The last thing the world needs is another opinion on the Roy Moore scandal, so I will spare you my revelatory and game-changing lowdown on the whole thing.
I will, however, say this: If you think this is bad, just wait until 2018.
By this time next year, the Moore story will seem like one of those weightless, superfluous amuse-bouche concoctions the server gives you courtesy of the kitchen, which always turns out to be more of a vanity project of the chef than anything intended to satiate you. Yet it arouses your appetite, and after you’ve gorged yourself on multiple courses, shifting uncomfortably in your chair from overindulgence, cursing your excess yet gratified by the experience, the amuse bouche is long forgotten. But it was the first bite of the feast.
If Doug Jones wins the Alabama senate seat next month, Democrats will need two more pick-ups next year to take control of the U.S. Senate. (According to the recent Cook Political Report, just two Republican seats are now listed as toss-ups: Arizona, a state Trump won, and Nevada, a state Trump narrowly lost. The rest are in safe R states.) Although the outlook for Democrats to regain control of the House of Representatives is bleaker—“if Democrats were to hold all of the seats we rate as leaning towards them, all 12 of the Toss Ups, and half of the seats in Lean Republican, they would still fall two seats shy of a majority,” according to an October 6 analysis in Cook—Dems are now emboldened by big wins in Virginia earlier this month and the dumpster fire that is now the GOP panicking over Roy Moore’s stubborn candidacy.
While most normal people view the Roy Moore scandal as another example of America’s rotting political sewer, Democrats are downright giddy about what they think is an early Christmas present. Party operatives—and their minions who work in the media—are undoubtedly plotting how to replicate this debacle, resuscitate long-dormant rumors about sexual misconduct, lure victims out of the shadows and into Gloria Allred’s loving talons, er, arms. No yearbook or shopping mall will be spared. It is but a small, if tawdry, taste of what’s to come.
There are already ominous clues about what 2018 will offer our hide-the-children electorate. Liberals are now in self-flagellation mode over how they handled serial-abuser Bill Clinton for the past 25 years. A generation raised on Clinton-worship is learning a history they probably never knew, and victims who have been vilified and ignored are finally getting some measure of justice in the court of public opinion. But don’t kid yourself; this collective mea culpa is nothing more than a way for Democrats and the media to erase their past culpability to regain future credibility. How can they attack Republican offenders next year if they defended Clinton for so long? They learned a lesson when voters seemed largely anesthetized to allegations against Donald Trump, and the media will not let that happen again. So, now that they have offered up their phony apologies—and have an arsenal of tweets and articles to prove their repentance—the left has immunized itself against criticism. It’s about as cynical a move as you can get.
At the same time, Congress is about to blow the lid off its own simmering cauldron of sexual deviancy. On Tuesday, the House Administration committee held a hearing, “Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Congressional Workplace,” to address new measures to prevent and litigate occurrences of sexual abuse on Capitol Hill. The female representatives were passionate, and visibly angry about a climate that has been tolerated in Washington for a very long time. Barbara Comstock, a Republican congresswoman from a Virginia district that Hillary Clinton won by ten points, said this: “Whether it’s Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly, Mark Halperin, Roger Ailes, Kevin Spacey, or one of our own, it’s time to say ‘no more’.”
She relayed a story about “a member who is here now, and I don’t know who it is, but somebody who I trust, who told me this situation. This member asked a staffer to bring them over some materials to their residence, and the young staffer, it was a young woman, went there and was greeted with a member in a towel. It was a male, who then invited her in. At that point, he decided to expose himself. She left, and then quit her job.” Comstock said it was time to “name names” and to “hear more from the people who have been in the shadows.” Yikes.
The effort is led by Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California who incidentally has a harrowing personal story about being shot five times trying to flee Guyana after the 1978 Jonestown massacre. She seems loaded for bear and ready to bare whatever needs exposing on the Hill: “There are two members of Congress—Republican and Democrat—right now, who serve, who have been subject to review, or not subjected to review, who have engaged in sexual harassment. These propositions such as, ‘are you going to be a good girl?’ to perpetrators exposing their genitals to victims having their private parts grabbed on the House floor.” (Sadly, this is why the politicization of sexual misconduct is so dangerous: it cheapens these legitimate allegations about sexual abuse and intimidation in the workplace while political gravediggers look for bodies to bury.) Speier later told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd—who said that finding out there is sexual misconduct in Congress is like finding out “that there was gambling going on in Casablanca”—that the House has paid out $15 million in taxpayer funds to settle sexual harassment claims over the past 10 to 15 years.
But 2018 won’t be about justice or accountability. It will be about political power, and the Democrats understand that. As we have seen from experience, Democrats will smear any victim, protect any miscreant, justify any misdeeds, blame any outside party, and break any rules to win. Then, years later, when it doesn’t matter, when an untold number of perpetrators and victims lie in their wake, they can sit up and say, “oops, my bad.”
Republicans have never understood this game—or that it is a game—and they have no shot either at playing by the same rules or at defending their own against incoming attacks. In some instances, Republicans—including “conservatives” who oddly wear political losses as a badge of honor—have sided with the enemy in a virtue-signaling effort to brandish their principles. But when Democrats win—in part thanks to you, dear conservatives—don’t bitch to me about abortion, higher taxes, single-payer health care, and transgender teenagers.
So, if you liked this week, don’t fret. There is a lot Moore ahead in 2018.
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The pervert Al Frankin may have just thrown a wrench in the Dems pathetic scams .
That is the problem with going after politicians with this charge – it won’t stay on the path you want it on. Accuse Moore and Al Franken gets hit. Go after Trump and there won’t be anyone on Capitol Hill that will feel safe.
Roy Moore by double digits! Let Gloria Allred & political class be “dammed!”
I wouldn’t write Roy Moore off just yet. Yes, a Fox News Poll showed Jones ahead by 8 points but the same poll showed a tied race several weeks ago when other polls showed Moore ahead by double digits. Then today two things happened – first, it came out that Al Franken is an abuser, complete with photographs! Then President Trump said the only sane thing of any of the “GOP leaders,” that it’s up the people of Alabama to decide why they want to send to the Senate.
Everything in this column is rendered moot by the Al Franken scandal and the universal condemnation by Democrats of him. I Maybe Dem leaders saw this as a game, but given the amount of rot that likely exists on both sides of the aisle, that would be stupid. In any case, the Dem base – those feminists so beloved on this site – actually takes this seriously. There’s even a reconsideration of the defense of Bill Clinton underway. So maybe lay off the “Dems have no morals, this is just a game” conspiracy theorizing, eh?
If anyone really took this seriously, Clinton would have been forced to resign. It’s simply a weapon currently being used against Republicans. Be certain Franken will be investigated by the ethics panel for a year or two, then perhaps censured. The Clintons are no longer of any value, and have no power, so they may be thrown under the bus. Congress will make a little noise about sexual harassment, and it will all go away until the next anti-swamp Republican comes close to being elected.
Lets us never forget..the FISH rots from the head down…D.C. is rotting…..and the rest is soon to follow.
They’re only going after Clinton so that they declare themselves fully repented and then turn around and go after Trump.
Bob Menendez; Al Franken; Bill Clinton (re-examined); Creepy Joe Biden: Anthony Penis. Etc., etc., etc. Vs. three criminally actionable claims against Roy Moore from 40 years back (the other ladies claim NO impropriety), one of which (Allred’s) has basically been shot down at lift-off. So WHAT are we to think? I think that the current leadership under McConnell is the greatest enemy of the Republican party and it’s loyal (but repeatedly abused) voting base.
Who is A. P-nis?
Are you so clueless as to not be able to deduce Weiner?
Yes! I was! …it slipped passed me! I wonder how his wife Humma Weiner is doing now that Carlos is incarcerated?
Humma Weiner: I saw that on “Name That Tune”
Please pick a readable font that does not make your eyes hurt.
This IS a game the democrats play…The question I have for US is…..IF we do now stop this lying nonsense…..where will it end…They can accuse anyone of anything at anytime…..
The democrat party has turned into the most evil hateful group of communists ever to walk this planet.
They must be destroyed.
Good luck, you might actually have to log off to do that.
I do NOT TRUST the Republicans to Stand Together against the Dems! Now or in the Future!
What I love about the Age of Trump is how the news cycle and The Narrative gets vaporized before it even clears the launching pad tower. Enter stage right, Al Franken. There is a very high likelihood that there are a LOT of CongressCritters-both sides-that aren’t sleeping well this week. Maybe Chris Dodd, as head of the MPAA, can be brought in to testify about not only Hollywood but also Waitress Sandwiches. There are going to be a lot of friendly fire casualties for the media and their poodles, the Democrats. The hounds have been released.
Trump, who once bragged to Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush about grabbing women’s crotches without their consent, says allegations against Al Franken are “real bad.”
If he was so bad then why did a number of women who worked with him describe his manner and behavior in glowing terms? The fact is, Trump never assaulted anyone, but he did engage in dirty talk with another male in what he thought was private. If that disqualifies him, most men are also disqualified.
You are basing that on “cause he says he didnt”? Ol Roys wife says a good christian man would neva eva do no harm…..that doesnt mean shes knows it all.
The article assumes Moore is guilty, despite the only physical evidence being revealed as a childish forgery. The author ignores this fact and thus has no credibility.
And yet these same Democrat phonies and their cronies in the media mocked Pence for refusing to be alone with women he isn’t married to. Seems like Pence was exercising wisdom to me. This was also the standard Billy Graham chose to live by to remain accountable and prevent even the hint of scandal.
Every day is mothers day at the pence household.
“Republicans have never understood this game—or that it is a game—and they have no shot either at playing by the same rules or at defending their own against incoming attacks”
That is so right. I am shocked, time and time again, with republicans’ lack of savvy. Here’s hoping the Alabama Republicans see through this cheap move and elect Moore.
Great, though, ominous, essay.
Judge Moore must win to take some wind from the inflated democratic egos.
I think Alabamians are riled up sufficiently to stick their thumb in the eyes of the swamp and complicit media.
“Republicans have never understood this game—or that it is a game”
Please don’t drink the koolaid. The GOPe have been collaborating with the establishment dems ever since they took down President Nixon. They know exactly what they’re trying to do and that’s destroy Trump and block his America first agenda.
The GOPe supported hillary in the general so they could perpetuate their “repeal and replace” scam on their repub base. They never thought Trump would win and upset their apple cart. With Trump as President, the GOPe were now expected to make good on their promises, promises they had no intention of honoring. Once the GOPe divest themselves of the Senate, they can go back to whining about those dastardly dems who won’t let them do anything.
The party of Trump needs to vote these bums out of office. We need to keep Trump in for eight years to get the job done right. All the globalists oppose putting America first and if they prevail America will cease to exist as a nation state.
I guess Ms Allred used a sketch of the poor girl because that was at a time prior to the development of photography? It’s just pathetic. Besides that woman does not look to be 18 years younger that Judge Moore. He is 70 now, that would put her at 52 years old in this picture with Allred.?