Roy Moore: Predator(?)

RedRajah said:

[h=1]Woman Says Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore Put Her Hand on His Genitals When She Was 14[/h]

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One of these days we're going to have an unusual yet heartwarming news story about a man who despite being in a powerful position never attempted to prey on women.

regdog said:

Barack Obama

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Fake news.

The story about Moore appears to be growing--per the NY Daily News, four women are alleging he touched them inappropriately when they were teens.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/women-roy-moore-pursued-teens-article-1.3621984

Open season on sexual predators! --s6

Here we go:

Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler, a Moore backer: "Even if you accept the Washington Post’s report as being completely true, it’s much ado about very little. "

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I went to his Facebook page. He wants to ban Muslims and may run for governor.

Inadequate news story: Was he married at the time? This is Mr Ten Commandments mind you.

Was he in the habit of dating young women? Surely if at 30 he liked girls under 20 there would be a pattern.

And puhleese reporters, learn the definition of pedophile. Preying on young clients/defendants is plenty bad enough.

I have a feeling this is actually going to help him.

The people who support him, or who supported his primary opponent, I'm generalizing, could be more the 'bandwagon/women out to get something/fake news/George Soros/trying to get Trump' people who would find this... energizing.

cornflake said:

I have a feeling this is actually going to help him.

The people who support him, or who supported his primary opponent, I'm generalizing, could be more the 'bandwagon/women out to get something/fake news/George Soros/trying to get Trump' people who would find this... energizing.

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I don't think it will. Ordinarily, Republicans and Trump supporters would be leaping to his defense. Remember, allegations against trump himself have been routinely dismissed by the GOP.

But Roy Moore is someone that establishment republicans wanted no part of in the first place. He ran as much against Mitch McConnell as he did his opponent. And Donald Trump was no supporter of his at the time, although he certainly warmed up to him after Moore won the primary.

But if the accusations appear credible, which at this point they certainly do, the Republicans will jump at the chance to dump him. The man is a theocratic nutcase and a loose cannon, and since anyone with an R behind his or her name will win the general in Alabama, the GOP would find almost any other candidate infinitely preferable.

He won't get any support from the GOP unless he somehow weathers the storm, in which case they'll be backing him to the hilt come election time. But if they can force him out before then, they'll be delighted.

I don't disagree w/re the party in general, but I think they're going to be wary locally of doing something that'll piss off that many in-state voters and I think on the ground, it'll help him.

R's are already hedging their bets, but Moore is on the ballot regardless. Per Daily Beast:

Within hours of a Washington Post story reporting the allegations against Roy Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, the Senate’s top Republicans called on Moore to withdraw from the race—albeit with a caveat.
<snip>
...there is no formal mechanism for his name to be removed from the ballot since, as the Alabama secretary of state’s office noted, absentee ballots have already been sent out with Moore’s name on them.

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What the people of Alabama do is an entirely different kettle of fish, though.

At the state level, so far, I am seeing nothing but support. I already posted about the state auditor. Two Alabama County GOP Party Chairmen have also expressed support, one even if Moore did what he's accused of:

"It was 40 years ago," Alabama Marion County GOP chair David Hall tells me. "I really don't see the relevance of it. He was 32. She was supposedly 14. She's not saying that anything happened other than they kissed."

Me: "The story said she said he tried to get her to touch his genitals." Hall: "Well, she said he may have TRIED to. But we're talking something that somebody SAID happened, 40 years ago. It wouldn't affect whether or not I'd vote for him."

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Hall also said he didn't see anything wrong with a 30-year old dating a 16-year old.

After a long pause, Alabama Bibb County Republican chairman Jerry Pow tells me he'd vote for Roy Moore even if Moore did commit a sex crime against a girl.

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Others he contacted did not comment.

Lyv said:

At the state level, so far, I am seeing nothing but support. I already posted about the state auditor

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Look at the full defense from the Washington Examiner! BARF

cornflake said:

I don't disagree w/re the party in general, but I think they're going to be wary locally of doing something that'll piss off that many in-state voters and I think on the ground, it'll help him.

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I doubt it. I think it will hurt him, though not enough for him to lose the race – he will be the next senator from Alabama.

But just as Trump's unpopularity is hurting the Republican brand nationwide, the Dems are going to push Roy Moore as the face of the "new" Republican Party (if they have any sense) and I think that will have an effect elsewhere, especially with independents who are already beginning to look at the Republican Party with a somewhat jaundiced eye.

ElaineA said:

Look at the full defense from the Washington Examiner! BARF

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It got worse. I mean, I thought the little bit I posted was bad, but it got worse. And the prominent GOP members are pretty united in "he should step aside if it's true," knowing they can simply say there isn't proof. That's my jaded take on it anyway.

Here's a defense of Roy Moore:

"Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”

Test your political acumen. Is this a quote from the Onion or from an actual Alabama politician?

Please let it be The Onion. I have a feeling it's not.


The reaction of Moore's supporters makes me angry. This is the reason women (girls in this case) don't come forward. The hypocrisy is dumbfounding.

Alabama politics is about as weird as it gets. Remember not so long ago the governor was embroiled in a sex scandal which he adamantly denied pick despite the copious evidence of audio tapes. He refused to step down, so impeachment procedures were started. However, that pending impeachment was blocked by Alabama's attorney general, who proclaimed it to be a criminal matter that he personally would take care of.

Of course, he did no such thing. The governor stayed in office and when Jeff Sessions was appointed USAG by Trump, The governor filled his vacant Senate seat with – guess who, the aforementioned Alabama attorney general – one Luther Strange. Alabama politics as usual.

A couple of years before that, the speaker of the house in Alabama was indicted on 23 charges of corruption two weeks before Election Day. He too refused to step down, and was re-elected despite being under indictment. He was then elected by his fellow Republicans to be speaker of the house once again.

Eventually he was sentenced to four years in prison which apparently was the only way he was going to be removed from his position.

Roy Moore was of course removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for judicial misconduct -- twice. And he will, without doubt, win the senate seat.

Cornflake may turn out to be correct; this particular scandal may indeed energize his base who passionately believes it to be nothing more than a vicious Democrat plot to destroy an honorable man.

And yes, that quote is not from the Onion but from the Alabama state auditor:

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/roy...k&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000013&section=politics

As far as I understand, Roy Moore is connected to fundamentalist evangelical royalty (Bill Gothard, the Duggars, etc) so I doubt that particular base will turn away from him any more than they've turned away from Gothard or the Duggars for their (very similar) scandals.

Looking back:

In 2015, while Moore was serving on the Alabama Supreme Court, he considered the case of Eric Lemont Higdon, a 17-year-old, who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old at a daycare center. Higdon was found guilty under a sodomy statute that applied specifically to minors, as well another statute prohibiting rape. The second conviction was overturned by an appeals court and sent to the state supreme court for review.



Eight justices found that the 12-year-old’s fear of harm from a much older and larger individual was enough to establish “implied threat of serious physical injury” and reinstated Higdon’s conviction. Moore was the only dissent, saying that there was “no evidence in this case of an implied threat of serious physical injury.” Moore oddly argued that the court’s interpretation opened the door to a 10-year-old being found guilty of raping an 8-year-old.

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The twitter thread of AL GOP officials commenting on Moore has grown:

Alabama Geneva County GOP chairman Riley Seibenhener, who called me back, says he doesn't believe the allegations are true, but if they're true he won't support him - but, at the same time, it's not "forcible rape."

"I know that 14-year-olds don't make good decisions," he adds.

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Well, yeah, which is irrelevant since they also can't consent. And the "it's not 'forcible rape'" is why until middle-age, I didn't understand I'd been sexually assaulted more than once. Because someone's hand on my breasts or down my pants while I fought them off didn't register as sexual assault (though, oddly, I knew it was when it happened to someone else). Among other things, you can't blame children for their own assaults and have a healthy society.

Not from the Onion:

Paul Reynolds, the Republican National Committeeman from Alabama, told The Hill that something about the timing of the accusation and the Post’s role breaking the story “doesn’t smell right.”

“My gosh, it's The Washington Post. If I’ve got a choice of putting my welfare into the hands of Putin or The Washington Post, Putin wins every time,” he said.


“This is going to make Roy Moore supporters step up to the plate and give more, work more and pray more."

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Putin and prayer. There ya go.

Lyv said:

Not from the Onion:



Putin and prayer. There ya go.

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That prayer part? I find the hypocrisy there disturbing: those rallying around a known predator like Moore are the same ones who'll wholeheartedly throw their support behind a "bathroom bill".