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I think the allegations against Roy Moore are disqualifying, but I would still like to know the process by which they became public. Especially the timing.
If the accusations against Moore are true, they are appalling, and he should go.
That being said, what about due process? I thought that a person was innocent until proven guilty in a court, not a by a mob incited by a biased newspaper with a vested interest in destroying Republicans. Are there witnesses? Is there any supporting evidence to this woman’s claim? It is not a crime to be interested in younger women, so the three he dated with their mothers’ permission, I discount. Using the power Moore had as an assistant DA to assault a 14-year old is quite another matter, although I wonder what the age of consent was in Alabama at the time.
I hope that those who are defending Moore are doing so because they believe in due process and the rule of law, not just reflexive tribal reaction. Language matters, and I fear that at least some of the desire to get rid of Moore is just that, reflexive tribal reaction to some one who doesn’t talk or act like most of the people who consider themselves our betters. I was not happy with Moore’s primary victory, but I don’t live in Alabama, so Moore wouldn’t be my senator if he won. I don’t like campaign finance laws, I consider them an infringement on free speech, but I think the nationalization of Senate races is bad for the states, and the Senate, because it might cause senators to consider other factors ahead of their own voters.
It is interesting that Mr. Trump supported Luther Strange in the primary. Did he know something that no one else knew, or what? I always thought that he was trying to make nice with Leader McConnell, but there could have been other reasons.
BD1 is quite correct, the timing is extremely suspicious, especially for a claim about something that may have happened forty years ago.
@mrsink @BD1
“Innocent until proven guilty” is the right question for prosecution, but not politics. As I said in the podcast, Judge Moore is a disaster for GOP either way. If he quits, it’s a huge mess. If he stays and wins, he’s a walking attack ad against every Republican candidate in 2018.
If you haven’t read the actual Washington Post article, please do. It’s very compelling.
Dear Mr. Graham,
I did read the WaPo article, and I agree, it is awful. However, I trust the WaPo editors and reporters about as far as I can throw them, overhand, in a group. One of the reasons fiction is so compelling is that fiction writers can tailor their stories to push all the right emotional buttons. And the timing of the article, which makes it impossible for Alabama Republicans to put a different candidate on the ballot, is pretty darned suspicious. Remember, the ruling class and their courtiers in the press hate us, and are determined to subjugate us, by any means necessary, including genocide (see “Red Famine” by Anne Applebaum, or “Harvest of Sorrow”, by Robert Conquest). It is no accident that most of the recent political violence is perpetrated by the Left (see Scalese, Steve).
As I said, I wasn’t thrilled with Moore to begin with, he seems something of a con man. Even so, it is unjust to ruin people who have not actually committed crimes and who have not been convicted of crimes.
Where is the course of righteousness here? If we condemn Moore without evidence, that is wrong. If we don’t condemn Moore, Republicans are going to pay a price for that, whether he is guilty or not. (To be honest, Republicans are going to pay a price for Moore whether or not he has done any thing wrong, because he is not part of the ruling class, and the ruling class cares much more about themselves than they do about any thing so trivial as voters in Alabama).
Mrs. Ink expresses my own suspicions on the Moore story quite well.
Also, you should have talked less in the interview and let Mr. Stern talk more. He didn’t get to say much, and we really did not want to learn of your dating proclivities. (Interesting example of self-deprecating humor, though.)
I always had a lot of suspicions about Moore and these allegations don’t help! The “course of righteousness” would be for primary voters to choose more wisely … but too late for that.
Two of Corfman’s friends recall her telling them about seeing an older man; one of them warned her it was unwise given their age (and his). Corfman’s mother said her daughter told her a decade later when Moore started to grow in prominence. (source: the WP article Michael Graham refers to)
And yeah, I know. Stories can be made up and memories faulty.
She and her mother Nancy Wells recount they first met Moore at the courthouse in 1979. The WP article corroborates that detail and independently verified that Wells had a divorce-related hearing in 1979.
Then the idea that Moore could have an attraction to Corfman at age 14 is a part of her story that does not ring untrue.
If you can believe the three women that Moore took an interest in them, why wouldn’t you believe Corfman that Moore took an interest in her?
From the same WP article:
“The legal age of consent in Alabama, then and now, is 16. Under Alabama law in 1979, and today, a person who is at least 19 years old who has sexual contact with someone older than 12 and younger than 15 has committed sexual abuse in the second degree. Sexual contact is defined as touching of sexual or intimate parts. The crime is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.
The law then and now also includes a section on enticing a child younger than 16 to enter a home with the purpose of proposing sexual intercourse or fondling of sexual and genital parts. That is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.”
Not part of the ruling class? That’s hard to maintain in Moore’s case who was 8 years a circuit-court judge and twice elected Chief Justice of the Alabama SC.
Well, if Republicans can challenge the WP and the Democrats on the timing of the accusation, it’s fair for Republican opponents to challenge the GOP on their response to the substance of the accusation.
Since when did the right cop to naivete about how politics works?
I’m sure I don’t have to express to most Ricochetti I’m the most NeverTrump person there is, but I agree with those suspicious about the timing [not the substance or supporting evidence] of this story. It was widely reported that Billy Bush was bragging about the impending Access Hollywood tape release to several individuals at the Rio Olympics in August, yet it wasn’t released until October. Had they released it two weeks before the convention rather than timing it as they did we might have been able to mount a convention challenge to Trump.
I don’t think we need to look further than the political agenda of the Washington Post to wonder about the timing. But I agree about the substance and supporting evidence.