother …it wasn’t their CHILD, just some poor no bodies.
You can bet that his targets were not FROM influential families!
catclub
@Adam L Silverman:
Tell it to Jeff Flake.
Adam L Silverman
None of these people, who all have law degrees by the way, seem to be able to fill out paperwork that requires them to sign it as an attestation of accuracy under penalty of perjury correctly.
Gerald Parks
@TenguPhule:
True THAT!
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
That’s a fucking insult to Satan Worshippers.
They’ve never been proven to have committed any atrocities, ever.
Ruckus
@ET:
I also thought that the age of consent in AL had been a lot younger than 16 until recently. So I looked it up. Turns out that the law was changed long before this happened with Moore. There is probably a statute of limitations that would prevent him being charged but the crime existed prior.
Adam L Silverman
@Barbara: I know they won’t. That’s why these questions about doing so are the only ones that the news media should be asked at this point.
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: He’s removing himself. And if he ran it isn’t a done deal he’d lose a primary.
catclub
I feel like Nostradamus, except not the dead part. I predicted that the free ride that Trump got on this, no one else would get, and that it would matter.
The Moar You Know
Moore never quits. Ever. There’s a greater chance of me dying at my desk in the next five seconds than there is of Moore bowing out of some sweet, sweet federal grift AND a custom-made platform for martyrdom.
Still alive!
ETA: Moore seems like the kind of guy the GOP would have been very happy about. Given that the entire GOP establishment came out against the guy before he won the primary, and before the WaPo article, I gotta conclude most of the GOP insiders knew about the kidfucking problem.
JMG
I wonder if Mitch’s move, now echoed by Susan Collins and Orrin Hatch, was a preemptive strike aimed at Trump, a “please don’t shoot your mouth off and re-endorse the guy.” If Trump were to do that, the party conflict would have escalated beyond papering anything over.
Snarki, child of Loki
“maybe they can try a write-in (Luther Strange is not that hard a name to spell)”
Middle initial “D”, required?
Has ALL of the GOP been replaced by comic-book villains now? Or just the ones they send to DC? Marvelous.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Adam L Silverman: As soon as one of ’em ends up in jail for it, I guess maybe they’ll stop.
trollhattan
Can someone remind me which years Moore was trainer for the US Women’s Gymnastic team?
I swear he’s got 50:50 odds of getting away with this. Now if it were underage boys, then even Alabama would turn on him but I’ll believe they will abandon him when I see it in fact. In the meantime he shore do like the attention, don’t he?
WaterGirl
@MomSense: paging Penn State…
nonynony
@The Moar You Know:
At the time, I just figured that McConnell didn’t want another Ted Cruz in the Senate if he could help it – a grandstanding idiot looking out for himself before the rest of the party. Or that he was worried about the crazybase push that Bannon has been organizing to take over his party in the Senate. “He had oppo research suggesting that Moore was a pedophile” didn’t occur to me, but I guess in the future it will….
gvg
So far all of the accounts seem to be decades old. the usual predator types don’t stop but so far all I have read are accounts from before he was married and all but the 14 year old would have been legal. Colleges decades ago who didn’t know about the 14 year old, only the legal 16 year olds would have been put off but not much they could do as it was legal. the fact that he was known to date 16 year olds in his 30’s makes the 14 year old more credible whereas if he normally dated other 30’s or even 20’s the 14 year old might be regarded with more doubt.
If he actually stopped after marriage, then his colleges wouldn’t know. many didn’t know him back then and even those who did would forget if he stayed faithful to his wife. he is 70. so if you had known him 30 years but after the known to be dating youngsters, you might not believe the accusations. It reflects poorly on Alabama that they thought it was or still think 16 to 30’s is ok but i want to now did he really stop seeking too young girls?
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule: But that discounts the very real successes and progress made.
You can’t just look at one side of the balance sheet. And I agree, all of the events you cited were deplorable. But yes we did elect Barack Obama, to two terms. We got the Affordable Care Act through and, while Trump and GOP are doing their best to sabotage it, we have an improvement over what came before.
Virginia and New Jersey elections went very well. Don’t ignore that. No rest for us, but we can smile at some successes.
The gaziliionaires have bought the media and Republican party, that’s true, and manufactured a fake consensus. But we do have voices. We do. It’s harder than it should be, but despair is enervating and rarely accomplishes anything — for Democrats. It is employed for destructive purposes by Republicans (those dolts from Johnstown, who were given brains but refuse to use them. Fuck them.)
Mayur
@Fair Economist: :”Loophole” isn’t a bad word. (Didn’t have to click on the link; just assumed that’s what you would be posting!)
trollhattan
Now isn’t this just another big Alabama surprise.
Chief Oshkosh
@Adam L Silverman: Agreed. McDonnell has to explain, given the statement he made today, why he wouldn’t call such a vote. Each Senator should be asked why they would not vote to kick Moore out.
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman: I am not kidding — this level of patronage and corruption is why Garfield was assassinated.
Fair Economist
@Mayur: The link I posted was to the same song but with a MUCH raunchier title. Now I know a better link to post if (God forbid, but she probably won’t) this situation comes up again. Thank you!
Stormageddon Bloodstar
Since the wing-nut singularity has occurred, how long will it take for us to exit the wing-nut worm hole?
Elizabelle
Didn’t click on this, but wow.
Rats, meet water.
Captain C
@Betty Cracker: I’m pretty sure if you directly quoted the Sermon on the Mount to some of these people, they’d denounce you as a Commie Liberal. Even if you told them the chapter and verses it was from.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, Attorney General White Citizens Council did it…so, why not the rest of them?
gvg
@The Moar You Know: from what I have read about Moore, he has been a troublemaker for the other Alabama politicians. He probably has a lot of enemies. More so than Cruz apparently. I am not surprised a lifelong politician came out against him. He has generally attacked other Republicans in Alabama since there are so few democrats. I don’t think he has friends or many allies from reading Wiki and the web. He will make the Senate more ineffectual. Hold out for impossible terms and vote against GOP legislation because it doesn’t go far enough. I know very little but I looked him up a few days ago.
Immanentize
@Snarki, child of Loki: Oh that is brilliant — what if another Luther Strange started a write in campaign right now! Maybe an African American fellow? Then how could they know which one people voted for? Hilarity ensues.
Millard Filmore
@Fair Economist:
He can be the Beloved Founder of “NAMGLA” … North American Man Girl Love Association.
Adam L Silverman
@Immanentize: I always thought Odie should be the prime suspect in that. The whole dumb and adorable act was just a front for a cold, calculating assassin.
LAO
LOLOLOLOL:
Amir Khalid
@Jeffro:
I’d always assumed that in the intelligence field a low profile was the best kind to have, and the kind of people who gravitated towards careers there would be the opposite of publicity seekers.
Adam L Silverman
Who would’ve guessed:
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: And Alex Salmond gets a “Putin’s Champion” award.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Millard Filmore: [Moore] can be the Beloved Founder of “NAMGLA” … North American Man Girl Love Association.
It’s spelled NAMGLA, it’s pronounced “AL-GOP”.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: See my comment at 160:@Immanentize:
Adam L Silverman
@Adam L Silverman: Part 2:
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: I saw that.
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman: Fun fact — At Charles Guiteau’s trial, the defense called an expert to testify about the defendant’s sanity (or lack thereof).
A phrenology expert!
ETA — Your Odie line is still cracking me up.
Mike in NC
Max Boot (!) in USA TODAY : ‘GOP deserves to die over Moore response’
Chief Oshkosh
@Betty Cracker: “McConnell is now on record stating that he believes Moore is guilty of molesting a child. How can he possibly seat a child molester in the US Senate?”
Betty, you have a way with words. And these words should be repeated over and over and over.
“Senator McConnell, during the campaign, you said that you believe the women who claim Senator-elect Moore molested them when they were underage. You cannot possibly seat a child molester in the US Senate. What procedure will you enact to prevent Judge Moore from being seated?”
John Revolta
So if Moore won the election, and the Senate were to vote to remove him…………….what happens then? Another election? Seems like the GOP would have a better chance of holding on to the seat that way, rather than just letting him lose to the Dem next month.
Cacti
I have little doubt that Moore prevails in Alabama.
I think what Mitch has seen are internals showing what an anchor around the neck of the party Roy will be nationally heading into the midterms.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
Uh huh
Uh huh
WaterGirl
@Adam L Silverman: hahahahaha (in a sad sort of way)
ruemara
@MomSense: Forget it, Jake. It’s
ChinatownAlabama.And I still think Alabama will proudly elect the bigoted, thieving pedophile. while screaming “Take That, LIBS”.
debit
@Cacti: I know that, if Moore wins, I will ask every republican I know why they are okay with a pedophile in office. And I would hope that every Democrat running will hang Moore around their opponents neck like a dead, rotting chicken.
Jack the Second
@Immanentize: So whenever someone is this rotten and “everyone” knows about it, it is usually because everyone else is also rotten.
Roy Moore probably knows the skeletons everyone else in AL has buried – the mistresses and gay lovers, the second families, the embezzlements, the whathaveyou.
That’s probably what kept everyone local quiet, but it doesn’t work as well on the national stage.
Elizabelle
Here’s link to Birmingham, AL local news site. No paywall. http://www.AL.com
Includes this gem: 53 pastors sign letter of support for Roy Moore.
Sheeple, meet your wolves in sheep’s clothing. The pastors say not one word about the allegations.
James E. Powell
I’ve read where some Republicans are floating the idea that the Alabama governor might cancel & reschedule the election. What are the chances of that?
J R in WV
We have a neighbor who has been married 5 or 6 times. He hangs out at the softball field, where he played as a youth, and flatters very young women, upper Jr high age girls. They “date” and if he gets them pregnant offers instantly to marry them.
He’s a hard worker and makes a good living, and likes them young, and everyone know that. No one complains, because he is serially monogamous and marries them upon request. Strange, but there it is. Accepted because he makes a good living as a Boiler-Maker (formerly in the Oil Patch) and supports his mate.
“Judge” Roy didn’t and doesn’t do that – he molests them and runs away like the vermin he is; apparently all the way to Australia! And lies about it to everyone, because he fears legal problems. My neighbor really doesn’t know he is probably violating the law, all he knows is how to do his job and farm a little bit. He’s helpful to others around the neighborhood, grew up here, is a good neighbor to everyone.
Especially the young womens.
Barbara
@Adam L Silverman: Why would anybody be surprised?
Guachi
It’s easy for me to say this sitting on the side lines, but even in seemingly hopeless races like this, it’s important for Democrats to run good candidates. Especially in races that draw inordinate attention because of their nature (special election and all that). It’s really easy to make the Republican candidate look awful compared to Doug Jones.
catclub
@The Moar You Know:
I would say just the opposite. If all of them knew, then somebody would realize this should end his campaign against Luther Strange and Luther goes on to be senator. Which is what the establishment GOP – including Trump in this case – wanted, until Moore won the primary by a ton.
If they knew they surely discounted its impact.
Elizabelle
@J R in WV: How does he afford the child support and alimony?
He may be a lovable rascal, but he’s flirting with statutory rape. His appeal kind of says more about the lack of the young women’s prospects.
Barbara
@patrick II: You know what? I don’t care. These people make a fetish of virginity for reasons even they don’t understand. It still doesn’t make pursuing young girls appropriate, even if he is just using them to test his own willpower.
Elizabelle
@James E. Powell: Believe she said today she’s sticking with December 12, as scheduled. True, though, that some partisans had suggested moving the date. So far, no go.
jonas
McConnell must have gamed out the various scenarios: having to work with a batshit insane suspected pedophile as the junior senator from Alabama who hates me anyway because I supported his primary opponent, or (if I even keep the Senate after 2018), working with a conservative Democrat from a deep red state who may occasionally give me some bipartisan cover for stuff I want to get done.
Turtle is a craven son-of-a-bitch who’d sell his own mother for an inch of partisan advantage, but he’s not an idiot.
Immanentize
@James E. Powell: Governor said she would not do that, earlier today.
Elizabelle
AL.com: Roy Moore and Doug Jones: Two vastly different stories of young girls, by their cartoonist, J.D. Crowe
Betty Cracker
@J R in WV: I’m going to assume for the sake of my sanity that when you said “upper junior high” age girls, you meant juniors in high school, so like 17 or 18? So he’s not committing statutory rape, but he’s getting as close as he possibly can without breaking the law? It’s not “strange,” it’s appalling. I wouldn’t consider such a person a “good neighbor” but rather a vile scumbag to be shunned.
The Moar You Know
@Immanentize: What ensues then is a guaranteed Moore win.
My family is from Alabama, for as long as we have history for (late 1700s). I do not want this Bible-thumping grandstanding asshole within a thousand yards of federal office. He is far more dangerous than anyone here is giving him credit for and he is just what the extreme Right/TeaParty crew has been looking for. If Trump could become president this asshole could become president, and Moore, unlike Trump, has an agenda that involves a lot less “making myself rich” and a lot more “killing everyone I don’t like”. And I guarantee everyone here, you are on Moore’s murder list.
Adam L Silverman
@Immanentize: I do recall that.
And you’re quite welcome.
WaterGirl
@Adam L Silverman: Wow. Just when I thought they couldn’t surprise me.
Mnemosyne
@J R in WV:
Honestly, I’m wondering if your neighbor is what we now politely call “intellectually disabled” but has never been diagnosed. (Back in the old days, we would have said “mildly retarded” without it meaning to be an insult.) Does he have a high school diploma?
Spanky
@Betty Cracker: Just so we stay in the reality-based world:
jonas
@Elizabelle:
By heart? The guy who claimed the lyrics of “Jesus Loves the Little Children” is a Bible verse? Mmmmkay.
Adam L Silverman
@WaterGirl: Imagine how his wife feels. He didn’t forget their anniversary. He forgot he was married to her.
jonas
@Elizabelle:
j
Give it time…
Elie
@TenguPhule:
And you must feel really justified therefore in squashing any energy or can do to tackle anything to correct the situation. Why bother? You saw “bad things happen” and that’s it for you, right? Its all a waste of time for the permanently embittered.
Grow up and stop whining. You or we are not entitled to rosy outcomes unless we work for them, constantly. If you are working hard, there is less time to whine. What are you up to that will turn things around besides being a permanent members of the banging and whining keyboard brigade. Go get yourself a foot massage and pedi. You’ll feel much better and stop bugging people who actually think and will work to make things better,
Mike in DC
So, the new allegation is attempted rape of a 16 year old. It’s been less than a week.
jonas
@Elizabelle:
Alternate headline: “List published of men you should never, ever leave your children alone with.”
Elie
@Spanky:
Yeah, I don’t know the state law in Alabama but my understanding of these laws is that if a parent grants consent for sex between a minor and an adult, that they could also be found guilty of molestation. This is not a consent you can necessarily give as a parent. Also, isn’t that called “pimping”?
Wyatt Derp
I wonder how many Moore supporters will be offended that we Yankees think they’re a bunch of people who hang out at High School football games to pick up teenage girls?
catclub
@Wyatt Derp:
It sure isn’t to watch the football.
Mike in DC
@Mike in DC:
HE.SIGNED.HER.YEARBOOK.
He’s burnt toast now.
Elizabelle
@jonas: Yes. They outed themselves.
Cacti
@Mike in DC:
And reportedly includes a creepy signature from Roy in her high school yearbook.
Elizabelle
Got to say, this knocked news of Moore’s self-dealing and grifting off his charity right out of the news. Success!
ruemara
@J R in WV: That is utterly disgusting.
chopper
@Cacti:
mitch saw the polls and likely some insider information that more accusers are coming out. he also realized how much $$ the GOP would have to put up to get this choad elected (in safe-seat alabama, mind you), knowing full well that the big money guys like the kochs are tightening their pursestrings over the repeal-and-replace debacle.
mitch is really fucked here, and i’m loving every minute of this.
randy khan
The NY Times article on the new accusation is fascinating – you need to read the discussion of the options that Republicans are considering, including having the Governor appoint Sessions back to his old seat if Moore wins and is expelled from the Senate. It almost makes the baroque fantasy scenarios about how Hillary could become President seem rational.
First, we elect a pedophile . . .
sharl
@Elizabelle: Thanks for that link! AL.com’s built-in twitter link included the cartoon image itself, which saved me a lot of extra keystrokes.
Elizabelle
@sharl: It’s a terrific cartoon. Particularly the depiction of Roy Moore. Evil, from a graphic novel or a movie.
Jay C
Just read (on LGF) that SC Sens. Scott and Graham have also (more-or-less) come out against Moore.
Not sure how much good that will do, but it’s still interesting….
? Martin
Just a reminder that McConnell and most other national level Republicans must have known about these things for years (especially JBS). This stuff was pretty widely known. The only thing that changed was victims that were willing to go on the record and the inability to then pretend it never happened. Don’t buy their ‘if true’ bullshit. They know it’s true, they just don’t know if we’ll believe it’s true.
D58826
So according to one GOP Senator Ray Moore does not meant the standards of the US Senate. Give the US Senate that really is a low bar to have to get over
patrick II
@Barbara:
Trying to understand is not to condone. The requirement for virginity is usually just another way of controlling women, or as often dealing with fear of inadequacy. But the desire for virgins is a real thing in many older religious traditions, and I think has something to do with his continuing evangelical support.
Mnemosyne
@patrick II:
Given that the dude is now accused of actual attempted rape, I think his fetish for virgins comes from a very different source than Tebow’s.
And because Tebow is so often a jerk about his religion, I wouldn’t be surprised if he refused to STFU about the fact that his fiancée was “impure” and what a great guy he was for being willing to marry her despite her being damaged goods and that’s why she broke it off.
Earl
@TenguPhule:
Exactly. Has anyone pulled police records for where Moore’s grandkids live? Is this piece of shit involved in youth orgs? I don’t think early teen sex is a quit cold turkey kind of situation.
Lee
When I was 20 when my girlfriend turned 20 I technically stopped teen sex cold turkey ;)
Jack the Second
If Roy Moore loses, this shouldn’t be taken as a bellwether for the upcoming midterms. After all, Republicans just need to run candidates who aren’t sex offenders, which shouldn’t be hard, right?
TenguPhule
@Elie:
Ironically, some of us said the same kind of things to the people who warned us about Reagan.
You’re going to learn, as we did, that marching and protesting isn’t enough. That all the can do attitude in the world doesn’t change the basic problem.
Millions of Republicans are scum of the earth who don’t deserve to live, let alone vote. Our fourth estate has become a fifth column and the only means within of justice left to be found in the system is in litigation that Republicans are working hard to thwart.
Victories are not won in stalemates. And until it sinks in that Democrats can no longer play by the rules imposed on them by a system of IOIYAR, stalemates are going to be the rule, not the exception.
Getting Democrats back into power is going to be hard, convincing them that they need to seriously take a hammer to the GOP and their supporters when they do is going to be even worse.
But it needs to be done or else we’re going to find ourselves sliding right back down into this clusterfuck.
Mnemosyne
@Jack the Second:
I see what you did there. ?
Elizabelle
@Jack the Second: LOL. Well done.
KithKanan
@T S:
The Beatles lyrics
weren’t taken quite the same way at the time it came out that they would be now.
sm*t cl*de
@Elizabelle:
Moore’s wife lied about their support and signed their names for them.
https://thedailybanter.com/2017/11/did-roy-moores-wife-just-fake-a-letter-of-support-from-50-alabama-pastors/